The Final Products

Music Video

Digipak

Website

http://tenv48.wixsite.com/oni8

Evaluation 4

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

We actually started filming this project quite late compared to other groups, as we had to come up with a very well defined plan. While I personally enjoy a little planning and leaving the rest to improvisation in the heat of the moment, I felt that to create a product that really fitted Trap conventions while sticking out of the box, we had to make sure our plan was well-thought through.

A brief run through of the hardware we used:

Canon EOS 5D MkII
Canon EOS 70D
Dji Phantom 4
Tripod
Studio Lighting 4K Lights
24-70mm lenses
14mm wide lense
16mm wide lense
Macro lense
Rodes Microphone

Desktop PC - Intel i7 3.6 ghz 4 cores, GTX 960 2gb, 16 gb ram, 500 gb SSD, 1TB HHD.

Music Video

We chose the Canon EOS 5D MkII as our main camera to shoot with, as it was a standard for filming. The Manfrotto tripod was important and key to our dancing shots, as a lot of the camera movement came from attaching the camera to the tripod, but leaving the ball-swivel clamp loose, so while the camera can shake and tilt in a clean manner, the positioning is stationary.

 

 

For the studio, the biggest equipment we used were the 4k studio lights.

 

These were important in recreating a similar studio effect we were after in josh pan and X&G's music video of 'Platinum'.

 

We had a few bird-eye view shots  for the car scenes, and a few pan shots revolving around the car. We achieved this by using a Dji Phantom 4 drone. We faced a number of problems with this; We had limited battery life, we had to make sure we knew we wanted, and one of the locations we used is near an airport, so we were unable to fly it unless we wrapped parts of it in aluminium foil.

 

Software

The main 2 pieces of software we used for the music video is Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. Premiere was used for all the edits, cuts, arranging of the music video.

We ended up with around 50 different channels of videos, for the sake of seeing multiple possibilities when we were editing. However, the drawback from this was how hard the project file hit the performance of the PC we were working on. It was important to mention the specifications, because without them we would not have been able to work on the project. Late into the project we found that we were unable to preview and monitor what we were editing, as the software lagged too much to render.

Premiere was very useful in terms of being able to layer different footage together, such as the light leaks to create the flashing lights effect.

 

 

Photoshop was used to create all the animations and scribbles. The main problem we faced with this was the lack of a note pad to draw on. While we were very used to using a mouse, the process could have been faster otherwise, and the results would possibly have been better.
Here is a time-lapse showing the process.

The distortion effect presets came from Rocketstock, as we felt we did not want to focus our time on creating Premiere effect presets.

The light leak videos we used also came from Rocketstock

Digipak

We used Photoshop for the editing side of the product, and we used the Canon EOS 5D MkII for the front cover.

Here is an example of the process:

Website

We used Wix for our website, as it was a simple and free tool that allowed us to create a sleek and effective website that had just what we needed.

Evaluation 3

How do your products engage with the audience and would your work be distributed as real media products?

Demographic

Our target audience falls under the audience for Trap music, so between the ages of 16 to 25. The older ages are our target, as Trap music gets played in clubs often, and is often played in the US. The younger ages are also targeted because Trap music is on the rise on internet, specifically Youtube and Soundcloud, meaning while the audience who are under the legal age are unable to go to clubs to hear the music are able to listen to Trap online.

The above is from observation however. We used YouGov as a foundation for this research as well. While Trap does not seem to show up on the website, we used the artists Skrillex and Diplo as our references for searches, as they are the duo who make Jack U, our reference for our target audience.



The age groups of both rtists are fairly similar. Our target audience seem liberal and more open towards discovering new things and also their sense in branding of clothing is similar to how thought of them being.

From this we were able to dissect what might interest our audience.

Codes and Conventions

Music Video

A lot of Trap music videos seem to revolve around drug use, the visuals that are commonly seen in Trap music videos seem to serve the purpose of creating a visual representation of the effects of intoxication. Here are a few examples:

'Eung Freestyle' - The rappers in the video are seen drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

'It G Ma' - Again, the rappers are seen drinking alcohol.

While these animations and effects are great eye-catchers, they have become the convention of representing the altered state of mind. We wanted to use this fun and creative convention for our own to attract our audience.

The dark tone we gave our music video, under the dark lighting and colour, was to add an air of mysteriousness to our music video. The artists were not the faces of the music video, the effects, shots, and execution were. This enigma was used to hopefully trigger the audience's seemingly curious sense of nature, hopefully leading them to find out more about our brand.

The name Trap music is given comes from the concept of being 'trapped'. Drug use can be an addictive nature, where one finds it hard to escape from the culture, thus making it a trap. We hoped to somehow replicate this in our music video, as the visuals and effects are so vivid that while they may seem to create not much sense to the audience, they are enrapturing, making it hard to look away.

Our priority on the products was mostly on the music video, for the reason of being able to upload it to Youtube. There are many music promotion channels on Youtube, and with this we could up t he exposure. Focusing on the music video allowed us to really make an impression right at the source of where the audience access music they listen to.

Website

Because of the online presence electronic music has, we need to make sure our online profile is what we envisioned. We decided to use a similar approach to the music video; create a dark tone in terms of colour, and any vivid use of colour and bright lights are almost abstract. We wanted to emphasise the sense of an enigma, again hoping to trigger the audience's curiosity.

In terms of design, we knew we had to sell a style, not just the music on itself. This falls under the sense of style called urban street fashion.

We had to make our clothing very simple, in a similar manner to Owsla's clothing.

Because our demographic uses the internet for music streaming, information and just about everything else to do with music, our website had to be the provider of information. The tour dates were important to help our audience keep up to date.

Digipak

Since trap is very urban, I placed emphasis on the urban setting in the digipak and also added urban aspects into our digipak. The prime example is the city in the digipak. With the city area, it was supposed to be urban thus we added that into the digipak since our audience will be attracted to it.

We used Jack U's album 'Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack U' as our reference for our front cover. The montage of photos, in our case graphics, gives an almost DIY effect, suggesting the sense of independence we wanted to convey.

 

 

David Buckingham's audience theory

 

We feel that our music video is perfect in terms of appealing to both a non-focused viewer and a focused viewer. Our music video is filled with animations, scribbles, lighting effects that are fast paced and vivid, and a variety of shots. The editing has had a lot of attention, as cuts are happening everywhere. While the audience may not be able to understand the meaning behind the video, they can still find entertainment in the music video without meaning.

The focused audience however are given the opportunity to decode the message we create. This can be through our use of colour, camera angles, and portrayals.

 

Plan for releases, launches, in order to ensure success for our artists:

 

 

 



Evaluation 2

Evaluation 1

Website process 1

Again Ten worked on the website. 

We wanted to create animated slides to add a layer of interest to the website. We did not want our website to be entirely static.

All the photos have been uploaded beforehand onto wix in order to allow for a faster work flow.

We kept the tour section of the website very simple. We used Zhu's real website as a reference for this, as we liked the minimalistic approach to the presentation.

We left the digipak space free in order to have space for it once we are done.

Shop section of our website.

Below are screenshots of the mobile version of the website.

Digipak process 2

 Ever since we created the website, we knew we had to somehow create our own photo and use that as our front page, in order to add our personal touch and for more options. An event called the Prefect Disco came along, and we took this opportunity to take photos of ourselves performing. The lighting and LED screen was done by a  professional team, so the setting of our photos ended having a professional appearance.