vadima2media

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Final Music Video - Distribution of Empyrean Phantasmagoria

Here's the finalized music video for my production company:

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Critical Evaluation

The use of psychedelic drugs has been a controversial topic for decades, with opinions ranging from staunch to complete legalization. In recent, years psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide and other psychedelic narcotics have been proven to treat depression and bipolar disorder amongst other mental health challenges. Studies also have shown that the use of psilocybin can increase synchronicity and coherence of the neural activity in the brain, which therefore, interconnects the network of the brain regions, which often leads to efficiency in processing information and better communication between various parts of the brain. It is reported that during the come-up of the beat, an eye is seen forming, getting faster and changing colours, which closely resembles “the come-up stage” while being intoxicated on LSD. The idea behind psychedelia represents a social group of people who enjoy taking psychoactive narcotics. An issue that I re-created was the downside of the drugs, which is seen in the first half of the video where an external voice is speaking. This creates a clear duality between the light and dark effects, which relates to the switch of emotions during the intoxication period. As researchers say, while intoxicated, your emotions can change from feeling extreme pleasure to being extremely overwhelmed, which was the purpose of some of the psychedelic effects.   

Furthermore, the purpose of psychedelic effects was to make the consumer feel the contrast between their emotions, symbolizing the dark side and the light side. Additionally, I also see Empyrean Phantasmagoria (Music Video) as a lesson to consumers, to be aware of the double-sided effects of psycho-active drugs. As an inspiration for the accurate details of an acid trip, I have read the book “The Psychedelic Experience,” which discusses the Tibetan book of the dead and explains what ego-death and depersonalization, which in a lot of cases is what people seek for when taking psychedelic substances. It gives specific instructions on how one should act in various stages of a trip and what to expect and gives close descriptions of a trip which are “Enhanced colour patterns, walls moving, enhanced emotional state, noticing little aspects of your life that were not there before” which allows the person to look at life from an angle they have not been able to see before, which is an issue in society that sometimes LSD can solve.  

To illustrate the sources of promotion, the YouTube channel I created was the main distribution source of my product. I have added short clips of Empyrean Phantasmagoria to try to entice the consumer’s attention and bring them to my video. If they are further interested, they will be able to click on the description of my music video and find the Instagram account which is used further for promotion. I have also posted the music video on Instagram to try and bring the audience to the YouTube Channel as well. One of the ways that Instagram creates a sense of branding is by promoting the merchandise that suits the music video. Since it is so experimental, merchandise works like a niche market for interested consumers. The merchandise establishes a social connection and consumer loyalty to make them turn to the brand repeatedly and wait for what is coming next. If this were a real production company, every time an experimental video is made, I would be making different clothes to suit the theme of the video, bucket hats, shirts etc. I have chosen to create these specific articles of clothes because it targets my audience and is well fit for the theme of the music video, where psychedelia is created, therefore maximizing the potential promotion aspects, and enticing the consumers to dig into my company further.   

Additionally, I also created posts on Instagram that analyse and explain how to make some of the effects that were used in the video. This would provide the customer with confirmation that my company is there for them and does what is best for the customer. This type of help can be appreciated by media producers and might give the consumers of my products some reassurance for them to come back next time. These elements are all linked to each other, therefore closely targeting the audience’s wants and needs creates a sense of branding and establishes customer loyalty. Hence, my products engage with the audience by addressing the consumer directly and teaching consumers how to make the product and creating my clothing brand for the consumers to buy.  

My music video breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience in the first 20 seconds of the video and in the ending titles, where “be honest with yourself” is mentioned. For example, the first 20 seconds of the video, talk about freeing your mind from the prison that some are not able to escape. These words intended that most ofv the people on this planet are feeling stuck, locked in a box or unable to reach freedom. Freedom is the goal here and if you are not able to achieve freedom/escape the matrix, you are a slave to this realm. This was educational due to encouraging the audiences to think about how to escape the mental prison they are trapped in, otherwise, continue being a slave to this realm, which is a direct communication to the audience. Additionally, the end titles mention that you need to be honest with yourself and not run from who you are. This was my message to the consumers that are going to be watching this, to inform them of the basic principles of this world, which many human beings seem to forget about today. I would like to mention a speech by XXXTENTACION – Free your mind because this is the voice I used in the introduction to the video and overall, I found the speech extremely helpful in guiding me in creating the message that my music video is about.   

