Analytics – Oh look at the numbers! PT2 Artefacts.

Artefact 1 – Short Video (MediaCityUK TimeLapse) 

So far the video has 1591 views, 122 likes and 7 comments and is on 16 playlists within YouTube.

My aim for this video (after looking at other similar videos) was to gain more than 300 views in a week.  I set up a targeted promotion schedule on Twitter and Facebook using the free version of Buffer. I targeted the tweets at local businesses in the area and production companies. This resulted in over 50 likes and 20 retweets and mentions over the week on twitter.

As you can see from the data above taken straight from YouTube, my views were in my targeted area and effective tagging ensured my video appeared in the suggested video section of YouTube – thus gaining more views.

I believe if I kept pushing the video or/and had not made a point of it being for a university master’s degree then it would have gained even more views.

 

Artefact 2 – Remix (John Lewis Advert)

So far the video has 10,876 views which is crazy and has had more views than my other two artefacts combined. I think this is to do with both the content of the video and the time I released it. As mentioned in the blogpost  about the artefact I have exceeded the video length of a minute by quite some way, however this was important to the context of the video to be kept as close to the original as possible.

 

I released the video at 8pm only 12 hours after the original advert was released, I had a very sharp curve after about a week and the video currently features on 171 playlists in youtube and has been shared on all major social networks. As the video it was based on lost momentum over the next two weeks the views on my video also dried up. I feel that if the advert had been better or more in line with what the public were expecting than I would have had more views as a result.  Below is a breakdown by age group of the people who have watched this video.  I was surprised to see such an even male/female split as I was expecting more women to have watched the video comparatively.

 

Artefact 3 – SuperCut (Leonard Cohen)

So far the video has 65 views and 5 likes, this is by far the least views any of my videos have got on this module, a large part of this is down to the fact I didn’t promote this video on any social media and left it to do its own thing.

This artefact was also longer than a minute as it had to be the length of the original song: YouTube analytics state that I had 80% of watchers stay until the last 20 seconds of the video.  I don’t think people would have clicked to watch the video if it had been less than a minute because they would know the length of the original song.

I think I was a little late to make this video as he died on the Friday and I didn’t make the video until the Sunday. It was also highlighted to me that I missed an important tag ‘tribute’ off the YouTube tags section, which means I will have missed out on some traffic.

 

From the data taken directly from YouTube analytics above you can see this artefact has had a wide and diverse range of views, this has probably come from people organically searching for a video similar to mine and it either coming up in the search results or as a suggested video.

 

4 Audio & Sound Design Trends for 2017

1. Sound Editing for 360 VR & VR Video

The biggest news for the media industry right now has been the breakthrough of virtual reality and 360 degree video into the mainstream. Although tech enthusiasts and media experts have been touting the arrival of immersive, 360 degree media for several years, we’ve recently seen a number of significant milestones. YouTube and Facebook began hosting 360 videos, Adobe Premiere now supports VR editing and video stock sites have started stocking 360 media.

Of course, while there’s been a lot of emphasis on what VR means for visual storytelling, these new technologies have also meant a significant change in the way filmmakers, editors, and producers think about sound design in their projects.

An interview with animator Peter Spence about how VR and 360 degree technologies are changing the world of sound editing, he says:

“Creating 360 videos is more like a theater experience than traditional film. To steer the audience, subtle visual trikes have to be used instead of jump cups. The audio has to match that.”

Spence’s biggest takeaway for filmmakers and sound editors is that VR requires a new approach to the storytelling space:

2. Music for YouTube and Mobile

YouTube has revolutionized the way we produce and distribute video, empowering millions of self-made filmmakers and series creators to connect with global audiences, including a brand new generation of video bloggers and YouTube influencers. Although YouTube has been a dominant player in the media industry for years, 2016 saw a number of YouTube celebrities crossing over from the small screen to the big time, with even more breakthroughs expected in 2017.

The stakes and potential opportunities of YouTube success have never been more clear. Popular YouTubers Hannah Hart and Grace Helbig recently starred in the comedy Dirty 30 while Issa Rae, creator of the popular YouTube show Awkward Black Girl, launched her new show Insecure on HBO—which has already gotten a full renewal order for 2017.

