Evaluation: Question 5

Edited by Beatrice Douaihy, filmed by me.


How do you feel about the video?

Rob and Hiba both responded very positively to the video. Rob pointed out the "contrast between the dark colours and neon lighting", something we ourselves had liked and focused on doing, so this was clearly an effective decision

Hiba then made comment that the video was her 'kind of thing'. which means our creative decisions were smart as it appeals heavily to our target audience. Hiba understood the dynamics and relationships between characters, easing our concern that the video would make too little sense, whilst also praising the lack of dialogue.


Do you think the video is appropriate for the song?

Rob felt that the "slow rhythm" of the music video was well in time with the motion of the video, proving that our decision to play the song whilst filming and make strict, detailed editing choices was effective.

Hiba first claimed the video was "unorthodox" in that it contrasted the visual and audio, however she claimed this was a positive for her, as we expected from our target audience. She felt the video 'worked really well' for the song, matching moments in the video to the rhythm of the song.

Do you think the way the story was told was effective?
Both felt that our decisions in storytelling were effective. Rob referenced the "nonchalant style", which is what we aimed for, to reflect the relaxed music. He also saw the "smoking and drinking" and general stylistic choices as narrative drivers, helping to understand the characters and relationships and therefore the storyline.

Hiba felt that she did understand the plot, where it was 'coming from' and 'going'. She said that the way we depicted character interactions inferred enough information about the story and the characters for it to be followed, easing our minds about how much the video made sense to people.


What was your impression of the characters?

The two had slightly different opinions on our characters, something we wanted to happen as we were deliberately ambiguous in our decisions. Rob felt that the characters were 'strongly written', contrasting with our intention, and that their was a clear hierarchy that led the story along. He perceived the male character as 'the strong silent one' while the female character 'did all the talking.' This shows how he interpreted the things we had done in a way differently to how we intended, which is interesting.

Hiba also felt they were both 'strong' characters, however saw the female as the 'dominant' character in heir relationship, but went on to say that this wasn't entirely accurate because their was a 'clash' which shows how they are equals. She also enjoyed that the female character was the one driving, and that the male character was seen in different contrasts that helped to understand him better as a character. Their reactions are good, because it shows we have achieved or goal of appealing on a basis of gender neutrality, with neither character dominant but open to different interpretations.


What was your least favourite aspect of the video?

Both of them said they could "not think of many negatives". Rob felt that he would have wanted to see the main character in more social situations so we had a better impression of the contrast. Ironically, this was our original intent, but in filming and editing these parts had to be abandoned for various reasons.

Hiba said she would have liked to see more of the dynamic between him and the female character, perhaps in different situations, something that we again intended but dropped for time restriction.

Overall the issues they noticed seem to be issued we had, and we are very pleased with the feedback on the video as it shows our appeal to the target audience was effective and well directed, and that we are able to recognise our own shortcomings
Do you like the digipak design?

Both said they liked the digipak design. Rob commented on how the cover contained two elements, and observed that they complemented each other to draw attention to the Circle. This was our intention with the cover, purposefully matching the circle and curve shapes in order to create a cohesion of design. He also mentioned that he liked how the same elements were split and placed opposite on the inside, saying that the repetition 'expands' on the front cover. This is was we wanted, in order to create the same sense of cohesion and to carry the motifs across the album. He then makes the unexpected comment that it 'relates to the two characters in the video'. He explains its because of how they're very different and the viewer gets a more detailed view of an aspect of their lives. This was not something we had thought about, but is an interesting analysis of the digipak.

Hiba said she enjoyed the simplicity, which is exactly what we had intended when we designed it. She also comments on how the colours are very fluid, contrasting with the rigid grids and lines. this was our intention, and we are pleased that it was recognised.

What genre of Music do you think the album is?

Rob thought the genre would be 'rather retro', which was a concern we had as we thought the cover looked a little bit too 80's. He also thought the ink patterns seemed 'psychedelic', recognising even how we had created them. This is something we had not really considered, but it is a fitting observation. Lastly he felt like the music was 'dance-pop' except with an 'eerie tone'. This isn't exactly the genre we had intended, but is similar enough that it doesn't seem like we were that far off.

Hiba's first reaction was that it looked like a Muse album. Muse is very far from the kind of genre we were designing it for, however she does say that because she likes the cover she would assume its something she likes.

What was your least favourite aspect of the digipak?

Rob's only issue was that he wanted 'a little more emotion' from the cover. I'm not exactly clear on what that means, and neither does he seem to be as his only explanation is to add a 'dash of colour'.

