FINAL PRODUCT

1. THE MUSIC VIDEO : 

2. THE DIGIPAK : 

The Digipak Version 1

The Digipak Version 2

3. THE SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE : 

Pre - production - Documents

 SCRIPT

All of the details that indicated what will happen in the MV has been written and developed in this spreadsheet. This include the timestamps, lyrics, plot, visuals and some notes about the camera shots, lighting and more.

( Backup link for the pdf : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gJZ2bX8uxmK0q7XMPvbFU-WxZM27oJXk/view )

STORYBOARD

The storyboard will be the one that portrays the sequence throughout the music video. Some of them may not follow in a logical orders but there will be description below each boxes. 

OTHER DOCUMENTS FOR THE SHOOTING

TALENT CONSENT FORM : 

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE : 

FILM PRODUCTION RISKS ASSESSMENT

THE SOCIAL MEDIA

• THE VISUALIZATION : 

The idea of the social media page of mine was quite simple, yet creative, as the idea of the layout is to have 3 match cut rows of photos, which will be uploaded according to the order of the photos. The newest posts of the page will be photos of the digipak mockups, which present in the traditional way. 

• THE FINAL PAGE : 

The final page was designed through a template provided by Mr.VZ. Through Adobe Illustrator, the design procedure went smoothly and didn’t cause many issues. The page is covered with blue and purple, which are the 2 main colors of this music video, therefore this page matched not only my music video, but also the ancillary product of the project. This means that we have successfully maintained our sense of branding for both the ancillary product and the music video.

THE DIGIPAK - PRODUCTION DIARY

PROMOTION PACKAGE RESEARCHES

POST - PRODUCTION DIARY

Following three challenging and tumultuous days of filming. Now that I can finally open

Davinci, work with my team, and start editing. Because of my lack of experience

and familiarity with Davinci editing, I am expecting a very simple post-production process,

consisting of five rough cuts altogether, for our "Butterfly Music Video Project."

Fortunately, Nub, a member of my D.O.P., has given me help in this regard.

1. ROUGH CUT 1 : 

I have my first editing trial on DaVinci Resolve, which is a great software for editing video,

especially for color grading and cinematography in general. This is a rough cut edit for the

intro of the music video, including some zoom in, focuses and music. 

2. ROUGH CUT 2 : 

The second trial of mine with DaVinci Resolve, where I continued my process with the dancing

sequel. For this part, I’m editing the first part of the sequel, which stabilized the footage,

adjusted the timeline of the video and the music. For stabilization, I used Adobe Premiere

Pro, and with the help of Mr. VZ, the dancing part has been stabilized, which causes no more

shakiness. Furthermore, the process is quite challenging as DaVinci gets lagged quite often

during the procedure, especially when it comes to some small cuts, which are a bit more

difficult to manage the right timeline. However, after this trial, both the footage and the

music were secured with the right timing. 

3. ROUGH CUT 3 : 

For the third trial, there are much more things to accomplish, in which the adjustments of

lighting, zooms and also another part of the dancing sequel, which is at the end chorus. For

the end chorus, there aren’t many elements to be manipulated or adjusted, except for the

zoom, where  I want the dancer to be a bit more closer. The lighting in the footage was dark

enough in order to cover the dancer’s body. 

4. ROUGH CUT 4 : 

This rough cut includes the part where the dancer collapsed, a short footage of the dancer lying

down was added into the timeline. There are not many significant adjustments but through this

rough cut, the dancing sequel part is finished. 

5. FINAL TOUCHES : 

This is the toughest part of our post production since we have to deal with some technical issues,

especially with file corruptions. We have to back up and try with many solutions, however, the

file that we want to get back has gone, therefore we have to edit those things over again, in which

the music video was at risk in terms of being finished on time. We have tried our best to give the

music video the best quality as it can and we put all of our soul and ambition in this, which has

exhausted us for many days. Unfortunately, the result was not as good as expected, as it lack some

of the part, which can't be accomplished.

CRITICAL EVALUATIONS

My music video “Butterfly”, may not be a perfect music video, but it will remain solitarily in my heart since it has given me experiences on filming, script - writing, maybe a bit of directing and film editing. It aims to convey sympathy, understanding, and comfort to those dealing with mental issues and worries. This evaluation essay will provide a deeper understanding of the process and the music video itself.

As aforementioned, The music video aims to provide comfort and sympathy to teenagers who have experienced mental oppression by adults and society's norms. It is particularly relevant to Asian teenagers, particularly Vietnamese, who often face academic pressure to achieve recognition or college admission. This pressure creates an invisible layer of pressure, making them feel restless and afraid to rebel. The video represents the problems of adult expectations and harsh societal criteria applied to teenagers' lives, and the responsibility they have as young adults.

The music video portrays the situation in an abstract and subtle way, with the protagonist waking up in a different place, separated from their soul and bruised feet. The surrounding atmosphere represents a box where the protagonist seeks strength and strength from their own heart. The butterfly symbolizes the vulnerability of young adults who have to retain their concerns and pains as scars.

The music video presents the problems in both negative and positive ways, with 75% leaning more to the negative side. It does not contain many stereotypes, as the first intention was to demonstrate the pain. However, the transformation of the dragon symbolizes a change in the protagonist, as they will never be stuck with the pain forever. In conclusion, the music video delivers the message in both a negative and sympathetic way, while also containing stereotypes.

