Mixy's Final Website

Above is a screenshot of our final website.

We created this website through a free online service called Wix. They allow you create your own free website which is hosted on their servers. It won't carry a domain name e.g. Www.example.com but instead follows the format; www.wix.com/blackdragon1994/mixy. This is due to it being hosted on their servers so it carries their name.

The Wix method of creating a website is a very user-friendly, sandbox style. To implement anything we desired was clearly labelled and easily accessible. Thanks to this we were able to create a professional, sleek looking website without the hassle of coding, etc!

Our website developed through multiple attempts and rough edits, discussion and audience feedback. We created our initial website from scratch, which was very difficult and looked very unprofessional, bland and basic. We presentated it to Mixy and he approved of the layout but agreed with us that the design required more development. We continued to experiment but unfortunately could not achieve the results we wanted. This is when we switched to Wix.


The choices we made in designing the website however were very well thought out and each object has a specific purpose. For example, we have kept the font used the same throughout our production, both in the video, digi pak and the website. This was to create familiarity and for the products to show resemblance to each other allowing them to be easily associated with one another.
Because the main focus of our production is the featured song, just a single track not an album we made sure the most noticeable title on the website was the name of the track. The name of the artist we made smaller but in bold so it still stands out against the rest of the page. We placed this above the name of the track as it follows codes and conventions to have the artists name first.

We chose a simplistic, clean theme to our website, so it still looks professional and sleek whilst remaining uncluttered and easy to navigate for users. The theme carries meaning to the selected track. The background chosen is of one of the photos from our digi pak (The rear image). Also it is a picture of a windowsill linking into the track, and is from a location within the video. Through the use of this we have successfully linked all three products together. However, we also chose the image as we felt its gentle nature helped create the 'cool' calm look we was going for. We matched the text and overall colour scheme for the website around this to create gentle blending making it look very appealing. The photo is also 'empty' which provides zero distraction to the audience.
The navigation bar also follows the simplistic manner, with the navigation buttons becoming highlighted by blue when you roll your mouse over them, again matching the colour scheme but also provides effective functionality without being 'in your face'.

The website follows the standard codes and conventions of a music/artist's website by featuring the artists name, content directly relevant to them such as pages of 'About' providing information on the artist, a page of their albums, showing off their music and a contact page.

All the links on the website are fully functional, leading to pages with content. Whilst this was not required we went ahead and did it to give our website a more completed feel. One of the buttons leads to a page called "Albums". This provides working download links to each of Mixy's available albums, we also included this on the main page, as an extra touch.

We made our music video production the main feature of the front page, as this is what the website was about and formed around. Having it placed in the centre of the main page makes it the first thing seen by the audience, it is also set to auto-play. This was done to make sure it was the main focus of the audience visiting the page.

Overall, we are very happy with our website and how it has turned out. We feel that through the choices we made in theme, features and functionality that it effectively achieved the intended purpose of being nice to look at, informational and entertaining.

Final Video and Analysis

Above is our final cut of our music video production.

The video opens with a scene of 'The Girl' played by Zarina Rogalla and 'The New Guy' Played by myself meeting up, they then enter a car. This is to establish that they are together/familiar with one another. This also acts as an establishing shot/introduction.
We then cut to a shot of a CD labeled with "Mixy - Windowsill" into a CD Player, and this is where the music starts.
A film burn transition then follows into the introduction sequence of the characters. 'The New Guy' and 'The Girl' are introduced within the same car together, driving. This is to keep continuity as they was previously seen entering the car. The character of 'The Ex' is then introduced. In this shot he is seen smoking and with an angry look on his face, this was done to fit in with the fact he is the ex and is hurt/angry by what has happened. Thanks to these titles and what is contained within the shots, the audience can immediately grasp what the narrative is going to be about.
The track is introduced not by a title but by the name of the song written onto a coffee cup in a location where a lot of the later shots happen. This is because the coffee cup is featured highly throughout the video and carries significance.
We move onto another shot of 'The New Guy' and 'The Girl' together. They are seen smiling walking out of a lift and 'The New Guy' has his arm around 'The Girl' This is to further show that they are together and happy.
We cut into a shot edited with de-saturation to provide a washed out look of 'The Ex' smiling with an un-seen character, this creates enigma. He is also seen to be pointing to the sky, this links the lyrics in with the video due to the lyric saying "There was a time when our limit was the sky". This also provides suggestions as to who the person he is with might be. It then immediately cuts to Mixy to establish that he is the person singing.