Hiba's only issue with the album was fonts. This was an issue we faced, being unable to find a font we found that we thought was appropriate and professional looking. She believed the font may have been better if it was 'thinner' or 'less bold', however this would go against our genre conventions, and as our genre has very vague conventions this did not seem like a good idea.

What is your impression of the website?

Rob commented on the thematic consistency of the website, which is good as we were concerned about lacking enough brand consistency. He also felt it was 'well presented and pretty', which was one of the main focuses of our design, and meets the survey requirement for aesthetic appeal dominating the focus.

Hiba made the interesting point that it 'bridges' the digipak and video. While she doesn't really explain how, this still adds to the idea that the products had a brand consistency which we were worried about. she also commented again on its accessibility and design being good, saying specifically that it had everything she wanted in one place.

Is the website easy to navigate?

Both said that the website was very easy to navigate and it was all on one page 'all you had to do was scroll'. Hiba commented specifically on how the social media links were the first thing on the page, reinforcing our decision that it was important to include these early on.

Is there sufficient information on the website?

Both felt that the website contained enough information, and not no real desires for extras included. Rob felt more social media accounts may have been a good idea, however this isnt information on the website but external to it.

Evaluation: Question 4

Made in collaboration with Beatrice Douaihy. We wrote, talked about and edited our own sections which we then put together.

Evaluation: Question 3

Made in collaboration with Beatrice Douaihy. The parts we speak is what we wrote. We edited it together.

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 1

Digipak Final

Website: final

http://bdouaihy13c.wix.com/xeroxdreams

Music Video Final

Website Process

For our website we used the website builder Wix. It was not difficult to use, and had a very user friendly interface. The first thing we did was organise the page into what sections we wanted. Once this was done, we changed the text and organised the pages. After everything was in place, we started using their provided templates to embed social media links, our music video, our Instagram and a soundcloud song. With a little bit of tweaking to the images and switching the font to a sans serif style, we were done. The website took maybe a week to complete, with on and off attention.

We used the same image as the inside cover of the digipak. This was to build brand consistency, as well as because the vibrant colours make the image very striking, and the flowing patterns hold the interest of a viewer. The surreal nature of the image helps build a sense of interest and enigma, making a viewer want to explore the site in more depth.

The first step was writing out what information we wanted: as a group, we decided on some basic ideas about the band and what we wanted to way and wrote out the paragraphs. we then blocked out quickly where everything would go. We then worked out a rough idea for a tour schedule, and using Google search found venues our band could potentially play at. We were going to implement this with an actual tour information application Wix offered, but felt making the account was too official, and included it as a text box. Similarly, we had to drop the merchandise section of the website because to create a merchandising plug in required setting up an account with a merchandising company, and we didn't want to go through all of that for something so small.

We later changed all of the font on the website to open sans. We wanted to match the digipak, as well as create a consistent minimalistic theme. We chose open sans because it was a simple, elegant design and similar to the font we used on the digipak. Because we made the background Black the font had to be whit. This worked in our favour, as not only does it go against the normal white background and black font, fulfilling our whole idea of challenging the norm and being new and out there, but it gives the font a light, sleek, minimalist feeling that black lacks.

This is where we Began to implement the Wix 'tools'. As our survey revealed, Instagram is very popular among our target audience, as well as being pretty much the only feature on Mount Kimbies official site. For these reasons, we included a prominent Instagram feed that displays any photographs posted to our Instagram account. We removed all of the extra details so that only the images appear, so as to make the design more in keeping with our site. Also, as seen in the first image, we included a song link from sound cloud. We left this as its own design so that it seemed more like something external than a part of the site, so as not to confuse people. We felt it was a necessary inclusion for those who may not know the band that well or at all to get an introduction and example of our music.

Below the Instagram feed is a less informal collection of photos, which are promotional pictures for the band. These were included separately as we thought that it would be good to have a permanent collection of images which promote the current album/tour/etc. as well as the constantly updating Instagram page. we arranged them all in line to create added visual appeal, fitting with our ideas of aesthetic pleasure.

As a final touch, we added small icons beneath the titular band and album names that link to our social media. Wix provided a tool to do this, and we simply chose a simple white design that was consistent with our text for the icons, then added links to each that lead to our pages. This involved creating a Facebook, Soundcloud, and Instagram account. None of these things took very long, as Facebook easily allows the creation of a buissness page with little effort, Soundcloud had few restrictions and Instagram even less. As we already had an email account for this use, we did not have any issue with already having an account.

