Critical Reflection

Evaluation

During the process of developing and creating this live performance project, I have learned a lot about what exactly is involved in developing, planning, preparing and putting together a live music performance. There have been ideas that worked well, and some that failed and I have found certain promotion techniques successful and others less so.

Visual Djing Projection

I am really happy with the visuals I managed to create for this performance. I believe they really added an extra dimension to the performance and aided in establishing a distinct brand and aesthetic for myself. The Resolume software was also a great addition to the project as it allowed me to manpiulate the visuals live and in real time which made them a lot more interesting to watch.

I am also really pleased with how I utilised my handmade midi controller to manipulate the video, and how easily compatible it was with the software. I believe having something I made myself that nobody else has adds a certain unique quality to my performance.

Stage Presence

I feel my stage presence really improved during the preparation for this project, mainly due to the amount of trial performances I did during which I was able to try out new ideas and decide which tracks I would play and in what order. It also allowed me to become more comfortable on stage, especially the performance I did in London at the beginning of April. I received a lot of great feedback for it which definitely boosted my confidence a lot.

I also feel that doing so many performances in preparation for the main one gave me the opportunity to get acustomed to setting everything up as quick as possible. This benefitted me greatly, as by the time the final performance came around I was able to set up really quickly and efficiently.

Strengths and Weaknesses

This project I felt overall went really well, it helped me gain some valuable skills I can apply and take forward to future projects. It has given me a valuable insight as to what is required to carry out a successful live perfomance utilising visuals and projection. By creating the entire project from scratch, including the ideas, compositions, marketing, and design, it showed me just how much time and work needs to be set aside for creating something of this scale. Every phase of the creation required lots of planning, experimentation, prototyping and attention to detail, and it was very difficult at times being responsible for so much at once.

My strengths throughout the project I feel were my designs for the projections. I think I was successful in creating a strong visual brand, with a well designed logo that was also unique. I’m pleased that each track had its own video that was well timed and in sync and I feel each one was atmospheric and I think it visually reflects the music very well and I was able to create the strong aesthetic that I first set out to achieve which also appeals to my target audience and brought the performance to life and added depth and character to my sound.

There were a few technical difficulties during the perfomance which seemed to be caused by the Resolume software glitching. After the performance I tried figuring out what caused it but I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary with the project file or my midi mapping, and I had managed to rehearse the complete set with no issues many times prior so it is a shame that something malfunctioned. I will be sure to learn a lesson from this for future reference.

My biggest weakness besides the technical difficulty I think was time management. I feel I spent a lot trying to settle upon an idea and used a lot of time researching and developing concepts that I didn’t end up following. This was detrimental later on in the process and I feel that time could have been better spent.

Conclusion

If I were to continue working on this project or to do it again I would have managed my time better and probably created more detailed videos. Whilst I’m really happy with how they turned out I feel I could have added a bit more to them, and in the future I also aim to get more familiar with Resolume in order to utilise more of it’s many features and effects in order to create more interesting and diverse visual manipulations.

I would also develop the effects on my vocal pedal too, as there is a custom effect option I have never used that allows you to create your own custom setting for vocals. I feel this would improve the performance as it would allow me complete control over my vocal distortion.

Finally, in the future I would like to bring another musician on board for future performances. I feel this would take some of the pressure off me, and having someone at the laptop would make dealing with any technical issues much easier.

Stage Hand

Stage Hand

Over the three days of rehearsal for the final show, I took on the role of stage hand. This involved helping with the setting up and moving everyone’s equipment to where it all needs to be, along with helping plug everything in. I feel confident that I managed to ensure the changeovers between acts went smoothly and figure out the most efficient way of manoeuvring around with the equipment, ensuring for the quickest set up and take down routes.

I ensured I noted down the channel/line numbers for each persons equipment, allowing for easy and smooth set-up of the tech. By knowing for example that bass was going into EMO DI to channel 4 it made it easy to detect and fix any problems the bass may have encountered without needing to fuss around trying to find where it was routed to. I also made sure to note down all of the equipment each act was using to make sure everything was ready to be set up in advance and nothing was missing.