For the digipak, my initial plan was to design it into 2 versions, each of them having different covers. The first one is the dancer himself, in which I named it the butterfly, the other one is human since it indicates myself, as the fictional artist. The concept photos used for social media pages and the cover will be the same with each other, except for the social media, which have more concept photos been shown. The elements on the cover were simple, as there are not many details, beside the name of the single, artist’s name and the tracks list. The color scheme also follows the film convention, which is Wong Kar Wai style of color grading. However, in order to make it look more somber, me and the D.O.P member decided to slightly change the tone into a more dark and cold tone, it stills emphasize the lightning into the main subject, like how the lightning in Fallen Angels work, the only change in here is the color tone, from blue to dark purple. 

As for my research about artists that have similar genres as mine, for instance, wave to earth, their album design was really simple, as there is only a picture with 2 lines that indicate their name, album title and volume number. My main aim is to show the context of the music video and the song through the image, in which was emphasized more. 

Earlier plan of my digipak

I applied the style of the wave to earth album into the human version, since it’s simple and easy to emphasize the subject in the image. The title on the album was enough to let the audience know what the song is and who performed it. As we can see from the comparison here, most of the layout and the amount of typos in these two covers were little, and they mainly focus on the image. At first, I was planned to create a much bigger, fussily and stunning title, yet, I realized that some of the fonts are not suitable for the theme and the concept, therefore, I chose to follow a more subtle way, which is used a San serif font, more specifically is PP Mori, for the album and artist name in the front cover. 

From left to right

 - 

wave to earth - 01. flaws and all album front cover 

and my “Butterfly” digipak front cover.

For the first version of the album, I decided to edit the concept photos in a style of being shown with spotlights, surrounded by dust, sparkles and glitters. The foreground color will be all black, but the subject and other elements will be white, jotted some gold shimmers as for the sparkles. The typos of this version will also be the same, yet, the typos will only be applied for the back covers, since my intention is to show and portray the beauty of the dancer, also the butterfly figure itself. This cover was also inspired by Crush’s single album - wanderlust, as for the front cover of his album is just a picture of himself with a dog, the picture seems to be underexposed and there isn't much lighting emphasized on the subject. That is the only difference on my album cover, since there is a huge amount of lightning emphasis on the subject. The rest of the album still follows the same concept with the human version. 

After all, the final result of the digipak has achieve the sense of branding, in which it resemblance exactly how the initial plans was created, for instance, the effect on the dancers body in which there are quite excessive lighting and the Wong Kar Wai's influence for the artist featured version of the digipak. They're also similar to the music video, as the evidences are shown below.

Stick to the main aim of the music video, the desire of this music video is to show empathy and consolation to teens who have been subjected to mental tyranny by adults and societal norms.
My aimed target audience is any typical individual, regardless of gender, with a normal appearance and disposition. They are unique with unique hobbies, speech patterns, and fashion senses, yet blend in with their social circles. The audience may be more laid back, preferring to watch them play and smile broadly or silent during small talk, or being caught crying for something that is not aimed for that purpose. They may have held onto things they want to discuss due to frustration, but fearing no one will understand or find it wrong.

The music video main gratification "Personal Identity", explores how people use media, such as entertainment, social media, and self-help books, to understand their identity and place in the world. The video aims to be a sympathetic source for vulnerable people, particularly teenagers, who may be triggered by societal norms and stereotypes. The dragon serves as a metaphor for the dragon, representing passion, talents, and efforts to prove one's worth. The video encourages viewers to sympathize with themselves and not be afraid to change and be themselves. It also serves as an entertainment source, as people can watch the video on YouTube after a long day to relax and enjoy the message. The abstract and metaphorical nature of the video can help people find their true self and overcome societal norms and expectations. 

The music video in this text is not original but mainly influenced by Wong Kar Wai's movies, particularly the use of color schemes and editing. To summarize the conventions, Wong Kar Wai’s traits in most of his movies are the use of color schemes, uncontrollable timeline and the editing. For instance, the main inspiration, the color grading of Fallen Angels was used for the montage, representing nostalgia, loneliness, and urban alienation. The blue color in the movie was used to create a gloomy, melancholy vibe, emphasizing the character's loneliness and helplessness. Step-printing shots were also used for the bridge part, creating a solid and awkward transition. The bridge part features the character running back and forth, trying to escape the "box." These conventions are crucial in the music video, as they help to convey the themes of nostalgia, loneliness, and urban alienation in Wong Kar Wai's films.

The dancing sequel was actually taken inspiration from LOONA’s “Butterfly” music video, as they use small footage of actors doing their solo dances in different places. However, the convention for this sequel is broken due to the location that used to shoot all of the footage. The first element to be broken is the location, as it is filming indoors, not to mention most of the lighting were artificial, except for the last chorus part. The last chorus part also broke the convention, as the dancer was recorded as a silhouette, fully covered in black, none of the lighting emphasized the main subject of the footage. Another convention that were used in the dance footages is a short video of The8 (Seventeen) doing his contemporary dance on “idontwannabeyouanymore (Billie Eilish, 2019)” in which the idea of the spotlight on the dancer was “borrowed” from that. 

The last convention that I used for this music video, from the post - credit scene, the application of dragon scales on the arm. This is actually inspired by the film Luca (Enrico Casarosa, 2021), as indicated to a detail of the arms of Luca Paguro and Alberto Scorfano appeared fish scales whenever their arm was exposed to water. In the music video, the dragon scales appear with no exposure to anything physically, but indicated as a “gift” to transform into something else more powerful and free. 

In conclusion, the overall production went quite smoothly for both filming and designing process. However, I still quite regret the decision of filming the montage in the afternoon, which can be hard to depict the night time atmosphere. Furthermore, I should be more flexible with the design process, which is to explore more photo editing applications to speed up the editing process.