Editing process

For the last few weeks, we have been editing together the shots we got for the music video to create our final piece. It is now close to being complete, with only minor tweaks to be made. Throughout the process we have showed it to friends and adjusted shot lengths to try to create as good a product as we can.

The first thing we did was put the clips in place. We used the audio file to match the cuts to the beats as exactly as we could, because we realised that transitions felt wrong unless they were synced to the music. Once this was done, we moved on to colour correction, Giving most shots a cool blue using the fast colour corrector to compliment the natural orange hue. We used a pre-set but adjusted each accordingly, so that the colour correction looked best in every shot.

Before and after colour correction for one of the most orange shots. It makes the colour less agressive and gives the shot a calm, hazy look.

We then went through looking for issues. some of the cuts felt unnatural, and we noticed it was because an action was started (turning a wheel, lifting an arm) but the cut came before the action was over. we changed these so they looked better. We then noticed one shot was crooked, and so we adjusted it slightly to be level.

Changing the orientation fo the shot was an easy fix, all we had to do was zoom and rotate the shot slightly.

once this was done, and we were waiting on getting final shots, I decided to try out an idea we had earlier considered, a glitch effect. We eventually decided not to include this, as it is not a motif we had time to incorporate fully. However, I still used after effects to create the shot, using this tutorial.

My first attempt, within Premiere Pro, was not particularly successful, which is why I used the tutorial to find a better way.

Following his instructions, I created a glitch reminiscent of broken VHS recordings, yet still distinctly digital. This encompasses both the electronic and futuristic taste of our audience as well as the 90s analogue nostalgia.

The last adjustment we made was to the colour of the fight scene. Instead of a cool blue, we enhanced the orange tones to create a sense of danger and aggression. to further this, I increased the contrast slightly, making the colours stand out more, which makes the scene feel stronger and more vibrant.

Finally, we added light leaks over the top of a few shots to channel the 90s nostalgia. This was simply a matter of lowering opacity and using a blend mode that looked good, then roughly matching the leaks to light sources in the shot.

The shot after lowering opacity; the light leak is much clearer when moving; we did not want it to be too distracting.

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Digipak Process

We ended up with 214 photos for the digipak. Many were out of focus, or repeats, but it still took a lot of deliberation to eventually decided on two we would use for the digipak and promotion. We chose these because we thought they had the most striking colours and patters whilst still maintaining a minimalism that fit with our brand. The circular oil drop was chosen more for how it would lend itself perfectly to the circular pattern of the digipak cover. Before we began to use them, we adjusted the colours to use cool blues and pinks rather than the strong orange, which fit better with the overall tone we have been going for and the colour palette of the music video

The original images (above) compared to the edits (below)

It quickly became clear it was much more difficult than we originally thought to create the parabolic curve we wanted on Photoshop. Instead, we used the old fashioned technique of pen on paper. We drew the curve using a ruler to be as accurate as possible, then scanned it so we had the digital file, which we then traced with the pen tool on Photoshop so we had a tangible Photoshop layer to work with.

 We used the Marquee tool to cut a circular hole in the background layer, and then placed the image of the dye behind it so as to create a perfect circle about the curve.

For the second page, we kept the design very simple, echoing designs from bands such as The XX. We simply used the other ink image we had selected. not only is the simplicity striking, but the visual contrast against the hard geometric lines opposite create an enthralling juxtaposition. 

 When it came to the third page, we decided to repeat the use the same parabolic curve as on the cover, so that the design was repeated somewhere. We thought it would be interesting to wrap the curves around the CD portion, one in each corner. To do this, we put the curves in each corner and placed a black circle in the middle of them. then, using the warp tool, we moulded the curves around the circle perfectly.

And last but not least, the back cover. As the back was text heavy we searched online to find an appropriate font. We chose Rambla Standard for its simplicity and bold style. We also quickly checked what kind of legal information is usually included, and downloaded a barcode and the record label logo to include on the back, for the sake of making the design look professional. Because Photoshop has guideline features, we were able to create an excellently symmetrical design that really appeals to the eye.

(ps. Pretty much every one of the song names (minus You Took Your Time) were created by randomising pages on wikiquote and finding a cool combination of words.)

Digipak: Ink Patterns Process

Today, we took photos for use in the digipak. We mixed water with dyes, then poured small amounts at a time on a shallow pool of milk, taking photos of the resulting interactions.