Final Nova website link

https://hollyjconnell.wixsite.com/nova - Final Nova website

Website tour

What makes a great musicians website

What makes a great musicians website from Holly Connell

Magazine cover feedback

This is our Magazine cover feedback it shows the positive and negative feedback of things we could do to improve on.

Feedback for first draft of music video

Our teacher gave us feedback of how we could possibly impreove our music video.

- 39.05 + 1.02  - my love - Nova sings out of time with song

- Contemplated if the mug should be used 

- 1.19 - blurry

- Shot of Nova in a dress is very pixelated and does not fit with the other shots, so we completely removed it. 

- The shot at 2.23 needs to be longer

- At 1.31 the lip sync is off

- There are 3 weird shots - eyes, spoon, shivers, sofa shot dissolves

- 39.05 - lip syncing out

Analysis of last part of the music video

This part of the video is the first draft of the last part of the song. Towards the end of the song the music changes from a more upbeat tempo to a contemporary abstract sound which creates a clear contrast. This can be reflected in the style of editing which we have used to slowed down the pace and length of shots to match the slow pace of music. A variety of editing effects have also been used to suit the style of music such as speed reverse this is used in the shot where charlotte is dropping the petals. The close up of the lava lamp has also been edited to drop at a slower pace in time with the music. Another feature that we have used to match the abstract sound is the different use of camera shots which creates a distorted representation this can be seen in the shot where Nova is leaning over the bath, this is a low angle close up shot where the audience is made to look up at Nova, it can make the viewer feel quite uncomfortable as its an abstract shot which has not been used before in the music video. In this part of the video Nova is also seen to 'break down the fourth wall' where she is beginning to engage with her audience and is aware where they are watching, we also done this to juxtapose with the start of the video, where Nova is performing and is unaware there is an audience. The last part of the song heavily contrast to the rest of it, therefore we felt that Nova should also change in order to exaggerate this concept. This reflects in the idea of making Nova aware of her audience and using more closeup shots. 

Digi-pak feedback

This is our Digi pack feedback. This presentation shows the positives and improvement feedback we received and the improvements we made as a result of this. 

Nova merchandise research

Include Include

Mark scheme and music video comparison

Mark scheme and music video comparison

This is the mark scheme for level 4 which is the top band within the mark scheme. As a group we felt that it was important throughout the process of creating our music video to constantly look back at the top band mark scheme in order to secure the best marks and achieve a high grade.

Here is the mark scheme for level 4....

Level 4 Criteria 32-40 marks

Level 4 

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: 

•  shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
•  recording and editing sound with images appropriately
• Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.
• 
  

So how does how video fit into the top band?

Our music video is creative and unique. Our filming footage is of excellent quality including a range of angles and shots to create help portray the theme of our music which is 'wonky funk'. We have consistent mise en scene throughout the video through the use of specific props such as fairy lights and balloons. These props have also been used on all other forms of media products such as our digi - pack creating synergy amongst our media products. 

The use of editing in our music video fits well with the song, the first half of the song consists of quick beats therefore all our cuts and transitions fit in time to the music making the video fit in time to the pace of the song. The last part of the song slows down and heavily contrasts to the first half therefore we have picked up on this and used editing to show the contrast. The cuts were slowed down and shots were shown for longer, we also used colour correction to add colour to certain shots to highlight how the song as changed and in addition so had the artist. Other editing techniques used include reverse and mirroring.

Costume inspiration

In our music video, Nova is presented as the "fashionista" type, always wearing extravagant, over the top outfits which frame her attitude.

We used different sources for our inspiration for Nova's character and outfit.

One inspiration was Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga is renowned for her courageous and out-there looks.
In the picture below, she is photographed in a large fur jacket, similar to Nova in one of the music video looks. (Also in the picture below)

In the second look for the video, we imitated the pop singer, Dua Lipa's style - specifically in this case, monochrome and red. Dua Lipa is known as a fashionable young artist who sparks inspiration in her care free yet polished style. 

            We implemented Dua Lipa's style in the outdoor shots of Nova. The heels with a monochrome and red               outfit is another one of Nova's main styles within the music video. 

Dua Lipa also implements neon lights into her performances and images.

Above are images of Dua Lipa's use of neon lights in her performances.

These are the pictures of Nova with the coloured neon lights used in our music video.

We also used more of Dua Lipa's style in the shot above with the use of flowers as a prop. We applied this style by having Nova bite the flower, like Dua Lipa in the shot above.

