Creative Critical Reflection

I guess that's the definite end. I hope you have enjoyed this journey just as much as me. Despite the anxiety, desperation, and cramming, I was giving an amazing opportunity through this course that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

Here's the link to my CCR: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2uRVmjml1qJWTBZRDk3NGFjb00/view?usp=sharing

Everything is here

This is my project, I don't think I have anything else to say that I haven't said before.

Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/l0dat6AywuI (please make sure to use this one, since I'll be updating the video later on with the final version of the song; they didn't have time to finish the song completely on time, so I'm using a "in progress" version)

Website: http://jeanvardara2.wixsite.com/website-1

Digipak:

Cover

Back cover

Inside left (with pocket)

Inside right

Vinyl

Pocket content front

Pocket content back

(Within the pocket there would be circles that come out, thinner than vinyl but thicker than paper, with the name of the songs on the front and the lyrics on the back).

Progress?

This week has been very chaotic in every different way possible, but I have been making progress. I can define it as filled with inspiration, where I change details, move stuff around, come up with new ideas, reject old ones, and desperation, where I get stuck in something that doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Unfortunately I won't be able to finish the documentary video for now, but I still intend on doing to later on post it on their website + YouTube page. I just decided to focus on the components I actually need to do, and I won't have time for the extra video.

Regardless, I have been making constant changes to my project, especially the website. Every time I go in to change something I want to add a new page, a new picture, a new detail, and find myself lost in the midst of all the buttons and options Wix has to offer. Truly amazing.

But I'd really like to take the time to bring light to thank some people.

First I'd like to take my teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, for creating this course for us and teaching it with some passion that all of her students have grown and changed throughout the year. AICE Media Studies A Level has also helped me shape my mind in regards of what I want to be in life, and find out what I am truly good at.

Second I'd like to thank Cambridge, for even offering this course in the first place. It's different, it's unique, it's interesting, it's enriching, and yeah.. it's pretty cool.

Third I'd like to thank all my classmates, a lot of whom have become my friends. We have been through AS level together and now we are almost finished with A level, and I am sure all of us are extremely proud of ourselves and each other. It's amazing what this class has done -I don't know if to all, but at least to my side of the classroom-, teaching us how to take criticism, how to give constructive criticism, how to help each other, and how to work as a team even when we are not one. Through this process I can't count how many times my classmates have asked for my and others' opinions or how many times I have done the same. And we always look at the questions posed to us with a critical eye, with a helping heart, and expressing it with kind words. I think that if this class has taught us something that no other in high school has, is how to be true professionals. We've created our own family.

That's my progress.

Vlogs Galore

You guessed, another vlog. Here's the final part of the filming process, which resulted in a total 133 videos -16.9 GB. I'm guessing I have about two hours of footage to go through, which is oh so exciting.

I've got to say that we were filming for four hours straight, two consecutive days, but it was pretty fun. I don't exactly get excited by the idea of filming myself, I can come up with ideas, do story boards, direct, but actually filming it's not my favorite thing, but during these two days I surprised myself with some of the shots I got. In the end, it was a very enjoyable experience that I hope to repeat... but not too soon. Gotta rest.

Exploring Markham

We filmed the first set of video yesterday, UHUUUU! There was a delay on the time we started filming, because Santi had an emergency and had to cancel, so we just decided to start the solo parts. Jean took us to Markham Park, a park here in Weston, which is huuuge and has a thousand different settings that we could take advantage of. Here's a little vlog of how the day went...

I think I should also give a brief explanation of what my vision for the video was. I've mentioned before that we were going for a fully promotional video, since I'm trying to expose them as much as I can. The idea of the video is to have Rafa, Carlos, and Jean on three different settings and Santi driving a car, and towards the end of the video Santi picks up each one of them and they all drive to their studio to play. In each of their settings they are playing the song, jamming to the music, which is what happens in promotional music videos. The whole video alternates between the scenes in the different settings and the studio, where they are all together playing. The special touch is that the shots in the studio are happening in slow motion (they played in a faster tempo and I'm going to slow it down during editing). I know the idea seems a little basic, but I wanted to keep it that way so I can be very creative during editing. The video of "Red Hands" by Walk Off the Earth (which I've posted before) inspired me to take that decision, because even though I think editing like that would take me WAY TOO MUCH time, I still want to create something cool and different as they did.

Excited, nervous, and restless about editing this video. I'm starting this weekend. Wish me luck.

#recordingsessions

A picture of Jean and Rafa to light up your day.

I have a new vlog ~cheers~ to give an insider's perspective on what it is to record a song. The footage is from the second day, when they were basically just doing the final, smaller layers, so there's nothing on the recording of the lyrics. It was a super fun experience for me because I got to see some of the work that goes into recording a song, and even though none of them are professionals they can still come up with pretty good results. Jake, the guy I interviewed during the vlog, was the one doing the technical work (recording each layer, placing them, shaving off unnecessary sounds, etc.) and I thought that speaking to him would be the best way to convey what was happening.

I also thought of placing the lyrics right here, just in case anyone is interested...