The video fades to white here in an attempt to show that the de-saturated footage is memories. We see a shot of 'The Ex' and 'The Girl' together picking out some flowers. This cuts in and out of colour and them being together and the 'The Ex' being on his own. The shot of 'The Ex' purchasing the flowers is there to represent that due to the couple sharing a moment (shown in one of the clips) with these flowers he is longing to go back to that moment.
The footage moves onto 'The New Guy' and 'The Girl' walking together. 'The ex' however is standing in the background and both characters are oblivious to this. He is seen holding the flowers but once the characters walk past he lowers them, representing how his emotions just dropped.
More memory footage occurs of 'The Ex' and 'The Girl' together. The shots are linked in with the lyrics such as “Text your number and you came for a drink call it a date we sat down had a chat and it was great in the quiet little place I grew accustomed to your face” we used footage of ‘The Ex’ and ‘The Girl’ sat together in starbucks, coffee cups visible, talking, smiling and having a nice time. Also for the “grew accustomed to your face” we had a close up on ‘The Girl’s face. All this was done to develop more memory scenes between the two characters and to link the lyrics in with the video. All this is mixed in with shots of Mixy singing to show that Connor playing ‘The Ex’ is symbolising Mixy.

Returning to where ‘The Ex’ saw the other two characters walk by together, we switch to a shot from behind ‘The Ex’ and see him walk away. There is a low down shot of ‘The Ex’ walking away throwing the flowers towards the ground and since the flowers were symbolising a moment between ‘The ex’ and ‘The Girl’, throwing the flowers to the ground represents the rejection and loss he has just experienced.
We now move to a long sequence of clips featuring Mixy rapping. This was to spotlight him as an artist and his talent. It mainly focuses on showing off his ‘flow’ in his words. This is following the codes and conventions of a standard music video by showing off the star.
He also says the lyrics “finger-tips slip on the glass”, for this we had Mixy gently run his fingers across the glass of the window he is sat next too, to link the lyrics in with the video again.

There is a shot of ‘The Ex’ in the same location that him and ‘The Girl’ had been sat in the memory scene only this time he is by himself. This shows how he is reminiscing about the past and how he yearns for them times back. He is seen twiddling a flower. This was placed as we intended for the flower to carry the representation of their relationship. He gently caresses the flower as if it was the girl. This links back to the scene of them together in the coffee shop when he caresses her face. The footage pans up to ‘The Ex’ as he takes a drink of his coffee. This then fades into a shot of Mixy finishing off the exact same action. This is to further show how Connor playing ‘The Ex’ is representing Mixy throughout the video.

The end of the video comes to footage of The Ex’ walking aggressively towards the edge of a roof, suggesting that he’s given up and is going to jump and end his life. When he reaches the railings however, we cut to Mixy in the same position. He twiddles the flower over the edge as the song draws to a close. Diegetic sound fades in as the flower is dropped from the roof, signifying the end of the song and since the flower carried the representation of the relationship, the end of that too. The use of diegetic sound for this part of the clip was to add to the feeling of everything being over.

A title sequence of credits begins whilst the track is re-started to play over them. Since the intro of the track is purely instrumental it was perfect to use. Stereotypically music videos don’t tend to include credits on the end, so by doing this we have challenged the codes and conventions. An influencing factor on challenging the codes and conventions by doing this stemmed from the fact that since our music video was following a narrative throughout that it was going to be treated more like a short film.