3. Rebirth of Radio

From Serial and Radiolab to How Did this Get Made? and Startup, podcasts are here to stay and only gaining in popularity. Harking back to the Golden Age of Radio, this recent re-emergence in audio-only media has highlighted the important role that sound editing plays in effective storytelling.

A podcast’s theme music is essential for branding and setting the scene, and a fitting intro provides either the emotional grip or levity that podcasters rely on when developing an initial rapport with listeners. Podcasts also employ subtler uses of sound, including foley effects and looping tracks that provide listeners with emotional cues. A rhythmic beat can build tension as the plot thickens, or a gentle musical ambience creates a clean segue between segments in a program.

4. Blockbuster Spectacle at Indie Scale

The year’s biggest blockbusters pulled no punches, literally or figuratively, when it came to producing loud, bombastic, and dazzling spectacles. Meanwhile, the majority of the films named as likely contenders for the 2017 Academy Awards—Arrival, La La Land, or Hacksaw Ridge, to name just a few—forefront both the psychologically surreal and the spectacular.

Yet not all of these films had large production budgets. Deadpool’s budget was infamously cut by $7M at the last minute, while this year’s favourite for the comedy/musical genre, La La Land, was made for only $30M, a relatively small price tag for a major box office headliner. When producers and sound designers have to tighten their belts, stock audio sound effects and music are often one of the first places they turn.

Analytics – Oh look at the numbers! PT1 Social Media.

WordPress Analytics

I have a website and a blog that is used professionally, and while some of my blog posts are duplicated a lot are not suitable content for the normal readers of my site – so I had to create a new site dedicated to this module – that’s the blog you are looking at right now!

Above is the wordpress analytics chart for my blog visitors.  The three spikes (Oct 24, Nov 7, Nov 21) are all weeks that I have launched an Artefact, but the 2nd artefact didn’t link directly back to my blog – I think this shows. The third spike is probably due to a review post about the Artiphon Instrument 1 – a kickstarted musical instrument that’s been a year in the waiting.

On my busiest day I had 179 visitors to my blog – this was as expected to the Artiphon review post. I have accessed a wider audience by using tags that get my blog higher on Google searches. I have had a few comments on my blog, one even from an external reader who blogs from America and his blog reflects similar things to my own.

Statistically my best day is a Friday at 2pm, and this could be for a few reasons; one being that it’s during the scheduled class time and other students might be online and looking at their blogs.

Why didn’t I use my normal YouTube Channel? 

I have a professional YouTube channel that I use for work with clients and I didn’t feel it was fair to start this module with 100,000 views and just under 100 subscribers so I used a secondary channel that I don’t promote and save for more experimental work (started for an experimental cinema module in my undergrad degree). This means the views on my videos are related to the promotion in this module rather than any views from people who have subscribed to my channel. You can read all about my YouTube channel and artefacts here.

Twitter & Instagram – why do we care? 

My twitter analytics are rather interesting, while I tweet a bit (I forget!) the module has focused my attention on tweeting (I could still do better), as you can see from the stats above my followers jumped dramatically as well as my impressions. This correlates to the release of my first artefact.

I have used the #MSCRET on Twitter to both promote my own items but also to share fellow students’ work to help them gain higher views. I extended this further by creating a youtube playlist of all the class’s artefact videos (that I could find).

Instagram is another social media I have had for years but really under used, but with a focus on #ing and uploading relevant media I have seen a jump of around 400 followers and 80% more likes on posts. This could still improve, but I don’t own a cute pet and I am not a great cook – so there are limits.

 

What about Facebook?

I opted not to use Facebook at all this semester to promote my blog or artefacts, although I have a large number of ‘friends’ (700+) I didn’t feel it was the right people to target, combined with the fact I have some clients on Facebook and as I have stated before – I don’t want them all knowing I have returned to study.

Video might not have killed the Radio Star after all.

