Note To Moderator

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog, hope you enjoy our music video.

A2 music video: Luna Lux East of Eden

This is our final video all finished, hope you enjoy.

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Webiste

http://lunaluxmusic.wix.com/eastofeden

This is the link to our online website for Luna Lux.

Final Website Screenshots

Equipment we used

Luna Lux- East of Eden and Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

From the first watching of the video, it does look like that our music video supports this theory, because she is wearing a long see through dress which shows her figure. Also the swimming pool shots are very revealing which could be seen as are artist trying to get male attention.  However, we have tried in these situations to make them less revealing as possible, because from the dress we made sure that she wore white leggings and a white vest top underneath so you could see less of her. Without the vest top the dress would have ended further down her back which would defiantly be applied to the theory. To make the shots in the water less revealing we overlaid them with other shots so you could see less of her body. 

Throughout making the video we avoided trying to make our artist seem like she wants male attention from wearing less clothes. We wanted to make the artist look like she is trying to make women confident with whom they are. We did this by making our artist stand out from the crowd showing that she is not afraid to be different and conform like everybody else, this will hopefully give women the confidence to be themselves and be different because, nobody should be the same. This is something that we would like to achieve when women reflect on themselves

Final Digipak

The Disk:

On the CD disk we have a clock face; we have used this as it links to the tea party scene throughout the video. This makes the digipak have more than just images of Luna Lux, we wanted to use more concept shots to give the digipak more depth than just being about the artist. 

 The Back Cover:

 This is the back cover of our digipak with the track list on it. The two side panels that are on either side of the picture is the spine of the album, so when you fold it will fit into the side part of the casing. This is for the audience to see who the artist is and the name of the album from the side. From our research this is normal for digipaks to have, and we thought that it would be appropriate to have on the album as the consumer will prefer it. This photo was taken on our second day of filming were we had the theme of the tea party, which means that we thought that it would be a good idea to have it on our album as we knew that the theme of the album would be a tea party. Also it was plain which meant that it would be good to have the track list on it, as there will not be too much to look at. We added a bar code and recording companies at the bottom to make it look more professional, and also to show where her management was. The font of the songs is “Park Avenue” We thought that this would be a good font to have as; it is like old fashion handwriting, which links in with her star image of being vintage. Also the font is easy to read which would benefit the audience as they are reading the songs. We placed the songs in threes as we thought that this wasn’t the conventional thing to do, which will help to make her look different from the other albums that she is competing with. To manipulate this photo we added a vintage effect called “Nostalgic” this help the picture to look old which links in with her star image

Bottom Left:

We took this picture on our second day of filming, after we used the powder paint in the shot in the end of the video. We really liked this picture because, we thought that it looked really cool how the flowers were covered with the paint. Also they really establish her star image of being really flowery, but have a quirky fun side which we thought the powder paint showed. We manipulated the picture was in Adobe Photoshop, where we increased the sharpness of the picture, then enhanced the contrast and exposure, after then minuses the tint to make the picture looked washed out, then added the vintage filter over the top to create this picture.

This images stayed plain for a while but we thought that it looked  a bit boring and missing something, this was when we then added the lyrics from the song “East of Eden” as we thought that this is most memorable quote from her song, we thought that it will help to stay in peoples head more. We wanted the lyrics to come from that song as it is her first single which is very important. This would be the first thing people will hear from her and form their opinions on also how they will perceive her throughout her career. 

This image was taken on a separate day to filming; we went out on this day to take pictures specifically for this side of the digipak. We edited this photo using This picture was created when using Fireworks, where we had two photos and overlapped them, then erased the top layer to show the bottom layer. This makes it look like Luna Lux is in the tea cup. We thought that this would be a good picture to have behind the CD as when the audience take out the CD then they we will see this picture which is quite unusual and different which represents her star image.  Other ways we have manipulated this picture was by adding a vintage filter over the top using fotor.com.

This is the front cover, we took this photo from our first day filming in London. We manipulated this image to give it the kaleidoscope effect. This was the image ,as a group, we thought was the favorite and knew instantly that we wanted this to be our front cover. We have added her logo, which is consistent with the website, the album title in black which is easy and clear to see, we originally wanted the title in white but when we tried this you couldn't see it very clearly.