Overall all we are very pleased with our final product; by taking into account all feedback we have received we have tailored the video to receive nothing but positive comments!

Storyboard

We developed a story board of scenes we wanted to film after brainstorming ideas between the group, coming up with a series of shots which we hoped will create the quality final product we are aiming to achieve.
We took this with us when we went filming, as a guide line to follow of shots we needed.
This storyboard does obviously not cover all the shots we had in the end, as whilst on-set filming we'd come up with new ideas or new ways to do things.

Risk Assessment

We have decided to post our up a risk assessment, answering the problems that we had and how we prepared for them before the shoot.

Our first area to asses was the location - the way we went about making sure that our location was use able was to call up Starbucks and ask permission in advance. This meant that if they denied us access then we could ask another coffee shop. Luckily they gave us permission and informed us on the lest busy day, this would hope fully allow us to get the seats that we needed to film. we also planed a back up seating location should our ideal seats become occupied. - On arrival to Starbucks (shoot day) our ideal seat were taken, we decide that we would wait for them to become free. this gave us time to set up our gear, talk to the staff about getting filmed, and discuss shot between group members. we then decided an hour and a coffee and a half each later that we would resort to our back up, we ended up finding that the backup seats offered nicer framing, allowing us to use the railings to frame the scenes. it also tied in quite nicely with the song title and lyrics due to there being a window and sill.

The second area was actors/actresses - we had learned from our mistakes last year and decided to come up with a set of substitutes, in the event that one actor or actress was unavailable, ill or otherwise preoccupied. we considered many candidates and the main issue that cropped up was getting a real couple, who looked comfortable together and wouldn't mind kissing when necessary. there was also another issue that we faced, being that we needed to find a couple that didn't look too young. Due to the time restrictions, the only couple that we could find in with that notice that fulfilled the previous requirements, was myself and my girl friend Zarina Rogalla. We stepped into Fran's and Ralph's shoes and kept the rolls and a majority of the shots from the rough cut the same (we still used Liam as the new guy).


Equipment failure - we are highly reliant on the equipment we are using mainly the camera. the worse thing that could happen whilst filming would be a camera error of some sort, for example: battery, memory, technical, damage, etc. We made sure to take all of these possible failures into consideration, one way we made sure that these errors wouldn't happen was by carrying a battery charger with us at all time and a spare fully charged battery. to deal with the memory issue, we carried a box of spare cards, this meant that if we ran out of room on one card we could replace it with a blank card. to cover us in the unlikely, but possible situation that something were to go wrong with the camera, i.e. accidental damage, or even if any of the above precautions were to fail we kept a plan b. this plan b was to take Liam's D90 (a back up camera that shoots film), although not as powerful it would still be a great asset in an emergency.

Camera man - we had to take into consider all possible errors. We also made sure that there would be a secondary camera man at all shoots; whether it were Liam, Cameron or myself. this meant that we could have someone recording behind the scenes, or even have someone to talk to about technical issues and camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, lens choice). This proved to be a very good risk assessment as we had to activate our substitutes for actors and actresses, this meant that I was unable to film a majority of the narrative; deploying one of our back up camera men to take over.

Weather - we had to take into consideration what the weather might be like on the day of the shoot. unfortunately the weather can never be definite; when we began filming for example the weather was nice, a clear day with sun and few clouds. however, whilst filming through the day the weather took a turn for the worse, as it began to rain. to try and help us avoid being caught of guard we checked the weather schedules, which stated that it was going to be a clear day, with the chance of it becoming overcast later. we deemed this to be good conditions, as the clouds would add a natural soft box, creating soft light for the shots. However, halfway through shooting the havens opened; this would have ruined our filing however, we took it in our stride making it work for us. Filming outside when it was nice weather and shooting inside Starbucks when the rain was too heavy. luckily we filmed most of the present shots in the dry and when it came to the memories we managed to shoot them out in the rain making them look like it was two different day.

