Songs on Album

In order to progress further ahead with the digipak, we came up with some names for the rest of our artist's songs on her debut album:

(in no specific order)

• PRAY (EMPTY GUN)
• WILD HORSES
• RIVER
• THE WAY I DO
• BE YOUR LOVE
• ROLLING DICE
• ALONE
• WHITE BLOOD
• DEAD MAN'S ARMS
• LOVE TO HATE IT
• WALK THIS WAY

The songs are predominantly taken from real Bishop Briggs singles, however we have also included certain songs which inspired us along the way such as MØ's 'Walk This Way' and Offbloom's 'Love to Hate It', for example.

Cleaning up the cut

Having produced the above rough cut for our focus group (of which the feedback was very positive), I made a few final touches to our video (namely changing the lengths of some shots, adding a few extra cut-aways and finally colour coding it all, as well as changing the framing of our video for a more polished final cut).

For instance, I extended the shot of her opening lipsync slightly so that she was able to finish each of her sentences before the video cut to one of her group members, as this gave the cut a cleaner look whilst still retaining its role in highlighting the beat with each cutaway; and I also included a close up as to cover up a continuity error previously seen with the mid-shot.

Another change made was with the framing of the video itself. The inclusion of a cinematic, black border made the video look more professional and polished, and was as such added.

The door opening towards the end of the song was another aspect of the video which I cleaned up, as I was advised it to make the cut more obvious (despite the continuity error of the lollypops).

Finally, the colour coding of the video was also something which we viewed as significantly touching up the video. To do this, I had to individually correct every single shot and make it cooler, as right from the start of our project, this was the look which we wanted to achieve.

Below is our final, finished product of which we are all very pleased with:

Creating a logo for our artist

Having decided what we needed to change about our products following the focus group last Friday, Hannah made the bold decision to make a new website from scratch instead of just developing upon her rough copy, as she claimed that the template was restraining her creative freedom. Consequently, we delve into our previous research as a duo and decided that the convention of our genre of choice was for the website to be somewhat overly simplistic in style - something we originally snubbed but now decided was the right way to go. In particular, we thought that Charlie XCX's, Lorde's, and MØ's websites were similar to what we thought would best suit our artist.

For MØ's website, as an example, the layout is aesthetically pleasing and very easy to use, with each link sending the user to a new webpage. However, across these multiple webpages, there is a similar visual style. In particular, her logo. The same can be seen of Charlie XCX and Lorde. Consequently, we decided it prudent to make a logo for our artist.

Hannah began drawing a few ideas down on paper, which I then tried to recreate on Photoshop:

I started with writing down SIOUX's name in Futura font - the meaningfulness behind this, the fact that as a group we have decided to use such a font across all of our products in order create a sense of consistency and coherency.

Effective, but basic, I then researched some free online snake templates which I could use. Despite the fact that the focus group didn't like the snakes originally, once they found out it was related to the meaning behind her name (which they loved) they were all much more onboard with the idea. By including snakes in her logo, our logic was that the idea would be even more well received the next time around. Equally, by including snakes in the logo it would compensate for all the snake memorabilia that we are then going to remove on the digipak and such.

Finding one, I imported it into photoshop and therein colourised it, so that the previously red snake template became green.

I then placed this image above the text of SIOUX.

Visually, I now thought that I had achieved a fairly effective logo, although it was still somewhat too simplistic for my liking. As such, I doubled the text layer and then painted the writing the same colour as the snake's light green underbelly, placing it below the black text as a form of reverse shadow.

Pleased, I then selected the dark green pattern of the snake and added some extra detail to the reverse shadow.

At this point, I was happy with the logo and contemplated stopping there. However, upon reviewing Hannah's original drawings, I noticed that the snake weaved within the letters of SIOUX's name. Consequently, I sorted out my snake accordingly and declared my logo finished for Hannah to use if she so desired.

Focus Group Evaluation

Hannah filmed the focus group which took place on Friday afternoon whilst Fran took notes and our friend Rosie presented the session. I was not present:

Feedback regarding the Digipak:

• Our focus group compared the artist to Lorde, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.
• They thought the genre was indie-pop, but may feature a depressing tone or even a rap element. 
• It gave off a high fashion, attitude-heavy 'bad girl' vibe.
• They recommended including a spray painted element on the digipak given its relevance in the music video, and they also wanted more of a green colour palette to make the products more coherent.
• The digipak was noted for being different to the website and video, many calling it 'too dark', and the snake elements that were included made very little sense (until they found out what the name meant - the name of 'SIOUX' itself being universally enjoyed by the focus group).