I feel confident that I was helpful in making the show run smoothly and on time by being organised and aware of each individuals project.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design

During preparation for the show I took on the lead role of designer. This made me responsible for creation of the logo and branding of the overall show. Once we’d decided on the name Flux Collective, I began working on possible fonts and themes to create a logo. I created multiple designs in Photoshop, revolving around different themes and colour pallettes. Once I was happy with a handful of first designs. I posted them up on social media for the rest of the class to have their input.

The most popular designs were the white and black ones pictured above. The rest of the group seemed happy with simple line work design and a very synth-wave, 80s, minimalist approach so, with this in mind I went onto develop these two. I began editing different fonts and different images, and as many of the group requested more colour in the design, I also incorporated red into later designs.

The biggest issue with all the designs was settling upon the right font. I tried out numerous designs, that were ranging from bold, italic to faded and distressed. After awhile it was agreed that the finer, thinner fonts just worked better with the logo so I started trying out fonts that matched this description.

With the above image settled upon, where everyone seemed happy with the overall design, it was at this point I was able to move into the final stages of the design, simply making small changes and incorporating feedback such as adding a little red, defining and shaping lines with colour.

This was the final design, I am overall really pleased with it. The development and progression went really smoothly and I think I did a great job at incorporating everyone’s ideas and feedback. I went onto design several posters for various shows on the build up to our final performance. This one as you can see was for the Gwdihw show on 20^th of April.

Along with designing the posters to the events of Flux Collective, I also designed the merchandise, which consisted of t-shirt prints. For this, I went back and made small tweaks to the final design, ensuring all the settings were suitable to print the right size. I also made sure that the design was made with a transparent background to be able to apply to t-shirts.

S.W.O.T Analysis

S.W.O.T Analysis

Strengths:

A major strength of my project I feel is my aesthetic. I feel I have created a strong brand with distinguishable visuals that I feel could be easily recognizable as my work. I feel I managed to get the visuals and music to really compliment each other. Another strength of my performance I believe is that it is extremely atmospheric

Weaknesses:

My main weakness is stage fright and nervousness when performing as it impedes my stage presence. I feel my performances would be better if I was more confident. Also my time management, as I could have progressed a lot quicker if I planned things out more.

Opportunities:

I feel the biggest advantage that my performance has is that it is quite unique due to the use of visual DJing. I also feel my handmade MIDI instrument adds to this, and it also gives me a lot of freedom to perform as a front man whilst manipulating visuals in real time. I don’t think anyone else is going this right now so, I feel that is the biggest opportunity for me that it is rather unique.

Threats:

Technical difficulties, relying on software there is always a chance of technical issues to arising, especially when working with relatively new software to me. I feel that would be the biggest threat to my project. I am hoping to give myself enough time on the software to feel confident in being able to use it efficient. Another possible threat to my project is working with DIY instrument, there is a chance that it could possibly stop working or start deteriorating before the final show.

Further Performances

In Class:

This was an early demonstration of my final idea for my performance. This was one of the first times performing with my DIY controller after setting it up to manipulate video footage instead of sound. I got given some really good feedback from this performance, which really encouraged me to keep with this idea and develop it a lot further.

Gwdihw:

The Gwdihw gig I felt went really, really well. I mainly focused on working on my stage presence and persona to be able to perform confidently, as this is something I have struggled with. I feel I achieved a major breakthrough for my performance, as I really felt on ease on and comfortable whilst performing. It also gave me a clearer idea of how I wanted this project to progress and the running order of songs.

https://youtu.be/kSHcRq0NHeA

https://youtu.be/_BUN1kThQyk

London, Electrowerkz:

I was very lucky to be offered an amazing opportunity to open for an established act called Assemblage 23, in London early April. Elecktrowerkz is one of the few large scale venues in the UK specializing in experimental and alternative music. It was a really incredible experience being able to open for a band with such an established fan base. The venue were unable to accommodate my visuals as their cables for the projector were not compatible with my laptop, and because of this I couldn’t use Resolume either. It was unfortunate but I still feel the performance went very well, and I got a lot of great feedback from it.

