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.

Original storyboard, why it had to be changed

This is a sample of a commentary of our original, undetailed and messy storyboard. We were told that storyboards, to be fully functional and useful, the pictures had to be atleast somewhat comprehendable for an outside audience. This lead us to create a better, more detailed storyboard which then featured in the final voiceover. The reason why I changed the storyboard to make it overall better and in-depth is because I was told that the storyboard was such a huge part of the planning phase and giving it a lackluster level effort was an absolute waste.

Photo shoot from filming

 

These are some of the photo we took while filming on our second day. We will most likely use some of these photos when creating the digipak, as some of them fit brilliantly for an album cover (front and back). For example, the photo of Nick walking away in the grass would be perfect for the back of our album, as it can be edited to fit the same colour scheme that we are aiming for.

Work in progress 2 - Thinking Out Loud (defunct)

This is a fragmented work in progress piece, with no narrative/concept parts yet but with every lyric that we are using in the final piece having a coressponding piece of footage. This is a major stepping stone in the creation of our music video and is the result of two full days of filming. Using this incomplete project we can now begin to input the narrative/concept inbetween the performance and eventually finalise the music video.

Many peoples favourite part of the video is some of the match on action style cuts, such as the one at 0:54

Final location shots - The Performance

 

 

 

These are the pictures we took of our performance location, under a motorway bridge in Sandford Mill. The extent of the flood in the area is also illustrated the second pictures depicts how deep the water had got. One unexpected feature of the set was the presence of the "Anna will you marry me?" Myself and Jack had absolutely no clue that was going to be here but we managed to work to our advantage massively.

 

 

Overall I think that this location was a brilliant choice as the lightning was good and it had  the aura of a rather desolate place to represent Nick's inner turmoil.

Shooting schedule

This is our shooting schedule, including details for which shots are being filmed each day, the locations, characters and props. It has been very useful in terms of organisation and keeping track of the days we need to take to film. The reason for the rather large delay between the performance and the concept was our rather large change to our original plan, from a strictly narrative segment to a strictly concept.

Rabbit in the Headlights - UNKLE, a brilliant use of concept

This is one of the most astounding examples of concept in a music video I have encountered. The video's usage of a such a simple theme to represent the lyrics and message of the song speak powerful volumes and have influenced me to lean more towards a concept style than narrative style when designing my music video. It allows it to be massively open to interpretation, which as in literature, denotes sheer quality and is something I personally want to match in my video. For example, for this video many people have stated that the character portrayed is Jesus and there are many factors supporting and defusing this fact.

The quality that his video has, with such a simple concept, is something I believe that a narrative music video cannot match and is why my video will try and match this quality of concept as much as possible.

Our first risk assessment - the performance

This was done by Jack, analyzing the potential risks of our performance set. It turned to be surprisingly useful as we realized the possibility of flooding in the area, which turned out to be completely true.

A letter to Atlantic Records

This is the letter we wrote out of respect to Atlantic Records and their ownership of 'Thinking Out Loud'. We deemed it necessary to enquire about usage of the song.

Difficulties while filming

On the first day of filming (14/10/14) myself and Jack found that the main part of our set was completely flooded due to the constant rainfall of the past two days. Originally we thought that this would stop of from filiming there indefinitely, but we decided to brave the water and go up onto an elevated area to complete the filming. This proved worthwhile as it gave us amazing results as it was such a unique setting and location, though the difficulties were many,

Work in progress 1 - Thinking Out Loud (defunct)

This is a work in progress piece, compiling all the footage we acquired from our first day filming. Overall it was a rather good day but as our camera ran out of battery we could not finish it off fully, plus it was getting dark too so it would have to roll over onto another day. Looking through all of this footage, throughout all the good shots there were some which definitely had to be refilmed. Some shots (such as the first one) was out of focus, another one's lip syncing was too short and one of the later shots had Nick's head cut off.

We knew from the start that refilming was inevitable so going through and compiling all the footage and identifiying problems promptly allowed us deal with those problems quickly and efficiently by refilming a couple of days later.

The Pharcyde - Drop

This video stood out for me as I'd never seen anything like it before. For the mid 1990s, the techniques used here were completely new and arguably revolutionary. The clever method of singing and performing backwards, then reversing that footage was something never done before and looks absolutely amazing. The bit that stood out the most of be and perhaps will serve as some inspiration while filming the rest of my video is the sequence at the end, the backwards painting of the perspex glass. I feel this is somehing that could be used in the remainder of our video, with perhaps painting such as a heart of "love", then making it go backwards similar to the video.

 

 

Storyboard voice over

This is the complete storyboard with a voiceover and the song playing simultaneously, allowing for the best possible image to be created from it.

Pete Fraser talk

Pete Fraser's talk was enlightening in terms of what to include in our blogs, music videos and evalutions. The examples of A-grade music videos he showed were extremely helpful as it gave us realistic standards which we could hope to achieve with our own music videos.

His emphasis on not staying away from narrative and instead focusing on concept when creating a music video also made me rethink the premise of my music video, though the extent of the changes I and my group want to make are still undecided.

