Trouble In The West - Final Product

The Final Version of Digipack & Website

Here is the final version of our digipack. We included the "Inspected" Record label logo to make it look as realistic as possible as well as to provide an organic imagery which would link well with the characteristics and the music style of our artists. Lastly, on the front cover, we carried on with our geometric theme and related it to our music video by adding a fox head which resembles Mr.Fox, our main personage.

This is also the link to our website which we created with the help of Wix program, enabling the fans  to easily find information regarding the next event of KOAN Sound and also maybe to purchase a hoodie to support their art.

http://beesupavarasuwat.wix.com/koansound

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

BEE

In order to shorten the track, we used program ‘Soundtrack Pro’ this allows us to make the track a suitable length for music video to keep the audience attention as the original track is over 5 minutes long which will be hard to make a video for.

We used Photoshop to create lettering at the beginning and then inserted it with After Effect. We used bold clean font to emphasise the star image of being modern. This also allowed us to creates stylish opening which is used in many real media product in this genre.  

After we finished the rough cut in Final Cut Pro we went to shot a footage of trees using Sony NX-5 which is for a green screen sequence in the studio. We shot the footage in different shot sizes and angle to match the sequence we did in the studio. We then used Chromakey to erase the green screen and insert the footage. Using the green screen help us to create a shot that otherwise will be impossible to create, in the studio as we have limited time and budget.

We used Color to add blue filter to our shots. This added cold, dark effect to our music video which suit the style of this music genre which is usually, quite dark and quirky.

The leaflet is one of the key prop in this music video. In order to make it we used Photoshop to collage the actor portrait with a picture of the shopping mall and add a tack line to make it looks like a real leaflet. This make the narrative more convincing and flow better as we are going to see this actor later on in music video 

Elizabeth

At 0.39 seconds we had our fast transition from Fox’s house and into the city. It is significant as it represents the beginning of Mr. Fox’s journey and his adventure to capture the Boss. To accomplish such transition, we used After Effects to speedup the scenes as well as create this illusion of the wall which would transfer the audience to another location. At 0.42 seconds, with the use of Final Cut Pro we created a Jump Cut effect to make the sequence look faster. This added more tension to the overall product and at the same time complimented the song’s rapid beat. The lighting in “Trouble in the West” played an important part as we had to stay true to our narrative. Since foxes are nocturnal animals, the background had to be dark and represent the night time, so we used After Effects to adjust lighting in the video and make it look more blue. The dark lighting also made Mr. Fox look more menacing and mysterious which would entice our audience as the Fox isn’t the typical protagonist in the story which people would expect. At 0.52 we used Final Cut pro to fast cut the scenes of Mr. Fox and the Boss, the now intense beat of the music raised the needed suspense and signified the future fight of both of these characters. At 1.08 the effect of the blur was used with the help of After Effects software. The purpose for it was to show it from the bosses point of view as he was being hit and injured by our main character. Such use of violence in the video was inspired by many of Skrillex’s music videos, “Equinox” in particular. For the exterior forest shots which start at 1.13 minute we used Sony NX-5 without the lense adjustment as we wanted to give it a real organic feel without those studio/performance gimmicks. At 1.18 we used an After Effects Program, Key Frame Animation notably to merge two shots together creating a pathway to the performance location, the cave which would set the beginning of our performance sequence.

Gil

To make sure that the crowd was dancing in sync with the second drop, we used markers to mark the point on the drop and then matched up the shot of the crowd to make sure it looked effective. In the studio we used the Sony FS100, which allowed the focus of different shots to look very effective whilst filming the crowd or our DJ’s. We also used colour grading, to bring out the more vibrant colours in order to give our crowd more youthfulness. In order to get a big enough crowd to give off the impression that the studio was a real venue, we used social network sites such as Facebook by sending people messages and making sure they were available. Here we used a blur on the DJ’s so the transition to the next shot could be more smooth, and flow nicely. Originally this shot was very slow and did not fit into the track, therefore we used Final Cut express to speed up the shot speed. . When we used this crane shot, we had to change the lenses in order to achieve the correct focal length. Finally we used a blur to bring attention to the inspected logo which was imported as a Photoshop file.