Furthermore, the speech mentions basic human principles like being honest to the people around you which was one of my ending titles that includes a line “be honest with yourself. Do not run from who you are.,” that therefore allows me to interact directly with the viewer through text in the titles.  Another way was creating an Instagram account, which had the music video, tutorials, and merchandise of the brand. Firstly, tutorials were my way of engaging with the audience. For example, I have posted a tutorial on Instagram on how to create the alien effect that was used in the video. This was clear and concise to get the basics out there and help the consumers create a similar effect if they decided to use it. Lastly, I have posted merchandise on the Instagram account that creates an emotional connection to the brand and gives the audience a chance to try out the new psychedelic clothes they would get each time a video is posted. Therefore, this engages with the audience by giving them options of which clothes they can purchase from the store.  

For this purpose, I have researched psychedelia before and have researched the effects of the drug LSD. The report had a variety of feelings, so I wanted to re-create a similar experience which influenced and shaped my product further, by doing so. I have recreated it by making trippy, psychedelic visuals, with colours that switch intensely and bright flashing lights. One of the people who inspired my research was Terence Mckenna, who is an evangelist for the use of psilocybin and other mind-affecting narcotics. He was an ethnobotanist, who believed that mushrooms were the first source of humanity’s religious ideas and that they were revolutionary for the world. He advocated that mind-altering narcotics open closed doors within your mind, which is exactly what the theme of the video was about. To take the drug, experience the effects and have a realization, like being honest with yourself at the end of the video in my titles. He also believed that psychedelic substances allowed one to meet with higher entities and travel through dimensions, which I have tried to recreate through different transitions between the clips and have a feeling of flying through dimensions, which was located at the end of the video.   

Some of my beliefs match Terrence’s, which has led to me using his ideas to recreate some of the effects/transitions and text. Furthermore, by sharing ideas of Terrence I was able to make my video stand out by re-creating some of the experiences inside a trip, whereas conventional music videos tend to have a storyline/plot, whereas my piece is meant to be chaotic. Another way would be using two different songs for the main content and the titles, for example, the song is upbeat during the music video and recreates a party-like experience, whereas the titles create feelings of melancholy and make the audience question if the drug is worth doing. Speaking of titles, my titles are at the end of the video, whereas most music videos include their titles during the music video or at the start, however since I made mine at the end, it defied usual conventions and allowed me to further explore the amount of experimentation and shape ideas around the effects that the titles create. I have also taken inspiration from my AS-level project and have made this video a continuation of the AS-level coursework, which made the process flow and made life easier for my ideas for the product. Unlike a conventional music video artist, I take more creative risks, because while I have idea’s the project, it is intense to piece it all together, which therefore makes the shooting of shots harder and planning what to shoot, instead, I must commit to daily routine to capture beautiful shots that match the theme of my piece.   

Moreover, another risk is that even if I do have all the footage shot, it is challenging for me to piece everything together, as the editing process is where my music video takes life instead of filming, which also challenges conventional ways of media production. I have had to work with different effects, tonalities, colours, transitions, 3D text and in some cases motion graphics to fulfil my creative ideas and make a solution for creative blocks. I have enjoyed this process; however, I took an extremely long time to edit the video which resulted in me having stress & anxiety because I was running low on ideas of the psychedelia that needed to be created.  

I have also researched the title of my music video, which is not ordinary as well, Empyrean Phantasmagoria, the word empyrean relates to heaven and sky and phantasmagoria is the concept of seeing a sequence of optical illusions, which is exactly the effect LSD creates in our brain. Therefore, this helped link the title to the idea of psychedelia and its effects and helped to establish a clear difference with challenging conventions. Additionally, I challenged the conventions by using AI to create merchandise images for me, which allowed me to generate about 20 images of psychedelia and theme-matching poetry, which furthermore allowed me to create merchandise and experiment with different clothes. Therefore, challenged the conventions because most production companies use actual people with art skills whereas I used an AI to help me. In conclusion, due to extensive research, I was able to shape the plans, footage, scenes, and colours in Empyrean Phantasmagoria, which I would not be able to do without. Research played an extremely vital role in the creation of this product. 

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How I challenged conventions

As you can see my music video is extremely experimental and I've made this targeted at specific audiences, such as teenagers and adults who want to view something similar to a trip.