A long time ago, if there was a song you wanted to listen to, you had two options: go out and buy it on vinyl (and then cassette, and then CD and maybe even Minidisk), or turn on the radio and hope that your song might get played.

In the last decade the music landscape has changed dramatically.  Any song can be found online in seconds, you can watch a video (official or not) on YouTube, and from there you can either buy it on iTunes, or stream it on services like Spotify or Apple Music – or do something less legal to obtain the song. It is fair to expect that radio would suffer given all the other choice, but the truth is that it’s doing just fine.

While many radio stations have shuttered or slimmed down their operations over the years, possibly even moving to online or DAB to save costs, it is clear that the industry is still strong, and that there is room for stations and personalities to thrive.

One of the reasons that radio is still so popular in our society is due to its readily available passive nature. We don’t need our hands or eyes to interact with the radio so we are still free to go about and do other things. Most people listen to radio in their cars on their way to and from work, though after those times of the day, the number of listeners drops off as many end up at computers or are busy during the day. Streaming services like iHeartRadio have seen this data, and they are working to make sure that once these listeners leave their cars and get wherever they are going, they stick to radio, though they may access it on a different device.

Another bonus to radio is how localised it can be, you can listen to a global, national, county or even city broadcaster filled with news and views that are relevant to the end users; traffic reports and local events are a staple on any local radio station. Figures show that local radio is often the most popular station in their area. The top 5 radio stations with the highest listening share in their area are Island FM (49.2% of all radio listening in their area is to this station), Channel 103 (36.9%), Radio Borders (34.3%), Moray Firth Radio (24.7%) and Manx Radio (24.6%).  The share of listening in a station’s broadcast area is normally the best way of monitoring how popular a radio station is. This makes it easier to work out how popular the station’s entire broadcasting output is, in comparison to others in its area. [Information from media.info]

Radio is also a format that is easy to access and understand, there are still millions of people who are not online and have not yet tried a streaming service, but everybody knows how to operate a radio. There is no learning time associated with enjoying music, and it certainly doesn’t cost anything to continue to enjoy the medium (other than the Broadcasting Licence that we are required to have to listen to radio). While listening to radio certainly doesn’t offer the same freedoms as selecting a specific song from a library of tens of millions, most people are happy to identify a style that they like—pop, rock, hip-hop, 70’s—and let a curator (in this case a DJ) pick out the tunes from there.

Radio has embraced online life well and adapted accordingly (arguably better than TV) stations or personalities use social media to spread messages, competitions and get engagement form audience that in the past would only have happened via a call in or snail mail. They have learned to embrace the instant nature of social media that reflects and compliments the instant nature of radio broadcasting.

Infinite choice is nice, but judging by the fact that there are still hundreds of millions of people listening to the radio on a weekly basis, it clearly isn’t what the majority of people are looking for.

Sounds Right – a look at Sound Trademarking & Branding

Sound affects us more than we know, it’s an often forgotten medium but sound can make or break a product or production – by having a sound that is displeasing or by not having the sound we expect, it can (and does) turn us away from a product. Sounds can stir up great emotions and feelings very quickly without having to stop the original function of the product, and advertisers are more aware of this than ever.

A sound trademark is a trademark where sound is used to perform the trademark function of uniquely identifying the commercial origin of products or services, much like a visual logo it has to be instantly recognisable and attributed to that one brand. Historically it has been difficult to get a sound trademarked, but this has started to change over the last 10 years as more companies are using sound to get across their messages.  Just like a visual logo, the most essential qualities of a sound logo are uniqueness, memorability, and relevancy to the brand promise.

Some widely known trademarked sounds include:

• 20th Century Fox Fanfare (composed by Alfred Newman)
• Audi sound logo
• BMW sound logos – the first one with a “double gong” and the second one that is the current sound currently used.
• ITV News at Ten “The bongs”
• NBC chimes
• Duracell’s 3-note “coppertop” logo
• Fourscore, the four note audio ident used by Channel Four
• “Intel inside” musical jingle (composed by Walter Werzowa)
• Macintosh startup chime
• McDonald’s Corporation’s 5-note “i’m lovin’ it” jingle
• Nissan sound logos – there were three sounds
• Nokia tune
• PlayStation robot sound (“play-sta-tion”)
• Samsung ringtone
• Sony ding
• T-Mobile sound logo (composed by Lance Massey)
• THX’s Deep Note
• Xbox 360 startup sound/swoosh, created by Audiobrain

The NBC chimes are arguably the most famous sound in American broadcasting, originating in the 1920s, the three key sequential notes are familiar to generations of radio listeners and television watchers. Many companies have tried to trademark sounds but only around 100 have ended up being accepted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office — and NBC’s iconic chimes were the first.