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

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

Gil

Richard Dyers theory of star image suggests that artists are able to construct an image of themselves in which are attractive to audiences and able to be marketed through different formats such as media, TV & magazines. Common values of star images can hold: Youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism and originality. He also states that artists are represented to audiences in a way to make them seem both normal and also extraordinary, in order for audiences to identify them whilst having an element of superiority through their fame and talent.

For our artists, who are electronic music producers, the concept of star image is not sold on what the artists look like whatsoever. An example of an electronic music producer that uses his star image in alternative ways is Skrillex. Instead of selling himself based on his looks, and his features in TV, music videos etc. His key representation is his logo, with three lines. This helps an audience to recognize Skrillex, and relate to him. This is something we wanted to re-create with our artists. Also in music video’s Skrillex has a re-occurring aspect of violence, in which the audience can also relate to and identify. This is also what we wanted to achieve.

Bee

The design of our degipak is a combination between nature form and geometric shape. Geometric shape represent electronic genre. The shape is twisting the forest image in the background which imply that it has distort the way of nature. The design is simple ,subtle and minimalistic. This emphasise the artist star image of being unique and artistic. As we chose not to put the artist faces in. It makes the artist becomes mysterious which according to Richard Dyer’s paradox theory the artist has to be both present and absent at the same time therefore this is the absent bit. The extra thing we did for the digipak design is put the record label logo on it. This element is not usually being emphasise. However, because Inspected is a record label that specialise in this genre of music which means by putting the logo it will help cross promote with other artist under the same label. We also put Inspected logo at the end of the music video as well.

The concept of nature flow across all our media product. The design of our website is very clean and minimalistic with simple homepage. We also used geometric shape which is very similar to our digipak both in terms of style and colour. On our website we have social media section which include twitter, facebook and instagram. This will keep the audience update and inform about new release, events or even get in touch with the artist. This fill up the present part of the artist’ star image.

One of the key symbol of Koan Sound is the fox as it is the protagonist in our narrative. Therefore we include this fox symbol on our digipak to help people recognise the image. Also because we are not promoting the look of an artist or their voice the ‘name’ of the artist becomes very important. We emphasises this by putting it in the opening of the music video as well. We remain the bold clean font in all of our product to keep the modern and artistic image. This kind of opening are often used in many dubstep music video as well.

As we are aiming at young audience, We sell merchandise on website. This include T-Shirt with the Fox print and also other design. These symbolic designs are seen across all of the products. The purpose of this is to make people recognise the artist and at the same time feel more involve.

Elizabeth

The KOAN Sound’s image was an important aspect in our music video to which we constantly had to refer to. With “Trouble in the West” we wanted to make the audience wonder but also create an unforgettable adventure in terms of the plotline. For example the use of masks in the music video was inspired by Martin Garrix and his famous “Animals” video, we felt that the surrealism theme was something of a trend in dubstep music videos and therefore decided to try such stylization ourselves. It also would identify better with our target audience who are artistic individuals and who appreciate the combination of both, art trends and music.  In terms of costume design, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animation “Fantastic Mr. Fox” was our greatest inspiration, as we wanted to transfer the same level of quirkiness and uniqueness into our music video making it more entertaining for our audience. Also such unique wear complimented well the type of music KOAN Sound produce as it differentiates and is more niche than an ordinary dubstep track. KOAN Sound is an organic artist and doesn’t represent itself as a commercial performer so to highlight this we used a very naturalistic location such as “the forest” and “cave” instead of solely a club or a bar.  Such set designs gave the element of honesty and realness that are often absent in dubstep sequences. The more aggressive part of the music video was when Mr.Fox was battling the Boss. Such glorification of violence was largely inspired by a well-known artist “Skrillex”. This part of the video was really appealing to the young male segment who enjoy performers like KOAN SOUND therefore that scene of violence was almost necessary to increase our views and the popularity of the artist.  Also there is a common value that is presented in this scene which is the rebellion against the system, against globalization which appeals to many audience members and makes the artist more likable as he is more relevant and relatable.

Task 1: In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Timelapse of Production Day