We live in 2023 and Digipaks are not widely used anymore. For example, modern computers do not even have a disk inserter, so if I did make one it would be pretty much useless. As I treat this coursework as a real production company, I believe the success rate of a digipak as promotion will be < 1% due to it being outdated.

Now, I chose not to do a digipak, not because I'm slothful, but I have found better ways to promote and advertise this company.

The Syllabus is extremely generic and does not state anything concerning this matter. Instead of the digipak, I've chosen to:

Create Merchandise

Create an Instagram account

Create A YouTube account

I think these three promotion tactics are much more thoughtful ways of promoting this music video.

Since my theme is psychedelia, I've created trippy clothes in order to match the consumer's tastes, and some of them turned out amazing!

Eg:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 4KE PRODUCTIONS (@4ke_productions1)

Instagram has helped me to promote tutorials and get the merchandise out there for other people to see. It has also helped in promoting the main platform where the video is stored. This lead me to getting some actual views on my Empyrean Phantasmagoria music video, which brought more views than a digipak would 100%.

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How to make a smoke effect || Post-Prod.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 4KE PRODUCTIONS (@4ke_productions1)

Smoke effect that didn't make it into the final production video.

1. Add a merge node. 2. Add a background effect and a paint node, and connect the background effect to the paint node. 3. Mask out your subject with the paint tool as you see on the 1'st screen. 4.Add matte control and connect to Media1. 5. You can play around with the effects to your liking.

I've added this post to educate people who might want to use the same effects as I did.

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Merch Collection

Here's the merch I created on place.it

The pictures were made by using Artificial Intelligence that goes by the name of Midjourney. It is an Ai model that is used to generate pictures from text input, as you can see it produced amazing results! Since I am not that skilled in drawing, these pictures would be used in actual production if I was to have my own company.

I've decided not to use any branding like 4ke_productions or

empyrean phantasmagoria, because this is the style that I feel matches the video, as there was little to no text in there only in some certain areas.

Also, we cannot add Empyrean Phantasmagoria to all of the products as my production company would have different video titles. If this was a real company, I would create different merchandize every time a new psychedelic video is posted to match the colors and piece that is suitable for the consumers of this content.

You can find individual Pictures at my Instagram's page.

Eg:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 4KE PRODUCTIONS (@4ke_productions1)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 4KE PRODUCTIONS (@4ke_productions1)

Instagram Link

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Research of Terrence McKenna

Terrence McKenna research in psilocybin has influenced the making of this project.

He studied ethnobotany, at the University of California Berkley, while also intoxicating himself with substances such as DMT and LSD.

He published a guide to growing mushrooms which has lead me into dimensions no human mind was able to comprehend, except that of mine, as the book argued that mushrooms were humanity's first revolutionary ideas that would be the next step to evolution.

His solution to most of the problems were drugs, and "Anarchic Revival" which tethers between spiritual connection and physical connection to the mind, he believed that the use of psychedelics' can lead one's mind into an alternate state which has not been accessed before to give the individual a second hand view on the mistakes and choices they are making them, which takes them outside of the box and lets them consider the views that were opened with the third eye.

He also literally believed in DMT taking the human soul out of the body and meeting with mechanical elves that can teach humanity new forms of living your life.

His book was the guide to growing mushrooms that helped a lot of people to start on their journey in this extraodinary ride of psychoactive substances.

I also can't forget to mention that his ideas closely resemble those of the Tribes, for example shamanic ideas of the Tibetian book of the dead, which Timothy Learly wrote a guide on in his Psychedelic Experience manual, for the community. It is incredible to me, how these psychoactive narcotics are still illegal in most of the world, as they cannot be dangerous in low dosages and treat depression, bipolar disorders, and other medical diseases when taken in low dosages.

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YouTube Campaign

Here's the link to the YouTube Channel I've created.

What I've done:

Post Empyrean Phantasmagoria

Post short clips of Empyrean Phantasmagoria to try and promote it

What I've yet to do:

Link Website and Instagram

Potentially create a tutorial on how to make some of the effects that I've combined for Empyrean Phantasmagoria

Possibly make posts about merch, etc...

The YouTube Campaign is where the video is stored and promoted on all other social media platforms. I am also considering to add it to the website, just in case any copyright strikes my account.

Here's some evidence.

#promotion

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Instagram Campaign

https://www.instagram.com/4ke_productions1/

Here's the link to the Instagram campaign I've created.

