Final construction of our music video

This is the final construction of our music video, the editing has been checked by our teacher and therefor have decided we are finished.

COSMO POSTERS

here are some posters i made up for cosmos tour merch

Props used in the video.

Why did we use the props that we used. And how did we use them.

Micky Mouse - We want to use a Micky Mouse toy for a shot in which we move a light in front of the toy to move the shadow. We think this will be a very imaginative shot and fit well with the genre.

Beatlejuice Figure - We have already used this prop in a practice session and it worked brilliantly. We used it in a panning shot in which we slowly revealed the figure.

Microphone Stand - this will be a good prop for when George performs in the video. It will make the area in which we perform look like a studio.

Microphone - The microphone will be used by George when playing the Cosmo character in some of the performance shots. We won't use the microphone in all the shots as we want some variety

Pocket Watch - We are planning on using a pocket watch for a small time lapse shot in which we can fit into the music video. This would fit well with the theme and help the video flow.

Guitar - George will pretend to play the guitar in some of the shots we have planned. We would like to get a close up of the guitar which goes down the neck of the guitar. We have seen this executed in the Jack White video.

Rock'em Sock'em - We wanted to keep with a 60s theme and these toys seemed very fitting with the time period. They are also quite a retro toy and can be used in the video as a moving prop as they fight.

Lava Lamp - The lava lamp is a very psychedelic image as it is usually linked to hippies which were very popular in the 60s. This is yet another reference to the 60s which we hope to carry throughout the music video.

DIGIPACK FEEDBACK

I love yours, the editing and photoshopping is fantastic, it’s quite mesmerising and the text goes with the overall theme.

I think this is the best digipack. There is a brilliant theme throughout this entire digipack. All of the slides are similar but all have distinct differences.

I think that Cosmos's digipack is extremely unique. The way that they have kept the colour theme the same but have slightly changed the background makes it interesting to look at. The front cover with the hand is a little confusing though what is this meant to show.

Edited very well, very creative. Could include an image of the band or artist as they are not introduced.

WWW: Looks amazing barely anything to fault EBI: The artist was on there possibly so you know who he is apart from that very good.

Cosmo's digipak is very well edited as the universe pictures look very professional and absolutely euphoric. Could be a little more focus on Cosmo's identity.

The Cosmo digipak is really good. The colours go really well together and it’s not black and white layout like the rest. Bright colours are being used that makes it look more professional and the images used work really well. The layout overall is really good and works well with the rest of the images, colours and font.

I love the colour scheme and the hipster/hippie imagery throughout but it looks half complete. 4 pages have no info or details, just overlays of imagery. Lay off the Photoshop for a while, and get some content in here.

Probably the most unique, love the colours and represents the genre well. Like how the same font has been repeated. Although there is no image of the singer! - This should be added so we can see them

This digipak has a lot of colour and fits the genre well. The images are relevant. The writing is hard to read on the back page as it is almost see through.

I like the galaxy theme I think they need more writing

Looks really cool/professional Font on back cover, is that song titles or random words Colours work for the theme

I like that the space theme fits with the name of the artist. I think this is so well-executed I can't actually fault it. Very unique, striking colours, amazing artwork - did they make the pictures e.g. the floating heads and the hand?! Amazing.

Really effective art work, you can tell they have put a lot of effort and time into it. The theme of it looks great and very 'magical.' Improvements: special thanks page - the text is really long winded. Also, the song titles are hard to read on the back album cover

To do

Although we have had our deadline. Our teacher has given us some feedback on our video and has told us to change it accordingly to make it better. George has come up with a few ideas to replace the shots that we need to get rid of.To replace the cartoon shots there will be more shots of me.This will include a shot of a hand tapping along to the rhythm of the music which will go alongside a shot of a foot tapping followed by me looking out of the window "when i look out my window

Draft progress

  After getting the feedback from our peers, we decided to change the video accordingly to make it much better. here is a video using split screen made by George to show the changes that have been made etc. We have also used cartoons to make reference to the 1960's -70's  era in order to make a clear connection between the song and the era. We also felt this made the video much more exciting and endurable. This is because each show was quite slow and quite plain.

Journey of the digipack

this is a presentation i made showing the direction and the progress of the digipack. I have shown changes we have made and problems we have faced and have had to change as a result.