Lastly, Demi Lovato's bath look in her music video for her song Sorry Not Sorry was our inspiration for our own Shots of Nova in the bath, The comparison is seen below.

Song inspiration

During the deciding process of choosing our song, we made it clear that we all wanted a fast pace, up tempo pop song. After perusing through different mini genres within this genre of fast pop, we decided that we wanted a song with 1970s/80s style pop.
Below are some tracks which we liked the sound of before choosing NAO's Nostalgia.




Night Fever by the Bee Gees is a classic within the realms of 1970s pop. This song has a similar beat to Nostalgia, noticeable by the fast beats and "funky" sounding instruments used.

 
Next is Michael Jackson's Beat It. This song is from the 1980s pop movement which additionally has a similar beat and tempo to nostalgia. NAO also has a similar sounding voice to Michael Jackson's - due to both being sopranos and singing in a higher register.

Once listening to these songs, we decided to use NAO's Nostalgia ultimately. This song had attributes of 70/80s pop which is what we were aiming for in our song.


Here is the audio to the song we chose for the final music video

Music video inspiration

This music video by Katy Perry for her hit song California Gurls was one which as a group, we agreed was of inspiration for our music video for Nova.

The music video collectively is similar to ours for Nobody Better by Nova due to the colour scheme used, which is predominantly purples, with dream-like imagery.
 Additionally likewise to Nova's, there are a lot of shots which are alike, such as wide shots of the protagonist laying down, tracking shots of her walking forwards and backwards, and numerous shots of the scenery and surrounding objects in order to break the narrative. The video also shows a lot of Katy Perry lip syncing the song, making it more of a performance video, like Nova's.

Marketing Inspiration

Rihanna is a large advocate and believer in free marketing and advertisement for her music and her brand. A key way in which she implements this ideal is by advertising herself through her social media accounts.

Previous to when Rihanna had released her number one album, Anti, she created a hype for her fans by posting ambiguous pictures on her Instagram account. Rihanna currently has 58.7 million followers and has an average of 900,000 likes per photo, proving her major fan interaction. With this scale of interaction, her social media is a perfect platform for advertisement.

One of Rihanna's main marketing campaigns for herself and her brand within this year of 2017 was the release of her makeup brand of Fenty Beauty. Rihanna is already a successful music artist, yet this year, she created a larger audience than just contemporary R&B and pop lovers... makeup lovers. By utilising a successful, inclusive makeup brand, Rihanna was trending on twitter and YouTube for numerous weeks. This lead to an inevitable spike in the amount of people purchasing and streaming her music. 

Rihanna advertised Fenty Beauty through uploading continuous images and videos of her makeup and other information about it. 

Rihanna additionally opened an Instagram account exclusively for her makeup line. From opening on the 1st of August 2017, it already as 2 and a half million followers by December of 2017. This rapid climb in followers proves the effectiveness of social media advertisement.

This style of social media advertisement and marketing is something which we have implemented for Nova. By creating both Instagram and twitter profiles, this has expanded the audience and awareness for Nova, similar to Rihanna.

Digipak inspiration

The images above show the digipak for the artist Rihanna's Loud album. Within these images chosen for the digipak, our group has found inspiration in the colour scheme - Nova's digipak is primarily purple colour schemed, whilst Rihanna's has similarly got purple tints on the photos.

Above is an image taken from Nova's final digipak - this is similar to Rihanna's Loud digipak, attributable to the rose theme. Noticeable in the bottom three images of Rihanna's digipak, where she is photographed in front of a rose bush, which is similar to the use of the rose in Nova's rose image, especially with the same predominant red colour use.

First draft evaluation

We presented the first draft of our music video to our class and we received a mixture of positive and critical feedback.

Here are some examples of positive feedback we received:

• "Lots of really nice editing."
• "I loved how the shots became distorted in correlation to the video."
• "There use of bright colours goes in hand with the nature of the song."
• "Editing flows well throughout - suits genre and her image."
• "360 with the dogs is very effective."
• "When is goes slower, I like how all visuals link with the pace."
• Creative and interesting shots that clearly show the artist image."

Here are some examples of critical feedback:

• "Some of the shots were used a few times."
• "Gets slightly repetitive at the end of the video."
• "Sometimes too many close ups lip synching."
• "Not many transitions, mainly straight cuts."
• "The shot with Nova on the sofa with the bubble bath image above didn't flow as well as the other editing."
• "Leg and fairy light shot is used quite a lot."