There are those who will say

You will find your peace someday

It's your life, it's your way

There's no reason you should wait

Take a stand, hold my hand,

Let me wake up far away

But you're still picking up the pieces

Of a broken start

I'm thinking about you, dreaming about you, I'm alone (my heartbeat, my heartbeat)

I'm thinking about you, singing about you, on my own (my heartbeat, my heartbeat)

That is it. I'm ~hella~ excited to hear the final version and I hope y'all are too!

Scheduling

One of my favorite things in this world is schedules. I love making plans and having everything figured out. It makes me happy, calm, and confident; in summary, a fulfilled Lari. The schedules can be in big scales, such as a month or a week, or in small scales, such as a day or a portion of a day. An advantage is being organized and getting stuff done efficiently, but a disadvantage is always hoping the schedules will work and being disappointed when they don't. But I have made a schedule for this upcoming week with the band (all of us together, so no one is unaware of anything) that simply HAS to work.

Monday: recording session! They are recording the song and I am taking the opportunity to film final shots for the 'doc' video and the interviews regarding "Heartbeat".

Tuesday: we are having a photo shoot and filming the general interviews (since none of those have worked so far... I am not even getting into details).

Wednesday: first day of filming for music video!

Thursday: second day of filming for music video!

Friday: going over the footage and hoping all is right in the world because Rafa will be in a plane to Brazil by the time I find any mistakes and then... well, it's beyond my control.

I am a little frustrated that I haven't had as much control over this project as I wanted to regarding when things get done; you can call me a bit of a control-freak. Still, I am putting my personal feelings aside so I can finish this. The good part is that, even with pushing dates, delaying meetings, and taking long to finish the song, I still love working with them. I truly think that working in the music industry is something that I'd be happy to do in the future. But deadlines have me FREAKING OUT.

That's it. I'm stressed. I'm going to cry. Goodnight.

Skeleton is a Creepy Word

It's been really fun working on the website. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but since last year with my Foundation Portfolio I have grown fond of design and now I am falling in love for web design. I have a lot of fun trying things out, changing the background, positioning pictures, creating links, and mostly trying to come up with creative layouts for the pages. It's an adventure each time I log on to Wix, because I never know what I will discover or how it will look like once I'm done. I've talked about my endless dilemma with ONLY the header, so imagine what I go through with the rest of the website... extensive work. I drew a sketch of what I had in mind for the home page, because I find sketching always helpful as brainstorming, especially when it comes to design. I find that once I put pencil on paper stuff just flows out and I can see it as a big picture.

Sorry if pencil is hard to read, I hate sketching in pen.

Basically what I think my home page should look like. I'm trying to keep a "space" theme -I know it sounds lame, but bare with me- to go with the name of the band and the album cover (refer to the link); I have a Saturn drawing, the circles for the news, the starry background, so that the website can act as a marketing product for the album. The more I remind people that this is what it looks like, the more it will STICK. I want it to stick. The right side of the paper is some alternatives for what I drew in the main sketch, in the case that if I transfer it to the website and don't like it, I have a plan B. (Maybe I should come up with a plan C, just in case).

For the home page I mostly followed the format of RHCP's website, regarding the content, while incorporating my own vision for the layout. I also added the documentary video as the first thing one sees when they go on the website, because introducing the band is my #1 goal. The social media links are going to be next to the menu links, but I haven't yet decided if they're going to be in a drop-down menu format (where I have a button that says "social media", you click and stuff ~shows up~) or just links. They are right there at the top with the purpose of getting people directed to their social media; the platforms are the only place where fans engage with the band, and it's important that they do so -my target audience enjoys feeling connected. Which brings me to the bottom: 'site by Wix', to give credit to the software; the logo, as a reminder to the audience -in case they have forgotten after this long journey to the bottom- of what the brand of the band is; social media links, once again, because repetition makes it permanent in one's head and I WANT IT TO STICK.

I have re-acquire my taste for surprises after working on the website so... all you get is a sketch for now. Maybe I'll show some sketches of the other pages. Maybe there will be some sneak peaks soon. Maybe you'll only see it when it's all done.

Guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out...

Cover vs. Cover

Here is a quick post just to show you, dear followers, a dilemma.

VS.

These are the two options we have for the album cover. It technically is not a debate, since Jean paid for the top one and they've decided on it as the cover, but... I like the bottom one waaaaaay more, I think it's way cooler, it embodies the vibe of the band better and honestly, it's more appealing. I asked some of my colleagues and all of them preferred the bottom one. Of course the image needs to be adjusted, since Carlos, who drew it, didn't make that to be a cover. 

In my almost-professional opinion, the bottom option will be more popular with people and more remarkable. It is a design that people can definitely remember and link back to Surfing on Saturn. Plus, it allows for cool merchandise. 

Now I have to find a way to convince Jean to use the second option, but I believe I have some pretty good arguments up my sleeve.

Welcome, InDesign

 I am working intensively on the website this week and have already made some progress; there is a sketch of the home page sitting on my backpack right now, but I will leave that to the next post. This post is dedicated to some fun I am having working with InDesign.