Feedback

First Draft Feedback from GDBrew

This is the feedback that we have gotten from  our peers that have watched it. Although we have alot of negative feedback we also have a lot of positive. We have taken this quite well and this has helped to shape the outcome of the final video.

video rough cut

This is the rough cut for our video. We have shown our video to our peers and unfortunatly we got ALOT of negative feedback however, this hasn't knocked our confidence and we have managed to make the video much better according to the feedback that we have seen given. So far we have improved the video massively by using a range of  clips that split up the video making it less boring.

alternate digipack

alternate digipack

George has also made a digipack to show that we have also looked down alternative routes for it. However he has used the same theme as mine he has used images of his own.  I personally really like the head and shoulders shot and have used this in our final digipack design.

Digipack first daft feedback

George has created a prezzie  showing the feedback that we got on the first draft of the digipack  that i created. I am very pleased with the feedback that was given as we got a nice mix of constructive criticism and praise. I have taken the criticism on board and have taken action accordingly

FINAL DIGIPACK

This is the final digipack outcome. As you can see we have gone with the the "cosmos" as a theme throughout the design process. After getting a lot of feedback from others  about the digipack i found that everybody loved my design ideas and  the direction I was taking it in. I have changed the digipack according to the constructive criticism that was given.  People fed back to me saying that they could hardly see the text on the track list because the text was translucent. I changed this by making the background darker and the text much lighter, the contrast helping to show off the text much more clearly.

I also changed one of the photo panels by replacing it with a much clearer picture of cosmo. This  was created by George when he made a trial digipack in order to show a different take on the digipack. Luckily the colours went very well with the rest of the digipack  because of the use of fucia and purple. I changed this because people said  that they couldn't distinctively see cosmo within the picture.

track list

This is the improved track list. i had to change this because people were finding hard to read  the text. For this reason is changed the background as well as white highlights throughout the text. This has cleared up any confusion and also ties in better with the rest of the digipack

diary

We have come up with a new album title. After a large discussion we have decided to change the name from happy to Spectacle.This is because Happy is already a famous album by  Pharrel Williams therefor we have come up with a new name. We chose the name spectacle because it means large and flamboyant.This is how we want Cosmo to be perceived by the public. This is also cosmos first major album so having it called spectacle will be appropriate.

website

After getting feedback from our website Ben decided to change the website to fit with our digipack. So far we are very content with our website however Ben is still in the process of making the website look more professional.
                                         
http://thycosmo.wix.com/cosmo

UPDATE DIGIPACK

I have redone the front cover and the cd cover, all i have left to do now is the song list an the digipack will be completed.

CD for cosmo digipack

Updated digipack

I have updated the digipack after considering changing the name and song list. I have finished a part of the album art. All that needs to be done now is the songlist and front cover which will be done very soon. I feel that this new album art ties in better with the rest of the album than the other peice did. The colours tie together better and you can see that this is all part of the album.

spectacle

Replacement for "Happy" after looking into things we deicded it would be the best decision to change the name of the album and the songs. We can up with the name spectacle. Spectacle means something to be big and flamboint. This is how we want Cosmo to be represented. This is not the front cover however this will replace some album art that says the word happy.

digipack rough draft

This is a rough draft of our digipack. Since creating the digipack we have decided to change the name and the song list for this reason all we have to change is the front cover and the song list. We were origionally going to use the cover with happy on it however after a group meeting we decided the hand picture looked much nicer.

Production Diary #7 (Group Post)

Production Diary #7 (Group Post)

i been busy sketching and labelling, drafting up the storyboard, while ben been constructing a website and social media presence, and George has been carrying out research into magazine interview layouts, as well as digipak influences.

We are now prepared to start filming some elements of the production such as the performance, although the storyboard is not yet complete; after identifying availability of the school drama studio (spacious setting) and creating a rough shooting schedule, we will be able to film the performance sequences which will act as the base layer of footage for inter-cutting shots to layer above.

blog marking.

Grace starr

While the website is exciting and colourful with amazing imagery i feel that they haven't put enough effort into their merchandise. In my opinion i feel that they need to become a little more creative with the merchandise i suggest websites like  http://www.streetshirts.co.uk. I like how they have followed their "starr" in the media and the press i also love how they have arranged their photos. While the website is amazing i think they need to tie up a few loose ends such as merch. They have also added links to all of her social media accounts which allows you to keep up to date with grace. In all i think i would give with website 8/10. Even though the website is extremely well thought out and done well, it needs a few more tweaks to turn it into a 10.




Nicholas Alexander

The website as a whole is very good and well thought out however i feel that a little more work could have been taken into the photographs. In my opinion i feel that they should retake the photoshoot pictures and get someone who is able to take photos. Unfortunately they are all out of focus and are not clear in the slightest therefor this takes away from the professionalism of the page. I like how they have conducted interviews and looked into the more business side of the music industry including booking and things to do with his manager. They do not seem to have any merchandise at all on the site. I feel that this would be a good idea for them because it will make their site more appealing to fans that want to buy their merchandise to wear at their concert.