Business Model:

Add posts to show how some of the effects were done

Add reels, shorts of the Empyrean Phantasmagoria to promote and reach a wider audience.

Add merch, tours and other business plans in working.

Add a website to promote the video.

What I've done:

Post Empyrean Phantasmagoria in reels

Made posts about how to create some effects(they will be linked in future posts)

What I've yet to do:

Promote merch pictures on Instagram

Possibly make short video tutorials for the effects in Empyrean Phantasmagoria.

Make more text posts that are: Tutorials, reasons behind the title, etc...

Some photos:

Empyrean Phantasmagoria is also posted on instagram(Music video)

There's also some tutorials on how to re-create some of the effects that I've constructed in the music video.

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Timothy Learly

I also researched this individual as he was highly into the psychedelics' culture.

He has written one of the best manuals on the Tibetian book of the dead, which is called the psychedelic experience.

He wrote about inducing a religious connection with the cosmos and entering that state of mind, as he believed that LSD and psilocybin had therapeutic use in psychiatry.

Some of his famous quotes included: -"Turn on. Tune in, Drop out" -"Think for yourself and question authority" He published researches about Mexican people, and the religious rites of the Mazatec people of Mexico. His associates at Harvard began the Psilocybin project, which's goal was to understand how the drug affects human beings, including the Psilocybe mexicana.

Psilocybin was produced by Albert Hofmann, who was also famous for creating LSD.

The Concord Prison Experiment:

In 1961, Leary and his colleague Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass) conducted an experiment with psilocybin at a Massachusetts prison. The experiment aimed to determine if the drug could reduce recidivism rates in inmates. The results conducted that long-term reduction in criminal activity could be decreased if the patient was going through psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy. He was later on a professor in Harvard and got fired for "abusing the power" and encouraging students to take psychedelia substances.

Unfortunately, he passed away in 1996 at the age of 75, however his work still continues to inspire other psychedelia enthusiasts.

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Trippy Rocks || Original

Here's the original shot of the rocks I've edited. I think it looks entirely different to the footage shown in the post below. Editing does magic sometimes :)

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Trippy Rocks || Research of Nam June paik

Here's another clip of making a trippy experience. I've used glows, purple colors, Colorama, and mirrors to achieve the effect of the pathway that you see now. It's a low angle shot that matches the video's beliefs and ideas, that also look spiritual. Next Post will have the original footage. As I cant upload more than 1 video here.

Nam June Paik who's been a heavy inspiration of my life for a while now, has inspired the scene, although I do not have multiple monitors to play my video on, It inspired me to to create multiple mirrors in the editing process which was: Applying mirrors to the video and positioning them so there's a path in the middle. I then applied a colorama node, to create trippy colors, which then lead me to adding a glow node to highlight the purple colors overall.

Here are some examples of his work:

As you can see, a lot of his work include,monitors, and little images of the overall image he as trying to create, which inspired me to create this rocks scene. To me it felt like I was creating something more than just footage, but the overall message of how you are feeling during a trip to the other side.

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Creating clones

Here's how I've created clones. 1. I've combined two videos from the same footage into one full clip.

2. I've used a mask to show the second me walking on the same video.

3. I've added effects to the clip in order for it to look more trippy.

This resulted in me using mirrors to form a block from the ice and have multiple Me's standing and doing and action on that block. I've used grey colors because it works best with showing the duality of the drug as in some cases it is colorful, on the other hand dull.

You can also see the block that the characters are standing out morphing, which was another effect I had to spend my time on. Overall I think I created a perfect experimental scene due to my editing skills. You can also see the block that the characters are standing out morphing, which was another effect I had to spend my time on.

This picture is a perfect representation of the feeling I wanted to create, as there are more than two people and they are all the same. It is kind of like going through the timeline with yourself, but you also have your other self's that are going through the same thing as you. I also wanted to link this to ego depersonalization, which is detached from one's self, often called ego death. Here's a great video to explain what ego death is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzhEj0Z3AeA

As reports say sometimes, during an Acid Trip you have a "out of body experience" and sometimes can lead to ego death, which can be a scary experience if you forget who you are.

It can be a mild altering experience, which can completely change your life to a positive direction or to a negative direction, it depends on how the drug affects you.