Website research

As described by Nova herself in her interview, Blondie has always been an inspiration of hers from a young age for her music, performance skills, and style and image.

Blondie's website was rated number 6 highest on Winning WPs '25 Top Examples of Incredibly Famous Celebrity Sites' 

The website has clear synergy throughout the monochrome and red colour scheme which is continued across the website as a whole. This quality of synergy is an aspect of which we have implemented into our own website for Nova by using a purple colour theme.

Another admirable aspect of Blondie's website is the Video tab, found centre on the navigation bar. This page on the website presents all of Blondies music videos in order of popularity. Despite Nova only having one music video - due to being a new artist - this style of displaying the artists music videos was one which, as a group, we all expressed approval for

Digipak inspiration 2

Here are two styles of album advertisements in the form of posters. Both artists are single female performers the same as Nova. The artists themselves are the main focus of the posters and all attention is therefore drawn to them.

Rihanna - The main theme of the poster consists of the colour red which helps to tie both the images together. The layout is very simple with a main picture of Rihanna and then the actual image of the alum cover in the bottom right this is a way of advertising the album by showing her audience and potential customers what the album looks like. The font and text is easy and clear to read and includes the name of two of her singles featuring in the album which helps to create 'hype' around the album and appeal to her audience who may have already heard the songs.

Lana Del Ray- The poster for her album 'Born To Die' is a simple yet effective layout. The main picture of Lana is eye catching and bold which will appeal to her existing fans encouraging them to purchase the album. The colour theme also fits together with blue sky background linking to the blue text.

Overall both poster advertising their albums consist of a simple layout with little text which makes it effective to a consumer who needs to be attracted instantly into buying the product without having to read to much. Having the main images of the artists reinforces the 'star image' which appeals to fans.

Digipak album poster

This is our Digipack album poster which will be used to advertise Nova's album "Nobody Better". It will be used in music stores such as HMV to attract customers who are already looking to purchase music related products.
The design of the poster is quite simple using the main image of Nova to create the 'star image'. We have used the colour theme of purple which helps to create synergy across our media products. We have also used the same font text which is used on our website, digipak and magazine cover to create parallels between the products and create a recognisable image for Nova. Following our inspiration from Rihanna's poster we decided to also include the actual image of our album cover and include the names of two singles featuring on the album, in order to create excitement around the new album as fans may have already heard Nova's single and are intrigued to hear more.




Here you can see the poster we designed for Nova's album and our inspiration from Rihanna's album poster. Its clear to see that we used a similar layout as we felt the template was clear to interpret,  we also liked how Rihanna had incorporated her red theme and decided to do the same using our purple theme helping to create synergy with our media products.

Tour Dates poster inspiration

The above two images show tour dates poster for Ellie Goulding and Little Mix.

Ellie Goulding is the main image of the tour poster creating the star image and a recognisable image for her fans and viewers of the poster. Her name is featured at the top of the poster in a large easy to read font. The template is simple and clearly states the dates and venues of her tour which makes it easy for an audience easy to interpret. The theme of the poster is focused on her but also portrays a colour theme of pink/purple which shows synergy across her media products.
For Nova's tour poster, we will incorporate some of the concepts Ellie Goulding has used such as using an image of Nova as the background and making sure the size and font of the text is clear to read.

Little Mix has also used a simple layout for their tour date poster. The use of bright bold colours such as the blue, pink and yellow are eye-catching and help draw attention to the poster. The name 'Little Mix' is also bold and recognisable to an audience. The list of tour dates and venues is well represented and portrayed.  At the bottom of the poster it also features the day and time the tickets will be coming on sale which is very useful and helpful to those wanting to purchase tickets.

Tour dates poster

Here is our first draft of Nova's Tour date poster for her album 'Nobody Better'. We used the background image as Nova as this particular image has been used on the digipak, website and magazine cover, therefore, it helps link our media products together by creating synergy. It also creates the 'star image' of Nova and a recognisable image to her fans and audience.

We designed a simple poster for Nova with the aim that it would be effective and eye-catching. We used the same font throughout the poster which can also be seen throughout our other media products. The difficulty we faced when designing the poster was that the background picture is dark in quality so it can be hard to clearly see the white writing.

When creating the poster we did take in ideas and concepts from our inspiration posters such as Ellie Goulding's tour poster .......