It all started when I started editing the website and saw myself trying to come up with a good header. I thought "it should say the name of the band", and puf, a basic, clean title saying "SURFING ON SATURN" popped up at the top of the website (yes, like magic). It looked good, yet simple, but I didn't saw that as a problem....

Attempt #1

Theeeeeen.... because I am not too simplistic and thought something was missing, I started surfing -ha!- the web for other websites, and found that many use small logos or titles, but nothing as big as what I produced. You can see in previous website examples I posted that the name of the band does not take that much space on the page. Then I tried something else:

Attempt #2

I liked it, especially if I made it wayyy smaller and moved it to the right a tad more (Wix has this weird thing where it starts cutting pictures if you shrink them too much), yet something was slightly wrong. I have to mention that when I began doing this my brother was doing homework right next to me, and when I am working on something I have to be constantly asking him "but what do you think?", "is it good?", "look", "should I change anything?". He gets annoyed but oh well, that's one of the guidelines for being my brother. Usually he just nods or gives short answers, but for this he actually helped. I told him I was worried the first option was too big of a header considering other websites, but he made me realize that these other bands are already famous so they don't have to THROW their name right at people's faces. Impressive, brother. I posed the question to my classmates and mentioned what my brother had said, and they all agreed with him. Also, I felt like just giving "SOS" is not going to make all people remember that this is Surfing on Saturn. Spelling out the name would be a better route.

Back to square one, but at least not making bad decisions. I wanted to stick to the logo because that is their logo and it will be used on albums, social media, merchandise, etc. Having it present on the website is important to remind people that "hey, that's Surfing on Saturn"...which brings me to:

Attempt #3

First time I looked at it I thought it was fine, but then after a while... it wasn't anymore. My friend, Celeste, said that it looked repetitive and weird, to which I completely agreed.

Back to square one once more. I thought of having the name spelled out on the home page, and the logo on every other, but that doesn't create consistency and fixation on people's minds. I tried placing the logo on the sides, but it still looked redundant. Then I tried the footer, but it needs to be visible as soon as people get on the website. That's when my beautiful friend, Isabella, asked "why don't you use the 'O' in the logo and replace it for the 'o' in the header?"

I don't know why, Isa, but yes. Yes.

Attempt #4

It alludes to the logo, which will be present on other elements of the website and the band's platforms in general, and still tells the name to the audience. Of course this is a rough rough draft, since it's CLEAR that the 'O' is way thinner than the rest of the letters and not even the same height, but that's what brings me to InDesign.

I basically just used it to type up the title and add the 'O' from the logo, since the program gives me the ability to adjust the font size, space between the letters, gives me many font options, and I can well manipulate the image of the 'O'. The hard part was finding a font that matched the one in the logo (a task in which dafont.com helped me a lot), but I pushed through it and succeeded ~cheers of joy~.

Final version

Being a Groupie

This is from last Wednesday, when they played at the school's Photography Expo.

Btw, the bass player is a fill in because Carlos and Santi were not available.

Finally, the full instrumental version of Heartbeat. They do have the lyrics, I just haven't heard it yet because we were supposed to get together last week to rehearse but they canceled last minute. I've been finding that it's hard to really create schedules with them, because two of the members have so little free time. Carlos and Santiago play in the school's marching band and they rehearse a LOT, which makes it very hard to set up times that are convenient for all parties involved. As I have mentioned before in a post, what's so different between this year and last year is depending on others; I depend on the band almost 100% -I need the songs, I need their time, I need a setlist, I need approval to do things. Right now, with only two weeks and a half left, this detail is starting to stress me out. My goal for this week is to have the doc video and the website done (with the website maybe only missing some content).

Meanwhile, I can still brainstorm for the music video since I have the melody now. The style of the song reminds me of Pink Floyd A LOT, especially Dark Side of the Moon, and I believe that's where most of my visions for this video I coming from. I was talking to Jean and Rafa during the Expo and they pitched this to me: film the scenes of them playing with a faster tempo and then slow down in post production so it matches the actual tempo. Why? Because then all their movements will be slowed down. We talked about pipes with holes and flowing water through them, we talked about punching a glass panel and filming it breaking. The general agreement is that we're going to sorta follow a "Dark Necessities" route, being mostly promotional and having actors acting (yes, actors act, Lari) but not really following any story line; the amount of actor presence is not yet defined, although I believe we're going to end up keeping it to a minimal. Overall, I see very exaggerated movements, close-ups and extreme close-ups, a lot of lowkey lighting and cool colors, circular pans and tilts to the sky -or roof... I see something sort of psychedelic and disjointed.

I truly like the instrumental version of the song and couldn't be more excited to hear the lyrics (also desperate to hear them). I am actually thinking of pitching the idea to them of having the instrumental version of the song as an extra/bonus track and I'll look more into that when I'm doing the digipak.


P.S. The inside joke is that they need new songs... They always play "Skin and Bones" and "Don't Let Me Down"

Story Time

I am behind schedule. This weekend was pretty chaotic because of some personal issues, so I am behind schedule right now and need to get back on track FAST. I'm pretty worried, not gonna lie, and will probably be posting everyday this week (for everyone's happiness).