We took these pictures on a separate day where we planned to take some digipak photos. We knew that we wanted this effect on our picture to make them more interesting because, before they were just pictures of the horses. This effect helps the digipak to fit in with her star image as this effect is very individual and different, like her.  We wanted the same effect to be applied to both of the horse, as they come together, because they represent the clash of society and her imagination. This effect was made directly taking the picture through a glass piece that was bumpy that created this effect. We also added a vintage effect over the photos as we thought that it wouldn't look consistent if we didn't use them l think it added a mystical/fairytale effect to the photos, which fits with the theme of our video. Before we manipulated the photos they looked too shape a very basic and the effects just added something extra to them and made them look more professional.

Digipak Inspiration // Laura Williams

As a group, we started to plan the digipak and map out the basis for our album 'Fools Paradise'. When doing research on different photo shopping techniques. We came across an artist called Laura Williams. Lily contributed this to the group and we all came up with ideas from her inspiration. For example, Kayleigh came up with the idea of having a teapot as her head. We feel that using these skills in our digipak will fit with the theme running through out artists song and music video. We also came up with the idea of using the mirror for one of our images, we thought that this was a very unique image but also fiited in with our genre. Here are some examples of her work:

Luna Lux Music Video Progression

We have created this playlist inorder to show how out music video has progressed throughout our coursework. This shows how our skills have developed from AS to A2, allowing us to create a music video of higher quality.

Development of Digipak Images

Digipak Images Shoot

Social Media Accounts

We have created some social media accounts for our artist, Luna Lux, from researching different artists that have recently become famous they have used social media to their advantage to promote themselves and their music more not only in England but globally. For example Justin Bieber and Cody Simpson started posting videos on YouTube of themselves singing who are now famous and established artists. Other artists like One Direction have made it big over in America by social media, other artists would retweet links or videos that they have produced and an American audience would see that. Another band, 5 Seconds of Summer used this method to get noticed in the music industry, they also supported One Direction on tour which boosted their career. One Directions big following saw the new band they were on tour with and therefore 5 Seconds of Summer has gained a big chunk of One Directions fan base though social media. This would be a really good way to get our artists name out to more people across Britain to start with, then this will hopefully lead to her selling more records. We talked to our target audience with what social media that they use the most.

The most used sites were' Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. From using this information and creating pages for her on these site, it will give her more of a chance for people to see her. So this is a way that she can show her star image to the audience, because she doesn’t want to give herself a bad name when she is just starting out, or consumers will not like her. This means that she needs to do everything she can to ensure that she is liked by her audience. Her pages on all of these sites focus on promoting her music to her target audience, which are teenage girls. This will make her seem more appealing to them and will want to listen to her music. The problem with having these sites is that she can be open for hate comments. This is where people will leave spiteful comments about her music if they do not like it. This could leave a bad effect to other potential listeners as they will see these comments and will not listen to her music, even if they might like it. 

Intsagram:

Twitter:

Tumblr:

Bonus Videos for the Website

We created some videos for extra content on our website. We got together some of our friends that are confident on camera and filmed a few videos for the website. These videos are below, we filmed a interview with Luna Lux and also a quick fire segment. When looking at other artists websites they had bonus, exclusive videos for fans. This made our website look more realistic and also allowed the audience to get to know her personality better. As this is her first album we want to promote her as much a possible.



We also added a competition video to the website, we thought that having Luna explaining the competition it would encourage fans to enter and also add a personal touch for the fans on the website.  We firstly filmed this video and thought it was a bit boring so we took it into after effects and put this vintage filter effect over the top and also added some old fashioned film grains too. We thought this connected to her star image of being quirky and individual but also showed our skills.

 

Digipak Plan 3

This is our digipak draft 3- from the last draft we have changed the two top corner pictures- of the unicorn and horse head. We have made these into polaroid style. We did this from our feedback as they said they could see a link to the website. We thought as we have polaroids on the website we could incorporate them into the digipak. We also added a filter on the pictures to link to the video and also give a vintage effect to the digipak. We also have had the idea to do the bottom left image at a later date and create the same image but with our artist sitting in a field with the mirror.

Audience Vote On Front Cover of Digipak

Exposure on Digipak Images

Kaleidoscope Picture Idea

We wanted to create a kaleidoscope picture because; from our research on an indie genre they use this effect on normal pictures not just digipaks. We really liked the idea of using this technique on one of our photos; this will make the digipak more interesting for the consumers, and help to identify her star image.

Here are some of the pictures that we liked 

Digipak Shoot Day 1

These are some of the images we took this day.