Encoded

The website is quite standard. Without being mean nothing really stands out at me. When it comes to their website i feel that they need to look into different designs and layouts for their photographs etc. This website does not include any merchandise of any kind. This makes the website look very unfinished and unprofessional. Even though these problems need to be addressed i do however like the contrast of white on black for the themes of the website.This makes the writing stand out and is very eye catching  i also love the count down they have put onto the site. I think this is a great idea for them . In conclusion all they need to do is play with the design and  make some merch.





Hybrid beauty

The Home page of the website is quite basic however i feel this adds to it because you are much more focused on the band than the stuff around it. I like how they have used the Facebook and twitter symbols to get to their social networking so that you can stay up to date with the band. I feel that the website could use a little more substance. i think that if you could add more pictures and maybe updates on the band then it will tell us more about them. I think that if you added a bio page about each of the girls along with a picture of each of them it will create much more appeal due to the fact we will know more about the girls we are listening to.

Alleyways

The home page of this website looks extremely professional. The lighting is very beautiful while the layout and design has been thought out extremely well. They have added a twiter, instagram, Facebook and even a you tube. They have also added an I tunes for you to buy the album once it is out. This is a very good example of a descent blog. In my opinion i feel they need some more photos. I have seen some of their other photos and they are amazing. If they put these on the website it will add so much to how it looks and how professional it is. I also think they need to add to their merchandise, while they do have a lot of cool and eye catching merch they could have some more, play around with designs etc.


Alex echo

Alex echos website is well done. I like the unique idea of the pictures on the home page. The home page is very pretty and to me looks quite professional. When looking through the website i noticed that they had very little merchandise so i believe they need to work on this aspect of the website. The info page is quite plane and boring, it would be nice to see a wider variety of photos much like the homepage. Although the website is quite simple it isn't in anyway boring. I dont think they need to have loads going on for it look good and i think adding lots more will make the website look too busy and messy. This could ruin the simple beauty that it has. They have also added all their social networks to keep you up to date .








James couleur

Although this website has alot of images and merchandise it is extremely unfinished. What they have so far seems okay but there is so much that has not been done that it is very hard to analyse what isn't there. I do like the layout on the homepage and also the twitter feed down the side. This means people do not have to actually go on their twitter to keep up to date with him, I think it would look nice if they had a few edited photographs that are made to look like a professional photoshoot. They have also added a direct link to the blog which helps show the influence behind everything.

Production Diary #6 (Group Post)

We have now summed up our general visual ideas for the video and the artist profile. Today we split three tasks between the each of us; I started to create some mood boards, Kaitlyn began drawing out a storyboard and Ben started to build and customise a website for COSMO.

The mood boards will gather influences together from other artists, for us then to identify what resources such as make-up and clothing we already have available or could get a hold of. The storyboard will obviously provide an indication of the shots we will take, and how they could be brought together in editing, while the website will help to boost COSMO's presence, to correlate with the Facebook page, a Twitter profile, various interviews and a digipak. 

A special thanks from cosmo

Here is a special thanks from cosmo to the people who are close to him. This is to go on the 3rd page of our digi pack, the front cover and the back is done so now all i have left to do is a bit more album art. As you can see the album has a very galaxy inspired theme to it. We decided that this would be a good theme to have because of cosmos psychedelic and "odd" qualities being out of this world the galaxy theme is meant to represent something you may hallucinate with the use of narcotics. Due to Cosmo being more appealing to that of people who grew up in the 60's or are now influenced by the hippy style we felt like this was extremely appropriate

changes

We have made many changes to our ideas about our music video for different reasons. Some things were a little too complicated and unrealistic whilst other idea’s just didn’t fit in with the concept as a whole. To start with we wanted the music video to be more gothic and serious were as now we went for the more light hearted psychedelic approach. We still wanted to make it strange and different but with a more traditional approach. We wanted to stick with the themes of the actual song and we didn’t want to get too far away from it as it would result in a music video that doesn’t make sense and also wouldn’t work.

There are some ideas that we have kept from the start and are still working on such as the many objects that we want to show in the video. We were going to have many more objects with little performance but soon realised that this would get very boring and would lead to people getting bored and also this wouldn’t be a good opportunity for Cosmo to get recognised. 

WEBSITE INSPIRATION

Cosmo Website Inspiration from bthflatt96


Ben is in charge of the cosmo website. He has put a slide together showing the influences behind his work on the website. 