Feedback regarding the Website:

• They thought the website was high-end and "exclusive" with many enjoying the colour scheme. 
• However, the images did not mach the style of the digipak; the website alluded to a more Adele, 'soul' styled singer-songwriter rather than the 'bad girl', attitude indie-pop artist as seen from the digipak.
• They also wanted a more gender-balanced shop, but liked the design of the snake.
• With the exception of the aforementioned pictures, the website was otherwise viewed as being generally, fairly coherent with the digipak, with some also believing that it was somewhat coherent with the video itself as well.
• They recommended a spray paint element to be seen on the website as well.
• Most thought that perhaps the website was 'too refined' for the elements included within the video, and proposed it became more 'street'.

Feedback regarding the Video:

• There was no feedback offered as to how we could improve the video.

Evaluation:

In general, the feedback was very positive. Whilst all three products were really enjoyed individually, as a collective they thought unity was lacking, and we (as a group) agree. Moving on from this focus group, we are going to develop our products so that they are incredibly coherent to one another in style and attitude, and to do so, we are going to review our products based off how well they represent our artist's star image qualities: youthful, rebellious, cool and chilled.

Specifically, we are going to make the digipak more colourful and less snake-orientated, as otherwise the correct genre and attitude were given off; it simply needs to be more 'youthful' which will be achieved by a more animated and colourful design. Regarding the website, we are going to simplify it further by getting rid of all texts (such as the biography), and instead make it more visually striking. In similar fashion to the digipak, we are going to make it more youthful through colour and animated designs, as well as making it less 'upmarket' in order to reaffirm this 'bad girl' attitude which we showcased in the video. In terms of the video, we are merely going to give it a final polish.

We are purposefully going to ignore their recommendation to include more spray painting on the digipak as it is an element within one video of our artist's album and not something which encapsulates or displays her identity or persona.

Questions for our focus group

Given how we are not presenting the focus group, but instead having someone else (whom doesn't know our products very well) host the session, we have made sure to come up with some evaluative and precise questions in order to ensure that we are able to collect the very best and most useful results.

The reasoning behind such specified and carefully thought out questions is so that participants are encouraged to give worthwhile and detailed answers, rather than just 'yes' or 'no' statements. We are not looking for validation, but instead ways in which our three products can be further developed for the most successful outcome.

The purpose of a focus group

The Oxford Dictionary describes a 'focus group' as being:

We believe it is important to conduct one for ourselves, given as some outsider opinions and information may enable us to view our product with broader minds and thus develop them better. Also, given how focus groups are often relatively expensive to conduct, one can place a certain weight and value on the data which they receive.

The main thing is that a focus group is conducted before the products are finalised, so that they can be changed and adapted in accordance to the feedback received. Therefore, we have decided to present our rough cut versions of each of the three products to our focus audience. It is also important that the participants of a focus group reflect the target audience of the products, and so for this purpose, we have selected to use a class of AS Media Students.

Watching an extract from a Simpsons episode for pointers as to how to conduct an effective focus group, we made notes on the following:

The main things we noted were that the director of the focus group often asked closed questions which required merely a yes or no answer. They failed to reveal much information and didn't allow participants to explain as to why they liked or disliked something. Equally, the questions were somewhat leading and directed, making the value judgement type question redundant.

Learning from this, when running our own focus group we will have someone whom has not been involved with the development of our products, to host the session as this will keep it unbiased as we realise how important it is to gather genuine qualitative data and not swayed or influenced results. Equally, we have supplied our 'host' with a set of fair, unweighted questions which should provide us with successful answers and effective steps in the right direction!

Rough drafts of our three products

Having been informed that we are to present rough products of both the video and our two ancillary products in a Focus Group on Friday, we cracked on in getting these so called 'rough cuts' together.

Regarding the CD Digipak, Fran made the following:

(Layout: front cover, inside left, inside right, back)

She also printed off five physical copies for our Focus Group to look at:

Hannah finished off a rough version of the website (somewhat lacking in photos and information, but nevertheless functioning):

And I made a rough cut of the video (not colour coded but otherwise there):

We will be presenting these three products to a class of AS Media Students tomorrow during our lesson and asking some carefully invented questions as to ascertain the best possible feedback. Hopefully they will be able to help us make our products better and come out with three totally coherent and stylish products to be proud of.