https://youtu.be/wZUiLvbqpEk

https://youtu.be/g0Bm8yhEmDY

Final Rehearsals

When it came to the final rehearsals, I felt confident after performing regularly. I was also able to set up relatively quickly. After the London show I also made sure to purchase cables of my own to prevent future complications. I also invested in a cheap and small compact projector to allow me to rehearse at home. This really helped when it came to my performance as it allowed me to practice more often and be able to feel confident working with projection.

https://youtu.be/UbbYuMN8hk8

Promotional Plan

Promotional Plan

During the promotional phase of the show I will utilize all social media platforms such as, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram to spread the word. I will incorporate hash-tagging on these services in order to find potential listeners by searching for terms that relate to the sort of performance. I am also planning to gradually release images and little promo teaser trailers, to simply build a sense of intrigue and anticipation for the show. Visual content is extremely important, especially within a genre like witch-house, and I feel you can say far more using visual aids than you can in words so, I plan to create a strong visual “brand” and aesthetic for my work. My stylistic choices are really going to need to reflect the music, as I feel it’s what’s going make it reach it’s correct audience.

Here are a couple of links of visual teasers I put up:

https://www.facebook.com/DimethoxySTP/videos/1831759660183063/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2snwxTDRYk

From research I carried out I found that most artists that release this kind of experimental electronic music try and keep it “underground”, as it is very niche and has a small audience not intended for mass appeal. Especially in genres like witch-house it is normal for artists to keep their releases small and limited, often throwing some symbols, numbers or punctuation marks in the middle of titles for people to find it harder to come across. This is done with the intention of keeping their audience/fan-base small but dedicated. I intend to go along the same sort of lines, keeping the release small. On the more important social media posts, I plan to “sponsor” them, which entails paying money to further the reach of a post to targeted individuals with similar interests based on their profiles. This will allow me to reach a slightly larger audience.

Idea Development

Idea Development

For my final performance I’ve decided I want to really develop my previous idea but take it a bit further. After looking into VDJ performances, I would like to incorporate this into my performance. I will utilise a midi controller that I made myself, and use it to control video, editing and manipulating visuals in real time. For this I started looking into using the software Resolume Arena, and found it fairly straightforward to use. It allowed me to midi map visuals as easily as midi mapping music in any DAW software.

I also plan to keep using an effects pedal on vocals during my performance. The vocal pedal has multiple effect options such as reverbs, distortion etc which I can switch between for certain songs. I feel the vocal pedal just works with the experimental music I am creating, and it helps me achieve a distinguishable aesthetic and sound.

Moving my performance forward and thinking of the lighting for my show, I plan to have very little lighting from the front, in order to highlight my visuals. I am considering having a UV spot light on me and cold colour lighting the rest of the stage, just to create atmosphere and make the show feel a bit more immersive.

Stage plan:

For my stage plan I want the projector to be in the centre of the stage, projecting on to a large backdrop screen. I want to position myself just right of the projector not to obstruct the visuals. I’ll need a lightweight portable laptop stand, that could possibly be a music stand simply to hold the laptop.

Technical Requirements/Equipment List:

1x Laptop Stand

1x Laptop

1x Vem Box Vocal Pedal

1x SM58 Microphone

1x Projector

2x DI Boxes

1x Midi-controller

1x Uv/Black-light 

The Set-up:

Female to Male XLR connecting the microphone to the pedal. Jack to Jack cable from pedal going straight into DI. Mini-jack to stereo jack from laptop to DI and micro-USB to USB from midi-controller to laptop. For the set up I will also need a long HDMI cable going from the projector to the laptop.

Wider Listening & Inspiration

Research

Whilst researching visual performances, I came across visual Djing (VJing) Where DJ’s would use software to perform live editing in real time, which synchronized with music and sound. After finding some example I researched it further and was inspired to incorporate it as a major part of my final performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEsmpUNqH88

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m2IvEkw82k – DMC Visual DJ 2015 Entries.

