Dora Martynyuk Media Studies

In September we all came back with three music video ideas, which we shared with the class. My ideas were about zombie love story, scientist and metaphorical murder. After presenting these I received a lot of feedback, both negative and positive, which helped me to improve my ideas.

First idea:

-Will be difficult to film in multiple locations, need to think about how to simplify the plot without loosing the main concept of the idea.

-Need to think carefully about the make-up - what type of zombie is it?

-Some people may find the image of zombies and blood disturbing, which you have to keep in mind and maybe try to bring that aspect down slightly.

Second idea:

-This is a short movie, rather than a music video, need to think about the changes you can do to the plot in order to simplify it.

-The concept of the bulbs lighting up every time the main characters are getting closer to falling in love - is great, try to expand it.

-The song is too popular, probably need to change it.

Third idea:

-The song is too popular to be used, need to think of another one.

-The images of blood and violence may be disturbing to other people, as well as, to some members of your group. Probably need to bring that down a bit.

-Multiple murders may become comical at some point, so the whole idea loses the intended dramatism.

This is the link to the blog, where I talk more about this feedback:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/mv-feedback.html

Afterwards, we were divided in groups and told to choose one of our ideas each and present it's developed version to the rest of the group. I chose the second idea, but reshaped it a lot. Instead of the scientist, crafting a new artefact, the music video would feature a couple and lighting bulbs, which get brighter and brighter every time the characters get closer.

This is my developed idea:
http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/developed-idea.html

However, after the group discussion we came up with the different concept - we took half of mine idea about the lighting bulbs and half of Andrew's idea about the juxtaposition between white and red colours. We put together a short treatment to present to Luke, in order to visually explain our final idea and receive feedback.

This is the song we have chosen "Chasing Highs" by ALMA:

Treatment in Prezi:

"Chasing Highs" lyrics:

Treatment elements outline:

Treatment artist's hair and make-up outline:

After presenting our pitch to Luke we received a lot of feedback, these are the main points:

-Think more about what type of light to use in your 2nd element and exactly how and why they turn on and off, but the idea itself is good.

-How does the light in 2nd element influence dancers and the room? Think about it.

-Finding a choreographer may be tricky.

-Contemporary interpretive dance style may not be the best choice.

-Choreography in the 2nd element should be exactly the same in order to be able to do wide shots and close-ups.

-Smoke mushrooms doesn't fit the idea, as they are brown. Red mushrooms connote drugs, don't use them unless this is what you want.

-Idea with fish in the aquarium is good. You can even try to film dancers through the aquarium to link 2nd and 3rd elements.

-3rd element has to link 1st and 2nd elements, so needs development.

-Music doesn't fit with slow fish movements in the aquarium.

-Lighting dancers from the back would make them silhouettic, which fits the 2nd element with bulbs. Think about that as a possibility.

-Could try to add variety to first element - have her in all red in a white room, than swap and have her in all white in a red room.

-Think about 3rd element.

-Choreography needs to be considered.

-Start finding actors and props.

Treatment feedback blog:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/treatment-feedback.html

Receiving the feedback from Luke helped us to make our idea better. He gave us a couple of advises and mentioned the problems, which we might face during production process. His main point was that just the juxtaposition will get boring after the 2nd minute, if not earlier, and we have to develop this concept further. After that, we went off to think about what could we add to make our music video more interesting.

Taking into account all of the feedback we've received we finally had a shape of our music video. We did the shot list and the storyboard to visualise our music video.

This is the animatic storyboard, which shows how our idea links to the song:

Moreover, we recorded the casting process in order to see how our actors look on camera, whether their looks match the genre and how well they reflect our idea.

Dancers first choice rehearsals:
http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/cast-dancers-first-choice.html

Singer first choice lipsync:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/casting-test-shoot_10.html

After weeks of hard work our music video and the whole campaign were ready. The next step was to hold the focus group in order to see whether what we did was successful and is applicable to the intended music genre and target audience.

Here I explain what is the focus group and why it's important:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/focus-group-preparation.html

Digipack first draft:

This is the feedback I've received from my group about my digipack:
http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/music-album-group-feedback.html

Making the digipack in Adobe Photoshop CC:

Digipack second draft:

As I was responsible for making the digipack, I was also the one to present the digipack to the focus group. This is a set of non-leading questions I prepared to receive useful feedback:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/focus-group-pre-production.html

This is the feedback we've got about the digipack:

http://doramartynyuk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/focus-group-album-cover-feedback_5.html

This is the video from our focus group:

As you an see, it's very important to gain feedback and opinions throughout your production process. In the very first stages it's important to know, whether your idea is something that the audience would be interested in. Then, it's good to know what people think about your product while it's not yet in mass production and you can still make changes, which would make your product better. Lastly, it's also helpful to know how far the final version of your product was successful and how the audience react to it.

DIGIPACK.

first draft final draft