After MANY TRIES and failed attempts I set up a channel for the band on YouTube. Uhu. I started creating a new account for Surfing on Saturn and setting up the channel from there. Then the quest to change the icon begun and for SOME GODLY REASON I could not for the life of me change the icon. I have never logged out and on again to an account before (by the way, any rational person would know this is not the solution to making an icon work). So I got nervous mad and anxious and went on a quest through Google. I found some help pages about something called a "brand account", which can be managed by many people and thought "hey, a brand account would be ideal because all the members can have access to it", deleting then the newly created Surfing on Saturn account. Setting up a brand account was twice as hard as changing the channel icon, because every time I typed in "how to create a brand account" on Google, this showed up:

Where is my straight forward answer, Mr. Google?

I clicked the first link and couldn't find a straight forward answer so I got even more nervous and mad and anxious. But I finally settled down and decided to read the page from beginning to end and... voila, YouTube channel. I set it up from my own personal account, which makes me the manager, and can add people to it however I please (power). For now only I will have access to it, to make sure nothing gets confusing and we're not overlapping content, specially because all the content to "introduce" the band is being created right now by me.

Channel art: for now I am using their logo, but I want to change it for a good picture of the four of them. Unfortunately, they cancelled the photo shoot last week so I still don't have any pictures that will fit this purpose. Hoping we will have one this week but... working according to other people's schedules can be tricky sometimes.

Icon: REALLY. HARD. TO. DO. When you click to change the icon this pops up:

At first I calmed down a bit because I hadn't read that the first 1000 times I tried to change the icon, but then a "few minutes" passed and the icon was still NOT SHOWING. It's still not showing. I literally don't know what to do. I guess I'll check tomorrow morning and see what's up.

This is the image I want to use as an icon for now, before I can get a good picture of the band and replace the channel art (then the logo will be the icon).

Custom URL: There are guidelines to be eligible for a custom URL, which are

• Have 100 or more subscribers
• Be at least 30 days old
• Have an uploaded photo as channel icon
• Have uploaded channel art

I'm going to do a mass raid on social media -as soon as the icon uploads- to get people subscribed. I can't control being at least 30 days old, so I'll just have to wait. "Have an uploaded photo as channel icon", I guess I have that? Really wouldn't be able to tell. Last item done. After all those I can change the url to "surfingonsaturn", which is uniform to all their social media and easier for people to find. 

With the basics done I begun to play around with more advanced settings. The first one I noticed was the one in the picture to the right, when I clicked "for new visitors". As you can see, it advises the person managing the page to add a "channel trailer", which would introduce the channel to new visitors. When I saw that I immediately thought of the doc video, since its purpose has already been established as a introduction of the band to the audience. I decided to upload the doc video as a "channel trailer", which I actually am working my best to have by the end of this week.

Following, I added some tags to the channel to make it easier for people to find it. I went crazy and typed everything from "surfing on saturn" to "monkey with a big butt". (Just kidding, I didn't really typed that last one up, I'm not crazy.)

Then I created links, which appear on the header of the channel, to their website, Instagram, and Twitter. That's how I'll keep people connected to all their platforms through each one of their platforms.

Finally, I added two live performances I recorded and their first music video, Skin and Bones.

After all this explanation, click here to check out all I just said it's true.

Shoutout

Quick thank you thank you thank you infinitely to Mrs. Stoklosa for extending our deadline by a week. Much appreciated.

Insights

I JUST HAD AN IDEA! But first I'll write about what I was originally going to write.

I said I'd post an outline of the questions I'm going to be asking the band, and here it is.

My idea is to have individual interviews with them, although I'm not sure yet if I want to have them during rehearsal in a way that you can see the other members on the background, or in a separate room in a more formal setting. I really like the setting that RHCP used for "The Getaway Track-by-Track", because of the lighting and background, so I might go for a route like that.

Now my epiphany. I just had the idea that I could have a build up for the release of Heartbeat, which will technically be their next single. I'm thinking of something like "Countdown to Heartbeat" (any creative titles appreciated on the comments), and it will be a series of short videos with excerpts of the song -parts that will make people excited about it- and short answers to the second set of questions I posted above (the one that says "Heartbeat questions for YouTube", see?). I think that's a pretty cool (I need to stop italicizing the word 'cool' because it seems like I'm mocking it. (Can you even mock a word?)) thing to do, especially to start up their YouTube page. The real actual content I have so far is their first music video and a few live performances, and I'll select about two from the ones I have, so I need more STUFF to stuff it. Ha. The videos can also be used on their website, so I'm killing two birds with one stone.

I might even want to do a sort of "track-by-track" series for the release of their album, but as of right now nothing is certain. We shall see.

B.T.W. if you're wondering, they did not release 'Heartbeat' during their performance at school today. My hopes were in vain.

Ubiquitous Me

I think I might have put a little too much on my plate.

I have been a little crazy trying to work on everything for the project at the same time, since I have to deal with social media, try to get gigs, push them to write a song, schedule myself to be present at rehearsals and shows, etc etc etc. I've been thinking about a lot of details at once and consequently have not done much progress at any specific thing. This ends NOW. I can still think about details and progress in each part of the project, but I need to focus on one thing to progress A LOT ON right now.