Sound branding

It gives a brand an additional way to break through audiences’ shortened attention spans. Sound branding (also known as audio branding, music branding, sonic branding, acoustic branding) can tell you whether the brand is romantic and sensual, family-friendly and everyday, indulgent and luxurious all without ever hearing words or seeing a picture. This is crucial for brands as the rise in two screen viewing means that the audience hasn’t always got its eyes on your adverts but they are likely to still be listening.

The sound logo (or audio mnemonic) is one of the tools of sound branding, along with the jingle, brand music, and brand theme. A sound logo (or audio logo or sonic logo) is a short distinctive melody or other sequence of sound, mostly positioned at the beginning or ending of a commercial. It can be seen as the acoustic equivalent of a visual logo. Often a combination of both types of logo is used to enforce the recognition of a brand. An example is the T-Mobile logo and ring tone composed by Lance Massey, or the Intel logo composed by Walter Werzowa.

The PlayStation start up sound is something really special to me, it’s an instant warm fuzzy feeling at the PS1 sound – it catapults me back to my pre-teens, but I love the audio resonance of the PS3 sound: it’s organic and rounded and swells like a tide, it sounds less electronic than its predecessors showing that machines are now more advanced than ever before.

The sound logo leads to learning effects on consumer’s perception of a certain product. A melody is the most memorable sequence of sound, since, when a melody starts, the human brain automatically expects the ending.

Radio and television stations create their own audio identities using melodic themes to strengthen their brand. Notable examples include the short variations of the BBC Radio 2 or Classic FM jingles. In recent years, television station idents have also introduced their own audio identities to strengthen their brand recognitions, most notably Channel 4 who have theirs trademarked.

The video below is a great short romp around some really recognisable sound logos (most of which are trademarked) and why they are the way they are featuring two sonic branding experts explain the thinking behind some of the world’s most recognizable sounds, Andrew Stafford and Steve Milton.

 

OkGo – Experimental Video Rock Stars

An American rock band originally from Chicago, OK Go is composed of Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross. The band is known for its often quirky and elaborate one-take music videos. They had mild to middling success until they started making more interesting/experimental music videos.

OK Go has become famous for their creative and often low-budget music videos, most of which have been promoted through YouTube. Many of these have become viral videos including the 2006 video for “Here It Goes Again”which won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2007. The band performed a complex routine with the aid of motorized treadmills, and has received over 50 million views on YouTube four years later.

 

 

The band’s video for Needing/Getting, released February 5, 2012 in partnership with Chevrolet, debuted during Super Bowl XLVI and has over 32 million views on YouTube.  Many of the videos also use long or single-shot takes, which Salon‘s Matt Zoller Seitz claims “restore[s] a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers’ humanity shine through and allowing them to do their thing with a minimum of filmmaking interference“.The success of OK Go’s music first won the band the 14th Annual Webby Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year.The video for “This Too Shall Pass” was named both “Video of the Year” and “Best Rock Video” at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards.”This Too Shall Pass” won the LA Film Fest’s Audience Award for Best Music Video,UK MVA Awards – Music Video of the Year Winner 2010, among others.

The band has worked with directors including Francis Lawrence, Olivier Gondry, Brian L. Perkins, Scott Keiner, and Todd Sullivan. The videos have been screened and displayed at museums, art galleries, and film festivals around the world including the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and the Saatchi & Saatchi New Director’s Showcase.