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After researching VJing I came across the software Resolume, which is the renowned software when it comes to Vjing. I first began looking at simple tutorial to get a better insight of how complex the software is. After looking at a few tutorial I felt confident taking on a project and being able to learn it well enough in time for my final performance I watched a lot but these two were very beneficial to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaI58fPP_BQ – How to Start VJing with Resolume.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6XJ2OQmBTY – Zyper VJ Tutorial

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A great simple yet effective project I came across that used Resolume, that had results I felt confident I could achieve within my project in time for my final performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I4Qqrx0OIY – Astrobite – Lolipop

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One of my favourite pieces I came across that used resolume that I know I’d never be able to achieve by my final performance but I’d love to one day achieve. I think it is beautiful with extremely strong visuals and aesthetically matches the tone and mood of the music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b01K5HpGVy4 – RITUAL (live performance) from Flore & VJ team WSK

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This is a piece of work I came cross that I took major influence from. Another project that uses Resolume but manipulates footage and creates a unnerving atmosphere and is almost unsettling to watch. A simply yet effective AV project. That just edits and manipulates video in such a way that you feel uncomfortable, although the visuals are not necessarily dark. It is just executed in the perfect way. I am hoping to capture this exact atmosphere in my performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqtDC8gmVI4 – Narracje Festival (HD live rec.), AV performance: Inside

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Another inspiration for my final performance is this multiple chapter VJ performance call ‘Broken Planet’. This taught me a great technique of pre-editing videos on editing software first. Which lead me to pre-edit a video together in After-effects before importing it to Resolune shaping up my final performance. I found this project to be really effective and some of the techniques used I really want to incorporate in my final piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oIA7WYT42E – War VJ Performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sy8gaHALm0 – Addiction – VJ Performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he6Spu3jJy0 – 7Sins – VJ Performance

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I came across this performance, which is totally along the lines of what I want to achieve in my final performance. This performance uses old movie clips and found footage, manipulated and edited together to create a VJ piece of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpTiTI-_2CE – Girls Will Be Ghouls – Live VJ performance by Val de Vil

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A beautiful teaser trailer for a VJ performance. I feel this would be the best way to promote and market my performance, simply releasing little aesthetic teaser trailers to capture audiences attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mRywtlAsSc –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FntpUtFKss – Addicted with Perc and DVS1, 11.05.2012, VJ Performance Teaser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7EOOzsE1Ok – African Techno Dance (live video performance) Demo Cut

Production Evaluation

During the process of developing and creating this E.P. project, I have learned a lot about what exactly is involved in independently releasing music. There have been ideas that worked well, and some that failed and I have found certain promotion techniques successful and others less so.

Composition and Production

I am really happy with the overall sound of my E.P. My compositions were designed to almost flow into eachother, as if it was one long piece in four movements. I made use of repeating certain motifs in several of the pieces to give a sense of development and continuity along with utilising the same dark mood and dense electronic textures for all four pieces. The outcome of the compositions remain true to my initial ideas.

On the production side of things, I think I manage to capture the feel I aimed for with my influences. I feel my producing and mixing did my compositions justice. I did a lot of research and development on mastering techniques in order to really bring the music to life and raise the quality. I spent a really long time in the post production phase, trying out many different plug ins and effects before I was happy and think all of the time and effort was worth it as I am pleased with the results.

Promotion and Marketing

The promotion techniques I outlined in earlier plans were successful to a degree. As this project is a seperate entity from my normal solo music, I aimed to keep the release small scale. I’m happy with the visual teaser materials I created, and they were well recieved. I had a lot of engagement from them and they have proved to be an incredibly useful promotional tool for future referance. Social media platform Instagram was the most succesful platform for visual marketing, as the website is purely based on the sharing of photos and video and the people who use it will naturally be drawn to aesthetically pleasing materials.

Design and Packaging

The design process for the packaging of the E.P was a really enjoyable phase of this project. I intended to have a really strong branding aesthetic for this E.P. that was both distinguishable and appealing to fans of the experimental/witchhouse genre. These genres typically involve a lot of dark and esoteric symbolism often relating to religion, secret societys and the occult and so I took influence from this sort of imagery when designing my artwork.

I settled on a cover design that was simple but still conveyed a strong sense of aesthetic that related to the music itself. The final design consisted of a triangle logo with a forest silhouette at the bottom. For the physical copies, I had an initial idea to have the disc be presented in a luxury box in place of a standard jewel case, but when creating a mock up for this it didn’t quite meet my expectations. This along with the fact that the real boxes would be expensive to have made lead to me try out some different ideas.