This image is was taken with the flash gun on. The problem with this picture is that it’s quite dark which means that when we edit the photos and get rid of the green screen that it would be very hard to do.

This is what the photo will look like with the flash on. This would be much better for us to edit with as the camera has got the most amount of light, which also means that the picture will be of a higher quality and we can do more with it.

This is me putting the real flowers on to Luna Lux. We wanted to use these types of flowers as they were very bright which means that it would stand out and make the front of the digipak look very unique and interesting. Also it will juxtapose with what she is wearing which would highlight her of being very light and flowery.  

Draft 8 : Luna Lux East of Eden

Plan for Digipak

This is our plan for our digipak. We drew up a whole plan to organise what we needed to do and also want we wanted to do. This helped us know what and when we was shooting. We used different headings to organise ourselves, like equipment we needed, locations and what type of pictures we wanted to take. This was good as the whole group was clear on  what day we was shooting and what we needed. We thought this would be good as through AS we didn't plan in this much depth and the end result wasn't the best quality.

Playing with the website

Merchindise

Website Draft 2

These are some screen shots from our website after making some changes and improvements. In the prezi ,above, are the reasoning behind some of the changes.

Check on Weather

We plan taking pictures for our digipak this week and it requires us to go outside to a wood and take pictures. This means we need to find out what the weather is going to be like so we do not go to the forest when it’s raining as it would mean that we cannot take pictures. I have the forecast for the weather in London, Brentwood and Essex. This can help us get a good idea of what it is going to be like and when would be an appropriate day to go. From looking at the forecast Thursday seems like a day that we should avoid as it is meant to snow which means that it would be a disaster trying to take photos while it’s snowing. This is because the artist will be wearing a dress which would make her very cold and the equipment that we are going to use will get wet. However, Monday and Tuesday seem to have the best weather for the next couple of weeks as it is meant to be clear sky’s which means that we can have the optimal amount of light for our photos. This could be really good and the camera responds better to the lighter there is.

Audinece Feedback

This is our audience feedback. We gathered some people to ask some questions about our video and gain some feedback.

The questions we asked were:
1) What do you like about the music video?
2) What genre do you think it is?
3) Do you like the effects used?
4) Do you think our artist suits the song?
5) Any further improvements?



This feedback was very useful as we was able to see what other people thought about our video and how they perceived it. This would also help us know how they thought it could be improved. 

LUNA LUX DIGIPAK PLAN

This is a quick plan of what we wanted our digipak to look like.  The front cover will be different as we want a close up of the artist as this will help to establish her star image, and will be more impacting to her consumers. The back cover is the empty tea party set which will link the theme that we have from the music video. We have done this because from studying digipaks they have showed us that there is always a theme that runs throughout the album and their music video as they all link up together, this is something that we want to achieve so that we are able to create a conventional digipak. Above the tea party set will have the song titles of her album.  The top side will be 3 panels that all link up to make it look like one long photo. Underneath the disk will be a picture of the artist and the disk will have the same picture of her but a clock (something like that) as her head but the picture below is the normal picture of her. The picture on the bottom right is something that we would like to create with our artist as it is quirky and fun and fits her image but instead we would have a tea cup as this will link back to the theme of the album. We didn't want the artists face to be on every panel of the digipak as it can get very repetitive and there will be too much of her

Digipak Plan

These are quick photos that we created to help get us a quick sense of what we want to create within our digipak. Also this was practice so when we actually take the photos we know what we need to do. The girl in the middle is Luna Lux and will be in her conventional costume that she would normally wear, and the other two girls will have their horse/unicorn masks on. This will link to the theme of the music video. From looking at the top photo we need to make sure that the background is all the same or one long background to show that they are together. This will be all on one side of the digipak.  

Digipak Brainstorming

In my group we all made a plan ourselves which we then shared as a group to where we made a plan which incorporated all of the ideas that we liked from each others. For example, lyrics on one panel. There were a lot of similarities within our own plans as we all wanted to have a close up of the artist as the front cover, as this would help to help her star image and people to recognise her.  From planning our digipak like this way it means that everyone would be happy with what we have included, but also its a way for us to create the best digipak for our target audience as we can. 

References to music videos

This is a video shows that we have kept to some of the genre conventions of our music video. There are different examples to justify why we have used them. The main ones that we used are film grain, overlay, sitting and singing, no emotion and her costume

Storyboarding// Shot List