 

 

The video for “I Wont Let You Down” is objectively the first to feature the use of a UAV drone to film a whole music video. There are many other examples of OK Go pushing the boundaries between music video and experimental art (stop motion toast being particularly memorable), companies give large sponsorship to them for features in their videos or for them to be in a stylized ad campaign. Their blend of inoffensive middle of the road indie music is greatly uplifted in the public domain by viral videos which are in themselves a very clever marketing tool. I think it’s fair to say no one would remember OK Go if they hadn’t got on their treadmills back in 2006 and their subsequently more interesting (and expensive) videos that have followed.

 

 

Their most recent video focuses on the super slow-mo trend that is both a hit on YouTube and with the general consumer as more and more devices can record at higher frame rates. A large amount of planning and calculations has evidently gone in to this video to get the sound and visual synchronization. What’s perhaps most impressive is how well they managed to sync up the song with the incredibly fast “events,” of which there are exactly 318. So how did they do it?

“We used very precise digital triggers to set off several hundred events in extremely quick succession. The triggers were synchronized to high speed robotic arms which whipped the cameras along the path of the action,” Kulash explains on the band’s official website.  “Though the routine was planned as a single event, currently no camera control systems exist which could move fast enough (or for many sections, change direction fast enough) to capture a movement this long and complex with a single camera, so the video you see connects seven camera movements.”

This spreadsheet consists of  dozens of connected worksheets feeding off of a master sheet 25 columns wide and nearly 400 rows long. In Kulash’s words, it “calculates the exact timing of each event from a variety of data that related the events to one another and to the time scale in which they were being shot.”

On top of this intricate web of events, many were shot at different speeds. Each section was shot at a constant rate, but between the events they toggled from one speed to another.

Kulash breaks it down further: “When the guitars explode, we are 200x slower than reality (6,000 frames per second), but Tim and Andy’s short bursts of lip sync (Tim twice and Andy once) are only 3x slower than real life (90 frames per second). The watermelons are around 150x, and the spray paint cans are a little over 60x.”

 

Artiphon Instrument 1 Review

Finally after much delay and anticipation my Antiphon Instrument 1 arrived last week!

‘The Artiphon INSTRUMENT 1 is a single device that can be played as a guitar, piano, drum pad, synthesizer, and many other instruments. By connecting the INSTRUMENT 1 to smartphones, tablets, and computers, people of all skill levels can choose from an always-expanding palette of sounds.’ That was the blurb on the kickstarter page that caused me to back it waaaaay back in 2014.  As someone who loves music but isn’t really that good at making it, this really felt like my jam. It’s like a keytar for the 21st century, and I have had the thing a few days now so I felt it was time to share with you all my feelings on my new musical companion.

They raised over $1.3 million from 3,391 backers from over 70 countries which is impressive and is still the most funded musical instrument on Kickstarter to date.

Diagram of the Instrument 1

In the Box:

I ordered the gig edition so it came with a handy carry case and strap (which is a must). The box was sleek and professional and everything you would want to get in the post. There is a lack of instructions which could be annoying for some but a quick visit to the website sorts that out.

It felt and looked like the Artiphon was something special, the build quality was good and it doesn’t feel fragile or like anything is going to break in a hurry.

My unboxing of the Instrument 1

The App:

Its important to note I have only tried the app on the iPhone 6s but it works well (even if it is a bit of a battery hog).  It’s clear and easy to use, and so far hasn’t had any issues with crashing. It would be nice to have an easier way of sharing and viewing other players custom set ups though – but these are things that can come with time I am sure.

In my hands:

It feels nice, solid and like a music instrument, it’s not too heavy but it does have some weight to it.  So far I have had the most luck playing it holding it like a guitar and using the iBow setting; I really want to master the violin style of playing but more practice is needed for that I think!

The speakers do distort if you put them to maximum and play some of the deeper sounds, it’s a little irritating but something that’s easy to work around. I have noticed on one occasion one of the strings/frets sticks, but its not something I have managed to replicate so I am hoping it was a glitch and nothing more sinister in the build. I personally preferred doing all the settings in the app rather than on the built-in dial, but both worked well.