I also played with the idea of having a really simple card sleeve for the disc also. I made further mock ups with a range of different cards of varying textures and thicknesses.Once again none of these were quite what I wanted as some were to thick, some were too textured and distorted the design etc. I finally decided to try printing my packaging onto tracing paper, and I really loved the results. The transparency of the paper made my design look rather ghostly, which suited my branding perfectly and was a unique and interesting effect. For the disc itself I chose a black CD to burn the music onto, once again to make an interesting visual look to it, and I used my home printer to print my triangle logo onto the top of the disc.

Conclusion

This project I felt overall went really well, it helped me gain some valuable skills I can apply and take forward to future projects. It has given me a valuable insight as to what is required to carry out a successful music project. By creating the entire project from scratch, including the ideas, compositions, marketing, and design, it showed me just how much time and work needs to be set aside for creating an album. Every phase of the creation required lots of planning, experimentation, prototyping and attention to detail, and it was very difficult at times being responsible for so much at once.

My strengths throughout the project I feel were by design work and my production. I think I was successful in creating a strong visual brand, with a well designed logo and packaging that was also unique. Im really happy with the physical copy I made as I think it visually reflects the music very well and I was able to create the strong aesthetic that I first set out to achieve which also appeals to my target audience.

With my production I am really happy with the quality I achieved, and feel it really brought my compositions to life and added depth and character to my sound. I am pleased that all four pieces have a continuity to them that gives a distinctive style to the E.P. I look forward to continuing to develop my mastering technique in order to make even better sound quality in the future.

My biggest weakness I think was time management. I feel I spent a lot trying to settle upon an idea and used a lot of time researching and developing the initial idea I had which I ultimately ended up scrapping, This was detrimental later on in the process and I feel that time could have been better spent. Despite this I feel happy that I gathered enough information whilst researching my initial idea to be able to make the executive choice to adapt and change my idea to make the content more palatable for audiences. I feel if I had settled upon and idea sooner, I might have been able to keep the “visual album” aspect to my intial idea which would have offered a much deeper exploration on the E.P.’s themes.

If I were to continue working on this project or to do it again I would have managed my time better and created video to go along with the album. I feel if the E.P would reach its full potential as a multimedia piece and creating music videos for all four tracks would be a very interesting and fulfilling experience.

Marketing & Release Plan

Marketing & Release Plan

My project will mainly be a digital download release, although I also intend to create a limited run of made-to-order physical copies. The platform I am going to use to release the E.P. is Bandcamp, and I chose this in order to make use of their “name your price” function which allows people to set their own purchase price based on what they can afford. I think this feature is a great ideas, as I have a hard time deciding how much my music is worth and I like that it allows people from all backgrounds to support a project within their means. I would consider any payments to be more like donations, even the smallest amount would still help cover the production costs. Given the current state of the music industry where music piracy and free torrenting services have meant less and less people actually pay for music I think it is important for artists to adapt around this. The physical copies of the E.P. will have a minimum price of £5 to simply cover material costs, but there will be an option for people to pay more if they want to.

During the promotion phase of the release I will utilise all social media platforms such as, Facebook, Youtube and Instagram to spread the word. I will utilise hash-tagging on these services in order to find potential listeners by searching for terms that relate to the E.P. and for fans of other artists who make music in the same genre as me. I also plan to gradually release images and little promo clips, simply to build a sense of intrigue and anticipation for the release. Visual content is extremely important, especially within genres like witch-house, and I feel you can say far more using visual aids than you can in words so, I plan to create a strong visual “brand” and aesthetic for my work. My stylistic choices are really going to need to reflect the music as I feel it’s what’s going to really sell the E.P. and to reach it’s correct audience.

From research I carried out I found that most artists that release this kind of experimental electronic music try and keep it “underground”, as it is very niche and has a small audience not intended for mass appeal. Especially in genres like witch-house it is normal for artists to keep their releases small and limited, often throwing some symbols, numbers or punctuation marks in the middle of titles for people to find it harder to come across. This is done with the intention of keeping their audience/fanbase small but dedicated. I intend to go along the same sort of lines, keeping the release small. On the more important social media posts, I plan to “sponsor” them, which entails paying money to further the reach of a post to targeted individuals with similar interests based on their profiles. This will allow me to reach a slightly larger audience.