So here's the schedule for the week:

Tuesday we're having a photo shoot around Weston to get some good pics for the website and social media. I also hope to set up their YouTube page so we can start posting videos...

Wednesday SOS will be performing at a school event and, hopefully, releasing their new song, Heartbeat. Yay. An opportunity for me to get more footage + listen to the song they want to do the music video on. (I mentioned something amazing, which would hypothetically be linked to this event, but it won't work anymore ~sad face~.)

Thursday we are getting together to do the interviews for the doc video and some additional material for the website+YouTube page! Exciting stuff.  I will be posting an outline of the questions Tuesday or Wednesday.

Friday I'm going to start the skeleton of the website. As concluded from the information above, I am gathering the material necessary to fill the website.

Saturday is my birthday -happy birthday to me- so I will be taking a break.

Sunday is still a mystery, but I will probably be working on polishing the website and seeing what else I need to post on it.

I've decided to work on the website intensively this week because the band is running a little late with the song. There really isn't much I can do without lyrics or a melody. I've been asking them a lot to finish this as soon as possible, but I'm also trying to be considerate of their creative process; I'm not the one writing music... sad as that is.

What's amazing me is that I've found the biggest difference between this year's and last year's project: working with people. Last year was just me, myself, and I, so I could work on my own pace and I not depend on anyone. Unexpected events were limited, specially since all I did was research, decide, and create stuff in a computer. This year I count on four people to make this project happen. I love the opportunity but sometimes hate the idea of not having full control. Nevertheless, it is much more realistic. I know with certainty that I will carry this project not only as a physical portfolio, but as a lesson on how a slice of the music industry works.

My face?

I have one thing to say: WEIRD.

I forced myself to do a vlog because maybe that will help end this fear of filming myself. There's no much introduction, I basically say everything I have to during the video. Only one quick disclaimer: yes, I am using a bed sheet on the background, because the walls of my house are yucky-yellow and I hate them deeply. I needed a white background. Deal with it.
(I know it looks unprofessional *cries* please forgive me).

Enjoy.

Website Wonder

I was between that and 'Website Wun' -like "fun" with a "w". No? Okay.

In my last blog post I discussed social media extensively, since it is an essential part of the work I am doing with the band. What I didn't discuss was websites, because they're not social media outlets. Websites are definitely not as popular with Generation Z as social media, but they're still a big component of every band (and also required by Cambridge). A website is an accessible medium where a lot of information can be compiled for easy viewership, which makes it so wonderful.

I'll be discussing Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cage the Elephant once more and Coldplay as well, but first I'd like to discuss what they all had in common.

Website pages:
- News: a place to keep people posted on upcoming shows, ticket sales, new albums or videos... news on the band
-Tour: even if the band is not on tour, but the three bands I researched are on tour right now. It has the venues, dates and links to buy tickets
-Music: where the albums are posted
-Photos/Videos: could be photos and videos together in one page or split into two pages; the videos are mostly the same ones posted on the band's YouTube page, never content exclusive to the website
-Shop/Store: merchandise and albums! Fun for fans!

The websites follow the theme of the band's latest album. When you think about that it becomes even more clear that the website is very much a marketing tool, a reminder for the people who access it what the band's brand is and also what they're selling at the time.

The last feature I want to make note of is that all websites have VISIBLE icons that link to the social media. Important to keep people connected to the band in every medium possible.


Red Hot Chili Peppers

• One really cool thing is that they have a special website for their live content, where people can browse a venue and buy the show or even single songs. 
• Two things I didn't like were: the pop up tab with all the links to the pages, because I thought it left the social media links rather hidden, and the bees walking around the screen (only because they kinda disgusted me).
• I included the picture on the left so you can have a notion of how the home page is (it's not the whole thing, but a good portion). They include a link to their new album, some news, tour dates, and some merchandise products.
• They follow the pattern of pages within the website, with a few special features:
• In the 'music' page, you can click on each album and the set list will be displayed -till here, nothing new. But then next to each song there is an icon that displays the lyrics to the song. Pretty cool, right?
• They have a page called 'media', in which videos and photos are included, but the photos are completely exclusive to the website, and many of the included are submitted by fans.
• There's something called the "RHCP Community", which gives the fans tour pre-sale codes, exclusive videos and photos, and a fan message board.

Cage the Elephant

Website homepage. I circled the social media links so you can see how well positioned they are.

• The website follows all the conventions with only one thing I'd like to note: in the 'photos' page, you can scroll down and see this

• The icon for their Instagram account is centered and then below you see all the posts from the social medium. It's a way to make the website more interactive by connecting it back and forth to the social media accounts which I thought was very interesting.
• One slightly annoying detail is that when you click the logo you expect to be taken to the home page, right? Yes. But here, when you click on the logo you are taken to the new music video, not the home page. Once on the site for the video you can go back to the main website, but if you're just going through the pages you can't really go back to the home (or maybe you can, I just haven't found how). BUT, annoying or not, it is smart. How? Why? Well...