Also the prospect of easter at the NFTL was intriguing and something I might take up.

Peer assessments from the class - the halfway presentation

An example of some of the feedback we received.

A summary of all the feedback we received essentially boils down to our lack of a coherent video idea at the time, due to the lack of a fully complete and detailed storyboard. This criticism is completely just as during the presentation we only had a segment of the storyboard completed and that segment itself ended up being scrapped and completely redone.

Aside from that the other feedback we received was generally rather good, with our confident stage presence and very good website being noticed and commended upon,

Nicholas Alexander powerpoint - group work

This is the halfway presentation for our artist's brand, including our image, audience, biography and interviews.

Shot list

Existing students music videos

Bastille - Of The Night

What it does well

One of the best qualities of this video is the editing, as it utilises Andrew Goodwin's theory in regards to syncing the video and the music. That is constant throughout the entire video which is somewhat hard to produce. Also the shots are very interesting and dynamic and definitely rival the editing as the video's best quality. The use of the relatively dull theme could be regarding as a drawback of the video, but personally the sombre aura of the song fits in extremely well with the wet, winter theme. The subtle nature of the narrative is also commendable.

Drawbacks

The major drawback of this video is the lack of lip-syncing, as the structure of the video easily allows for it to be possible as there are multiple shots of the main characters face walking in front of the camera. This lack of lip-syncing makes the video rather boring. If it was a part of the video it would easily be an A-grade piece of work, but at its current state it's a solid B.

Macklemore - Can't Hold Us

What it does well

This video has all the elements of a nearly perfect music video. The overall style fits with the fast paced nature and somewhat laid back sense of song. The cartoony aspect goes really well also and is the best nature of the video, as the old-fashioned robbers contrast very well with the modern rapper and gives it a very entertaining and comedic edge. The fast flows of Macklemore were also lip-synced extremely well as it is evidently challenging to not only speak that fast, but to sync it correctly too is nothing short of amazing.

Drawbacks

There are very few drawbacks to speak of in this music video. There could have been a little more lip-syncing as most of it is choreographed performance but the speed of the song (as stated) is challenging to max so the lack of it can be accepted.

Website sketch

This is a sketch depicting the homepage of our website and it will contain the same theme throughout the other pages. The usage of the twitter feed at the side of the website is taken from many of our influences, as they also use twitter feeds to reinforce the artist's presence of social media on the website. Ed Sheeran goes as far to base his entire website off his twitter feed which definitely persuaded us to make it a large part of ours.

Obviously the music video has to be a large part of the website too, which is why it takes up the whole portion of the scrolled down website to make it easily accessible to the user. The photo at the top is used to help establish Nicholas Alexander's identity as an upcoming singer-songwriter and being recognisable is mandatory for that.

Digipak sketch

Digipak sketch

This is a planning sketch for our digipak. We have decided to go with a light blue colour with a recurring silhouette theme to coincide with our album cover. Although a silhouette could inhibit Nicholas Alexander's identity, some of the digipak will contain a photo of him in full which should hopefully rectify this issue. The use of a constant light blue colour and white silhouette will give us the marks for a recurring theme throughout the digipak which is by the far the most important.

We now have a solid foundation in which to build the digipak from and we will hopefully stick to this design for the most part.

Radio 1 interview - Nicholas Alexander

This is our artist, Nicholas Alexander, in his first ever official interview with prominent radio station, Radio 1. It was a fun experience and was a very good addition to the website. Hopefully we will do more in the near future, solidying Nicholas' identity as an artist.

Peer assesments within the group

These are the reviews that my group gave me. I am relatively happy with them as they both highlight what I'm doing well and give enlightening ways as to how I can improve.

Similar artist's websites

http://edsheeran.blackmesh.isledev.co.uk/

This is the website of Ed Sheeran. It is rather simply laid out with 5 main tabs, with links to things such as his tweets, lyrics, contact info and most recent videos. There is no images of him as a person, which is something we will have to include as we will need to spread our image around to make Nicholas Alexander recognisable. On the other hand this is the sort of layout we are aiming for in our website.

http://jakebugg.com/home/

Jake Bugg's webite is a lot more reminiscent of what we want to achieve with our website. There is a lot more focus on the artist's image compared to Ed Sheeran's site, but keeps the relatively simple and easily accessible layout. There are tabs leading to the same areas as Ed Sheeran's, so it's clear that these are a staple of a singer-songwriter website so they are definitely something we will want to include in our website. Jake Bugg's website is most likely the website in which we emulate the most things for our website.

 http://www.jamesblunt.com/splash/apollo

James Blunt's website follows the same basic layout as the previous two, however it contains some unique features which we definitely want to include in our final website. One of these features in the twitter feed taking up a large part of the page. Although we wouldn't make our feed that large, a twitter feed is something we absolutely must include on our website, Another feature that we could include are direct video embeds, something which surprisingly only James Blunt's website contains.



Our first CD cover

This is our first draft of our CD cover for Nicholas Alexander's first album. We tried to replicate the light blue theme of the website to create a recurring and recognisable image for our artist. Though this most likely won't be our final piece, it's a good first draft and offers a good foundation to help build our finished product.