Roles and Actors, Costumes

For our video we wanted to have the artist singing the song, with a narrative running through out it, helping to break up the shots. For this we asked the singer to wear his favourite outfit, we also had some friends to act out the narrative. We felt that this gave it a more professional feel, making it appear as if we have hired actors this also allow us to relieve some of the pressure from the artist (as he had a very busy schedule). Below is the list of talent, hands on set and their rolls.

• Fran - Actress
• Ralph - Actor
• Mixy - Artist/Main Talent
• Liam - Actor/Camera Assistant
• Connor - Director/Camera Man
• Cameron - Camera Assistant/General Helper
• Ralph's Friend - Extra

As for costumes we asked everyone involved with filming to wear "causal" clothes, that wouldn't be too in your face. We also asked Fran and Liam to wear some vibrant colours to help differentiate them (The happy couple) from Ralph (the depressed ex); we feel that this was achieved very well.

The rolls of the Actors and Actress:

• Liam's roll was the "New Guy" a.k.a. the girl’s new boy friend. We attempted to keep his roll to a minimum so that he doesn't seem to be a key roll to the narrative.
• Fran's roll was one of the key rolls to the story, as she was the girlfriend linking all of the characters, we have attempted to show this through many shots of her. To make sure she doesn't steal the limelight, we included Ralph in allot of these.
•  Ralph's roll was the most important of all as he was representing Mixy. This is only a representation and he is not suppose to look like Mixy it is almost as if Mixy is singing about Ralph instead of himself. To make sure that this is apparent to the audience we included many shots of Ralph on his own, this accompanied with the Title effect post (http://connora2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/editingshot-ideas.html) should help the audience identify him as the main character.

Editing/shot ideas

Both of the videos below have a similar use of shot/editing for their narrative. in Rack City it is at 0:04, 0:09 and 0:20; it uses a slow shot of a character, and then has their name appear, letting the audience understand their relevance.

The video below is Cee Lo Green "Fuck You", this video also has titles. These titles are used in a similar way to Rack City however, they also use the these titles indicate different times, in similar zones. This also helps with the camera work/techniques, because the video appears to be very similar to a one take video. It creates this effect by using shots that are moving around the same area. Here are all of the times for the different titles (0:17-0:19, 0:25-0:27, 1:22-1:25, 1:42-1:46, 2:23-2:26, 2:55-2:57, 3:16-3:20, 3:46-3:50)

We have decided that something like this might add some order to the chaos that is our rough cut. this will help our viewers make sense of the characters; their relevance to the song and video. the way that we could do this is by fusing both of the styles, using the monochrome colours and simple text from Rack City and the zoom/rotation/camera angles from Fuck You. one of the ways we could do this is taking a print screen from the shot that we want, trimming/making minor adjustments. then using photoshop to add the effects and text to the image; once edited placing it into after effects, this will allow us to create the pan/zoom.

Filming

Today we started filming the story sequences for our music video. we want to try and portray a break up from the point of view of the dumpie (person being dumped). we have based this story on the impression the song and lyrics give; matching shots to lyrics. unlike a film there is no chronological order however, we didn't go in guns a blazing; ordering and planing our using a shot list a posed to a storyboard. This let us get a great idea as to which shots we wanted for different stanzas.
Above is an example of one of the shots that we intend to use in our video, in this you see Ralph (our leading character) through a bouquet to the floor. we have taken into consideration use of depth of field, this helps to make the flowers the main focal point. by doing this it lets the views see how important the flowers are to the story, to do this we used a lens with wide aperture. the problem with this is guaranteeing that the flowers were in focus; we used a reasonably low f/stop as to make sure that it is not too restrictive.
The clothing our characters are wearing is very casual, this fits in with the music and the video settings and contents.
We managed to gather a wide range of our shots and have only a few left to record.
We are planning on getting more filming done very soon.