GEORGES MOOD BOARD

our digipack inspiration and ideas

CD Cover Inspirations from bthflatt

together we have come up with ideas for inspiration for our digipack. Ben put a slide together to show what direction we are roughly going in  

Cosmo and the social media

We have added cosmos fan page on facebook and have also created him a twitter, before the photoshoot the page was quite bland and plain. After the photoshoot we uploaded a variety of colourful and eye catching photographs that show cosmos energy and positivity.

 

PHOTOSHOOT COLLAGE

photos taken and edited by me

smusic video preview

Production Diary #5 (Group Post)

Today we started to consider our artists' name, image, profile etc. After searching through many quirky, psychedelic-sounding and 60's resonant names; we came across COSMO which really stuck, due to its bold impact and reminiscence to psychedelic and glam music of the 60's and 70's -KISS, QUEEN and T-REX to name a few.

We then began to come up with some logo designs, and design ideas for a digipak and website, influenced by similar artists such as The Doors and Pink Floyd.

After drafting some designs, we searched for some similar (and royalty free) typography to use and play around with in Photoshop.

Bold, simplistic, minimalist

Quirky, Psychedelic, Grungy

Modern, Stylised, Subtly Dark / Gothic

Donovan and similar artists; Pink Floyd, The Doors, T-Rex

Production Diary #2 (Group Post)

Today we discussed our music video concept in greater detail with our teacher, identifying the logistics, potential locations and scenes, potential difficulties and so on.

After discussing the concept, we have a clearer idea of the performance element of the video - the performer will have to move slowly with the beat of the track, and be dressed to suit the tone in a subtle way, i.e. not quite as Gothic as we originally intended.

As a group we are now ready to go forward and prepare a timeline and storyboard along with the lyrics, lists of props and clothing and a vague timetable for when we are available to film.

DIGI PACK FRONT AND BACK

These are my front and back designs for the digipack so far, i was very undecided about the back therefor i made two versions of what i wanted, one matches the front more accurately while the other is very simple with colour links to the front. While i do like the first design i feel the second is better because you are able to clearly read the names of the songs on the album much more clearly.

COSMO INTERVIEW

George has made an interview featuring cosmo in vynl magazine.

letter

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George wrote a letter to epic records to  notify them about the use of the song.

Survey and results

George has collected some feedback from people taking a survey

bens research

Ben has done some research into music institutions i.e. record labels, evaluating which institutions would or wouldn't be interested in signing cosmo to their record label.

National Anthem are  partnered with a few Indie artists, this may suggest that they would be interested in someone like cosmo. The label however seems to sign fairly general Indie music makers, so COSMO's blend of Rock, Folk, Psychedelic and Pop may not be of interest to them. 

Videos that use the same effects as we want.

these videos although they are not the same genre of music as our song, they do however use the same kind of filters as we want. W e want to create a 1960's grainy feel to our video. Lana del ray uses this alot in her videos therefor i went out of my way to research her videos and look into some of the themes behind her videos. Lana del ray is obsessed with the 1940's- 60's era and presents this a lot in her videos with the use of costume and video effects. for this reason i felt she was a particularly good artist to research when it comes to modern artists taking the past and bringing it into the present.

playing with filters and editing

While we have been working george has been working hard to play and experiment with different filters, we want to create a 60's hippy vibe and the only way we feel we will do with is through filters that can create an old grainy look.

vynl ( our record label)

We had decided that we wanted to call our record label vynl, We came together to come up with the name we feel that the modern quirky way of spelling it goes well with cosmos general look.

story board

Digipack ideas

Here is our digipak idea that ben hasdrawn up. Ben wanted to draw it out instead of using a computer as he thought he could draw his ideas more clearly. He wanted there to be a couple of pictures of Cosmo and and also some strange psychedelic imagery. He thought this will help to establish the artist and the genre. we think that it is important for Cosmo to be on the digipak as he is a new artist which we want to promote and also get his image recognized.

Production Diary #4 (Group Post)

Yesterday we filmed a few recee shots, some to test lip syncing, and others to try out some artistic shots with unusual items. As soon as this has been edited, we will be able to get a general overview of how the final production might look.

Following on, today we continued with pre-production by locking down some final ideas and drafting a rough storyboard; although there are a number of shots set for specific points in the timeline, some are not so set in stone, and are likely to be moved around and tried in different places in post-production editing. 

Ben noting down some final ideas

MERCH

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127384594@N05/

http://www.streetshirts.co.uk/



On the website street shirts i created a variety of shirt and bag designs to sell to the public. The origional designs(vinyl record) were created by ben however i added a few ideas of my own. The colours of yellow and black link well with the website while the black and white links well with everything else.