You are on the music video website and you click on the little mask at the top and this (picture to the right) shows up. As you can see on the bottom right it says "enter site", which takes you to the main website, but before your eyes can reach that link you see all these other bigger links that relate to the music video. It's a very interactive medium that transforms the video into something larger and lasting. I personally loved the storyboards, and "consult the doctor" is a hashtag people can use on Twitter or Facebook to communicate with band. It's a pretty cool concept.

Coldplay
The Coldplay website was my favorite because of the style -it's super cute.

Soo pretty!!

• The big rectangle is a slideshow with links to videos, news, and the album. The psychedelic mix of circles (A Head Full of Dreams album cover) is a link to buy the album on Amazon (interesting). The squares are news. 
• The rest of the website also follows conventions, and like the RHCP's, they have lyrics to each song in an album's page. The bottom has all the links to their social media and it's there in every page of the website.
• The coolest aspect of the website is the 'timeline' page. SO DAMN COOL. 

The timeline, in this case, serves as the 'music/videos' tab, even though the website already has a videos page. As you can see, the timeline is composed of squares, each standing for an event. You can click on a square and a page will pop up with information on the event, displaying videos, pictures, or an interview, maybe live shows (it varies depending on the event). You can also FILTER IT ~OMG SO COOL~ by category (release, article, concert, scrapbook, audio, video, images, interview, blog) and by era (each album).

Aaaand there's also the MAP! It's the same content available in the timeline, just displayed differently. You can still filter the same way you do the timeline, and the same details will still pop up, but you see it by place instead of dates.
Both are really cool, unique means to layout a LOAD of content in an interactive and concise manner.



I now have a clear idea of the conventions of a band's website and some varying ones as well. The research on social media was necessary, as I've already mentioned, and it'll help me set up the accounts, so I can include the links on the website. The band already bought the domain for the website + an account on Wix, so I plan to start working on it this week. I'll probably have the skeleton all set up and fill it up with content as it goes.

P.S. Right after I saw the Coldplay timeline I went ahead and searched how to do that with Google maps. I have already made a selection of 5 articles to read and try to do it on my own... It just look so damn cool.

http://coldplay.com/
https://cagetheelephant.com/home/
http://redhotchilipeppers.com/

The Tale of Social Media

Just a little side note: I've been researching social media SO MUCH lately, with this and the topic for my Global Perspectives research paper being social media and digital news, that I swear it's engraved in my mind. I have read more articles on social media than I've ever thought possible (I'm sure I could read way more but...it still seems like a lot). I am in abstinence from Twitter and Snapchat because I just can't bring myself to use them for now. Time out. But it's been enlightening in a way, scary in others, and reassuring in other others. It's not a bad thing, just a motif in my life right now.

Sorry for the rant. Let's talk about the hot topic.

I decided to do this post because, as I've said before, I'm going deep into this project. I am being an overachiever. It's okay. Draining, but okay. Therefore, I am engaging with the processes of social media and how it creates image, serves as a marketing tool, interacts with the fans, keeps a band/artist alive, etc. Fascinating stuff. Of course, to fully immerse in it and grasp the concepts I had to do a LOT of research, so I went ahead and chose a few bands to use as my case studies.

The basics of each social media for bands are:

• YouTube: used to post music videos, "behind the scene" material, interviews, live performances, and recently "track-by-track" (will discuss it further)
• Twitter: news! The news that people will see when they are scrolling down their feeds, such as concert dates, new videos, album release, etc. Makes up for people not checking the website every single day,
• Instagram: lots of cool pictures from shows, on the road, during recording sessions -you name it! Even some videos, but short ones -previews or sneak peaks. 
• Facebook: acts like a website. There's pictures, videos, tour dates, news, everything. When people like a page they will get posts from that page on their feed and they can also choose to receive notifications. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Been talking about them a lot, I know. I swear I was never a huge fan of RHCP, even though I liked their songs, but what can I do? They are really useful for me right now. I think the biggest thing with RHCP is that they are a immensely famous band which has been "alive" for a long time now. I wrote an essay last year on music marketing using them as one of my case studies, and I discussed how they are able to keep the fan base from the origin of the band in the 80s and attract newer generations.

• YouTube: 2.42M subscriptions. They did this cool thing on the platform that seems rather popular nowadays, which is the "track-by-track". They are a series of videos interviews with a band member, each exploring how a song of the album was created (they look like the picture to the right). They even had some "extra" ones, with topics ranging from the video I posted above to preshow rituals. 
• Twitter: 2.17M followers. They had the whole #TheGetaway trend going on previous to the album release up to now, since they're going on tour. 
• Instagram: 1.5M followers. Post some really random stuff that's also really cool.
• Facebook: 26.35M likes
• Tumblr: their Tumblr basically serves as a website, only there's no pages separating the content. It's a useful tool to connect with a younger, more alternative audience.
• Mobile Roadie: whaaaaat? I know. This is an app that people can download straight on their mobile devices and have all of the RHCP they want. A lot of companies and some other artists like Taylor Swift use Mobile Roadie. It serves as an app for the dedicated fans to keep updated on... whatever it is. 

Cage the Elephant
They are an alternative rock band from the U.S., who, for some reason, is now located in England. This really sucks for me, a big fan, who can never get a concert date because THEY ARE SO LIMITED IN THE U.S. Couldn't even get their last album when it was first released. Pure rage. But no hard feelings...

• YouTube: 200k subscriptions (but they get 2M-5M views on music videos). They did something similar to RHCP, but instead of calling it "track-by-track" they called it "webisodes". The major difference is that the videos were more "artsy" -and I'm very sorry for using this word-, including recording sessions footage, not simply one interview with one band member. The webisodes started about a month before the release of the album and went on to a day before. Good way to build up to the release and make fans more interested. What I don't like about it is how it focuses so much on the vocalist -no other members ever talk. But they're short videos, something that I could do as well that wouldn't be so time consuming. 
• Twitter: 1.27M followers. 
• Instagram: 258k followers.
• Facebook: 1.6M likes.

One Direction
On our first group meeting it was suggested to me to research a bit on One Direction and their marketing through YouTube. So I went on and did that, which is why I'd only be discussing YouTube for them and no other social media.

• Video diaries: in the beginning, One Direction used to record a lot of video diaries with group members by themselves, group members together. Some were just vlogs, where the member would talk about (check the one to the right for a topic). They had a whole 23-minutes video of an "ask:reply", which was first done live through VEVO and later posted on their YouTube page. Those also included interviews with the boys and behind the scenes during their tour.
• Bring Me To 1D: fans received golden tickets to go watch One Direction live in an acoustic session. The whole event was recorded and posted on YouTube on various episodes.

The idea of the video diaries is a pretty cool one, and it resembles the techniques used by RHCP and Cage the Elephant I mentioned. The biggest difference is that it doesn't only focus on the music but it also gives a background to the members of the group, a way for the fans to connect to them more. They also seem very honest and personal since they're like vlogs.

That's all I wanted to address in this post. This process of enlightenment on social media has been a long, tiresome one, but I know it's for the best. It's very important that I understand the different uses of each social media, and how I can use them for each of my specific needs. Through the case studies I was also able to get some ideas...

I have something amazing in my mind, but I won't say anything right now *soft evil laugh*. It'll be a surprise

surprise.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Getaway_(Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers_album
https://youtube.com/rhcptv
https://twitter.com/chilipeppers
https://instagram.com/chilipeppers
https://facebook.com/chilipeppers
https://chilipeppers.tumblr.com/
https://mobileroadie.com/apps/rhcp
https://www.youtube.com/user/CageTheElephantVEVO
https://twitter.com/cagetheelephant
https://www.instagram.com/cagetheelephant/
https://www.facebook.com/cagetheelephant
https://mobileroadie.com/app-gallery

Meet the Band

I've decided to post a little bit on my progress this week, so here it comes.

This is Rafael, the lead singer.

I started the project a little bit earlier than everyone else in the course because of my "doc video", which is going to take a while to film. I've already discussed it before in the blog, but here's a little recap: for the video I need to collect footage of the band in different concerts, rehearsals, and I'm still going to have interviews with each member. I've been to four events so far plus one rehearsal, and I think I got some good footage so far. Of course, the more the merrier, but I'm off on a good start, especially because after the group meeting we had this past week I've decided to keep it short. As I was talking to my peers, they mentioned that maybe the video should be some sort of introduction, a "meet the band" type of thing, and that I should keep it shorter and then expand on it with social media (I'll discuss that on a later post).

My vision is to have one song (an original song by them) as the base, playing through the whole video, and have some inserts without sound in some parts. Those inserts would include the interviews, some moments like the first and second videos, interactions with the band, small things like that. The rest would be the different venues they played in, with a variety of shots and movement to keep things cool and fun. The third and fourth videos I filmed thanks to my boyfriend after I said "I want to go earlier to the show so I can get them setting up", and when we got there he went ahead and said "why don't you film it in fast motion?", and I did. I actually liked the result a lot and I want to get more shots like that, but haven't had the opportunity since. I figured this could be some sort of opening and closing to the video, but I'll decide once I start editing. 

The last video is a my small "meet the band" for the blog, because I noticed I haven't shown anything of them so far. I thought it would be nice to show their faces, their style, their music (even though this is a cover of The Beatles). This video I actually shot in 4K, which if I told anyone they'd probably say "WOAH, so cool" and honestly me too... before I actually did it. I can't even view the video on my computer -too much. I had to upload it to YouTube so I could watch it. After that, no more filming in 4K, I'm lowering it a notch. (But I gotta say, the quality is BEAUTIFUL). 

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, some Surfing on Saturn. I continue to follow them around like a proud mom, until my weeks are over (the weeks for the project, I mean). If you ask me, it is actually really nice: I got in for free at the Lightning Oscars and at the last concert -when I filmed this last video-, the guy organizing the stage said "you walk in and out like you're part of the band". And you know what? I almost feel like that is true. 

Do you think that's how this guy felt?

Almost Famous, by the way. If you don't know that... get your life straight.

ULTIMATUM!

After this week's meeting with my teacher, she gave me a look when I said I hadn't thought about the music video yet, and I knew in her mind she was saying "why not kid, that's the major task!". When we were done with the meeting, she said "get to work on that music video". I took that more as a command than an advice, but you know what? I appreciated it, because I really do need to.

I told myself that I could postpone the process of the music video until about two weeks after the start of the project, but that's passed. A while ago. I started this in December. I'm pretty sure it's been two weeks. So I am giving myself an ultimatum and requiring some thought on the music video. The only problem? I don't have the music yet. The band wants to do their newest song, called "Heartbeat", but they don't have the lyrics, or melody, completely done yet. I'm trying not to be annoying to them because I don't really know how the creative process of creating a song works, but I also need the song. Without a song, I can't really create a music video.

So what I am doing for now is searching for inspiration. I'm watching many music videos on bands with similar styles to SOS (and even some different ones), and trying to find a light. Maybe if I find some characteristics I like then it'll be easier for me, when the time comes, to come up with a good idea for the video.

I've been doing some research, and now I wanna talk about some specific ones that caught my eyes.

SIDE NOTE: I will showcase many music videos, so don't feel obligated to watch all of them until the end. But the first one -watch the first one.

'Breezeblocks', by Alt-J.  They are an alternative (very alternative) rock band, and I personally like their music a lot. When I asked the boys in SOS about their inspirations, this was one of the first names they mentioned. This music video is directed by Ellis Bahl, and it is extremely well produced. I love the idea of it (you'll get it when you watch it to the end) and was especially impressed by the editing -AMAZING. I think that if I take any inspiration from this video is the editing, with the going back and forth between shots of the current action and the water dropping, and the pace matches the pace of the music -with the fast action peaks coinciding with the song. Also, the camera movement is AWESOME, perfect to not make it seem repetitive.

'Red Hand' by Walk Off the Earth was also directed by Ellis Bahl. (To be completely honest, after watching Breezeblocks, I looked Bahl up and watched all of his music videos. Ops.) What I most enjoyed about this music video, like Breezeblocks, was the editing. BEAUTIFUL, beautiful. This video showed me that I don't need to be ultra creative with the content of the video, but I can make it super interesting just by having 'creative editing'. 'Creative editing' is a term I just created to describe the type of editing in "Red Hand", which is composed of fast cuts, reversing and repeating shots, and using fast and slow motion. There is only one setting with a limited amount of props and they don't change clothes at any point, yet the video keeps the audience engaged through the editing.

Red Hot Chili Peppers is a band that the SOS guys (I like how this sounds, SOS guys. I know they'll hate it though, sounds like a boy band) said that has a style similar to theirs. I've seen many RHCP music videos before, but I felt 'Dark Necessities' met my necessities (get it?). I like three things about this video:
1. There is no clear story line to the narrative part, it's just girls riding their skateboards -which is still pretty cool. Still, the video is interesting and there is a narrative part to it, so it doesn't get boring with only promo.
2. This is a half promo video, and like many other RHCP videos, it showcases all of the band members. There are shots of the Chad (drums) alone, Flea (bass) alone, so on so forth. Anthony (vocals) does have more "alone" shots than the rest, making him sort of the front man, which brings me to
3. Anthony (I know, I'm on first name basis with all of them) does not star the music video as a character in the narrative; instead, there are actors for this, which makes all the members (almost) equal in the eyes of the public. We still see the lead vocalist more, but it's not an unnecessary more.
I'm not sure number 1 is a route I want to chase, but if I do decide on a narrative/promo, it's a better looking option. Numbers 2 and 3, although, are very much characteristics I want to have in my music video.


I have two videos by Cage the Elephant now, which I like very much. Their style is very much alternative, and their music videos often take... weird routes. The first one, 'Come a Little Closer', I like very much because of how they mix animation with live action. It's very psychedelic and trippy (I'm not advocating the use of drugs, just to make it clear), with multiple different bright colors being used together, fast moving images, and no real reason behind the choice of characters being showcased (a burning lion, the shadow of a woman, undefined creatures?). Of course, realistically speaking, I won't make an animated music video because that's simply TOO MUCH WORK and I'm not that good of an artist, but I like the disjointed shots and the colors utilized in this video. The second video is 'Ain't No Rest for The Wicked', which is probably a more feasible route for me to take. What I like so much about this video is the style. The whole thing is supposed to be a film, which can be seen through the film burns that appear sometimes or how it skips shots sometimes like projectors do. Not only that, but the background is being projected at all times, showing different settings -that's a cheap, easy, and creative way to create different settings when in reality you're only using one. Both videos are also strictly promotional and still very creative and engaging. The only characteristic I don't like is how the singer is obviously the front man,and even though the audience still sees the other members of the band, they are left on the background at all times.


I guess that's enough music videos. I can for sure say that I have a vision now of what general characteristics I want to follow, and which ones I don't, and I even got some cool ideas for my video, to make it different and interesting.

As I've said before, don't feel obligated to watch all the videos to the end, but if you do, I hope you, dear person who's reading this, enjoy them.


http://ellisbahl.com/musicvideo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVeMiVU77wo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bt-FHaFVH8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oIoR9mLwc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKtsdZs9LJo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVYup3Qwh8Q