The tone and pitch of the instrument 1 is something really beautiful, something you can’t fault it on is its sound replication.  It is never going to replace a guitar in recording sessions nor would you pick it over a real drum kit and sample pad, but what it does allow for is more realism than a standard midi device or a keyboard.

Where the Instrument 1 stands out compared to other MIDI instruments is you can just sit and play; I could happily lose an afternoon or weekend to just making silly music on it.

My Instrument 1 gig edition in white

Recording:

So far the Artiphon has made its way into two projects that I am working on: a remix and an audio post production for video. I recorded differently for both. In the remix I plugged it in to the desk via the headphone jack to XLR. It sounded good, there were no faults – it was quick and easy; I also tried it with a DI box and that worked really well too. No complaints there.

When I tried using a external mic to pick up the sound it was a little trickier given the location of the speakers, I had to stand very still and very close to the microphone which after a few minutes was a little uncomfortable. But all in all this process was OK and I would do it again if no other option was available.

Digital Recording Desk

Instrument 1 in the Studio

Final thoughts:

The Instrument 1 is fun and functional, it takes some getting used to and more playing will have to be done to find the real limits, but I look forward to that journey. My only real niggle is that the carry case doesn’t fit the charger plug in very well which is something that could be solved with a little extra room in the case, but that is by no means a deal breaker for me. I look forward to learning this new instrument (and make no mistake it is a new instrument) a lot more in the future.

Below is the first prototype from 2013, and below that the kickstarter video that got me to part with my cash.

 

Pop Culture Megamixes – Artefact 3

I love supercuts (a.k.a pop culture megamixes).  They are great ways to ingest large amounts of data in a short space of time. Like, seriously, I think they can be beautiful.

A supercut is a compilation of short video clips of the same type of action, and the purpose is usually to create a comic effect. The word was apparently coined by Andy Baio, in a blog entry in April 2008. He defined it there as a “genre of video meme, where some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage.”

Supercuts have transcended; in the last 10 years they can come out of the dank belly of the internet and meme culture and are now recognised as a media format of their own.

But why do we love supercuts so much? I think there are a couple of reasons for this, for one it buys in to our love of lists (and we all know the internet loves lists – here’s looking at you BuzzFeed) secondly it allows us to relive the best bits of something again without having to watch the whole product from start to finish. Wanna see a selection of all the best cuts in Strangers Things? There is a supercut for that; wanna see a selection of the best examples of the Heroes Journey? There is a supercut for that; wanna see Tom Cruise run from every film he has ever been in – guess what? There is a super cut for that too!

Looking at supercuts in more detail has spurred me on to make my own supercuts, not just as my 3rd artefact but as a thing that I do beyond this module. So to that end- below is my first SuperCut Showdown dedicated to the late and great Leonard Cohen.

Interesting side note, Ian saw my video and that spurred him on to make his Remix Artefact.

Since making the supercut above I have made another based on the Oxford Dictionaries Word Of the Year list.

Media for the Masses

Media and the way we consume it has changed. We have seen a bigger shift in media creation, publishing and consumption in the last 5 years than we have in the last 100.
Traditional media, or as some refer to it “Old Media”, has been used for years – decades even. These forms of communication are the steadfast ways that people have reached both consumers and other companies for decades. It’s all been the same – a person/company talks at you via the chosen medium (be that TV, Radio or Print), you absorb it, but don’t send anything back. Basically if it’s passive or printed it’s now classed as traditional media.  You could argue that its analogue media – but I don’t have time to try and explain that.

New media is the future, but it’s happening now.  Ultimately, new media refers to content that is easily accessible via many different forms of digital media: online streaming (radio and television), social media and the web in general. The difference with traditional media is simple: it’s faster and cheaper than ever before to be the one creating content rather than just consuming it. Your average Joe is not just consuming media they are also making it and the balance of power has shifted from One mighty person/company dictating to the masses to now the masses talking to the masses. 

The future is interesting, with kids now (both Gen Z and Gen Alpha) being digital natives, second screen stars and permanently (knowingly or not) media creators. Do they even register media in the same way we (Gen X and Millennials) do? Do they even register the traditional way media was created?