 

We took inspiration from the layout of the tour dates especially how the month and year was in bold we then used a similar template using the date above the venue.

Tour poster 2

This is another tour poster we designed for Nova. This poster shows our colour theme which is purple, the main background image was a photograph taken of a sparkly pink bottle which was used as a prop, it also featured in our photo shoot. The design is a simple layout with Nova's name and album name in big bold font which is easy to read and eye-catching. We used the same font for all texts as it shows clear links to our other media products such as the website. One improvement we could make to the tour poster would be to make the size and colour of the texts more obvious to be see as it can be quite difficult to read the text. We also incorporated an image of Nova onto the poster so she can be recognised instantly by her fans, this image can also be seen in the music video which helps to create synergy.

The synergy of Nova

Editing techiniques

Before we begun the editing process for our music video for Nova, we all established that we wanted the final product to be very slick with fast paced cuts and a use of different effects throughout.

In order to learn this, the person in charge of editing (Anneka) had to research and learn the techniques for this desired outcome. Anneka watched YouTube tutorials for her preferred learning style.




Above is a video which Anneka learned some effects to implement into the music video. From this YouTube video, Anneka used the mirror/ reflection effect (mirror), and the colour hue change (colour balance HLS). The mirror effect was used variously throughout the video, and colour balance HLS was used within the latter part of the video.




Secondly, an effect which was used majorly throughout the video was Warp Stabiliser. As within the filming process we did not use a tri-pod and it was mainly hand held filming, some shots were inevitably shakier than we had preferred. Anneka researched into methods of smoothing out the shaky footage, then learned how to use warp stabiliser. This effect is used on almost all of our shots in the music video.

However, it was then discovered that once warp stabiliser had been added onto a clip, you could not change the speed. Anneka research found that if 'nest' was added onto the clips, it allowed the videos speed to be changed also.


Another major effect which was used in the music video was the use of zooming in and out on clips desirably. This was particularly predominant within the latter section of the video, of which the outdoor dancing shots are quickly zoomed in and out on the beat of the music. Anneka used this video to learn this editing trick, of which she successfully applied to the video.

Location Analysis

In our video, we wanted the emphasis to be solely on Nova, as it was a performance video. We wanted the locations to be minimalistic and simple, in order to remain the audience's focus on Nova herself, and not the backgrounds and locations.

Our five locations were:

• outdoor in front of foliage
• Bathtub

• Indoor conservatory on sofa

• 
  
• Outdoor in residential street

• In front of fairy lights

As you can see in these screenshots, Nova is the main emphasis of each as they all have plain backgrounds, which make her and her outfits stand out considerably. 

Social Media inspiration

On Nova's social media accounts, she is portrayed as a bubbly and fun celebrity who interacts with her fans. We decided to create this persona for Nova as she is a new artist who requires fan support in order to expand her brand and self.

An artist that we gathered this friendly, interactive persona from is Jhene Aiko. Jhene is a singer who is known to interact with her fans over twitter.
An example of this is in the screenshot below:

Despite her fame and success, she as always remained humble and ensures to reply to her fans. This is something which we administered on Nova's twitter:

In the image above,  Nova is seen tweeting her fans and writing tweets addressed to just her fans, similarly to Jhene.

Filming techniques

In order to create the desired effect that we wanted for our music video (sleek and polished), we had to research into how to do some of the shots which we were aiming to recreate.

One shot which we wanted to implement in our music video was the 360 shot. This type of shot is one which tracks around one singular spot in a full circle (example below).

In order to recreate this type of shot, we put the person filming (Holly) in a desk chair, whilst Anneka spun Holly around Nova as she filmed her circumference.

The creation of this is exemplified in the image below.

Another technique which we used was low light filming. We used this in order to create the purple hue in the bath scenes. Using low light additionally made the camera focus more on glow sticks and neon balloons, which was the desired look that we were aiming for.

Here is an image of what the bath scenes would have looked like if they were filmed well lit with flash or additional lighting, instead of low light. As seen in the image, the bathroom does not have the same purple hue and the light up balloons and glow sticks look dull and washed out.

Whereas in this screen grab taken from the video where we did not use any additional lighting (and if we did, it was on a very low light), the whole scenery has the desired purple hue and the glow sticks stand out compared to the darker background. 

The camera we used was the Canon 650D. This camera is of high quality and allowed us to make the most of our filming and our filming techniques.