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Edited Flowers || Davinci Editing

Here's a showcase of how I edited the flowers and how all the effects on the video were created by building blocks. I've also used open source software such as Reactor to provide me with more effects in Davinci Resolve. I've used lens distortion to create the distorted effects, added a glow node and sharpened the purple colors that were seen in the video. This was all done to highlight the beauty of the purple color and how a lot of the video is going to be revolving around purple and being inside a trip..

The leaves start from 0.5 seconds, I've linked this because it's not compressed unlike the other clip.

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Main final song

I think this song will have an extremely matching pace, as well as the name of the song clearly matches the theme of my video. The whole idea of my video, was to describe how you feel during an acid trip, which this song perfectly matches as it us upbeat, high energy and has fast beats and intense drops.

I think to me, it also has a psychedelic sound, which I can enhance and really bring to life through the visual imagery I am going to create in my video. For example, it could be morphing patterns like this:

which would perfectly complement these types of patterns, kaleidoscopic, neon colors or bright imagery, and other trippy visuals that complement the music.

Also, I really want to focus on the "tripping" part of an acid trip, so the title is most perfect to describe the drug culture and really emphasize the mind-altering adventure that the video is going to take you through. This song also focuses on the "LSD" part of the trip, which is heavily conveyed through the beats and the drops and also the song talks about "psychedelic drugs" which is the theme of my video piece last year. I plan for this music video to be a continuation of the story in the AS project, and want to combine research as well as show the evaluation of my skills and what I've learnt throughout the year.

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Premiere pro and Davinci Resolve

This is a snippet of the video I am making. I've made everything in Premiere pro, however as talked in the previous post, I can no longer be using it due to extensive crashes and CPU burnout. I have a 16GB Ram with a solid GPU, however I am still experiencing crashes every 2 minutes from Premiere Pro. It is unfortunate, however, it is a good lessson. You can see how Premiere wouldn't render some of the effects(This effect requires gpu acceleration) and has given me quite the pain. I've since installed Davinci resolve to try and combat the bugs and have reached a few successes. The next post is going to be about Davinci Resolve.

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Edited Disclaimer

Here's an epilepsy disclaimer I've edited to warn consumers with epilepsy about upcoming photosensitive moments.

The last part of the video perfectly transforms into representations of psychedelic effects and a mix of glitches to entice the audience and make the audience not take their eyes off the video.

It is unfortunate, but I have also added Viewer Discretion is advised at the bottom, but while trying to render my sequence i've had extreme frustrations with Premiere Pro and have decided to make a switch to Davinci Resolve 18.

The next post will be about my experience with Premiere pro and why I have decided to switch to Davinci resolve, which hopefully, provides me with a better user experience.

This picture was the main inspriation which was produced by Manuel Cetina. I wanted to take the glitch that the skull has and turn it into the disclaimer. It also showcases and eniteces the audience because they are going be captivated at the moment where the text is going to glitch and will want to know what happens after the glitch. I've also took heavy inspriation from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oto4JaST5YY

It give me some ideas as to how I can create the morphing text in the disclaimer. I took my time experimenting with the disclaimer and this is the final version, which closely resembles the visuals in the video, of course the video is "experimental" and is not something you would see on the daily.

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Main character and the frozen sea || Vincent Van Gogh inspiration

Perosnally, I think this footage is perfect for representing how the character feels.

Dark connotation is created by portraying how the character is alone in the video and is sitting alone on the frozen ice with nobody around.

Light connotation is created by the sunset which has some orange patterns that symbolize warmness and peace.

We can also derive that this might be a significant point in the video due to how well the two worlds are portrayed in one single video.

With some special effects and music mixing I think this will be a perfect example of differentiation between the two worlds that the character lives in. I want to also give credits to myself who's the originator of the idea, and Van Gogh who helped the idea to shape in the end.

I've thought about this picture quite a lot and personally I think it resembles the feelings of loneliness, just like my character feels in the the footage, it was meant to showcase beauty and loneliness. As you can see, the character is alone and the imagery near him is outstanding, exceptional and beautiful, which closely resembles the picture from Van Gogh's art, as everything looks in place, beautiful and yet still there's nobody there. You can see that the chairs are broken, which kind of resembles what the main character is feeling during this footage, as he aims to perfect and achieve the state of calmness that he could not achieve before, but he has to remove all the people from his life, otherwise he is not able to achieve perfection. I will show case more of Van Gogh's work to give credit, however you probably already know who he is: