Friday 27 March 2015

Evaluation - Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage?



"The internet is a vital part of the construction and research. The internet allowed me to research into existing indie rock bands and the music videos they produce through websites such as Youtube. Youtube has helped research and construct my music video a lot; I was able to upload my own videos to youtube which allowed me and Liam to show other students our work for feedback.

Furthermore, our research would have been not as strong without the use of social media. The social media allowed us to see what our demographic would be and what methods there was on selling music and attracting an audience. I also gained unique selling points for my digipak through looking at bands on social media.

Without the use of looking at images online I would have struggled a lot with my Digipak, the internet allowed me to grab and use existing images to help make my digipak such as the template and the structure of it.

During production, we used a 1200D to film all our footage on. Having access to a good camera helped with making a successful and creative music video. I was also able to take professional looking photos when using the 1200d for my digipak."


The school also gave us access to final cut pro, an editing programme. The programme is simple but leaves shots cut together perfectly and looking as professional as the footage we took. We was able to make our video fast paced by using quick cuts which Final Cut enabled us to do this.

Friday 20 March 2015

The Final Cut

Digipak and Poster finals














Before my deadline I decided to get my teacher to quickly look at my final versions and see if there is anything I could do for last changes. She suggested that I should change the spines on my digipak so I changed the text on them so that when the digipak is folded the band name and album name will be clear all around the digipak. The other change I made was on the poster, I forgot to add my record label's logo to my poster so I decided to move the website more across to the social media and then add the record label to the right by itself so the label stands out on its own.

Thursday 19 March 2015

THE LAST LAST SHOOT: Oxleas 5

Unfortunately on the day we filmed all of our other final footage. We was unable to use the go-pro because the person who last used the extension which we lent out to another group last the screw which held the extension stiff whilst the camera is placed and stopped the camera from moving about.



Once again, Me and Liam came out of school at 9am to film again in Oxleas. It only took us about an hour to film as we was close to deadline and we wanted to make sure these go-pro shots would be perfect as we couldn't film it again. I really like how they turned out as Liam's facial expression fits the narrative as he looks angry whereas Aaron looks scared when the go-pro is strapped on his head. It was a relieving feeling finishing this shoot although it was our shortest one and less pressure as it did not require different shots and using a DSLR.

Wednesday 18 March 2015

THE LAST SHOOT: Oxleas 4

After filming at my house, we headed back to Oxleas to film the final parts of the narrative which are when Brian is caught and beaten up by the boyfriend. The shots we filmed were:
  • Brian punching the boyfriend in an attempt to escape
  • Entering the woods from the street so there is clear understanding of location
  • Boyfriend punching and dragging Brian
  • Brian faint on the ground







Despite not feeling confident with the camera, I feel like I filmed some of my strongest stuff in these specific clips. I really like how the shot of Brian punching the boyfriend away went, it creates understanding to the go-pro shots and I feel like the violence shown in it is fairly realistic and gives clarity to the chase scenes we see before. I like the tight shots of Brian getting beaten up as it brings an ending to the narrative and it can make the audience feel uncomfortable as it looks professional and does not look as fake as it could have looked.

THE LAST SHOOT: My house 3

For the second half of the day, Aaron met us and we was able to finish off the narrative with him. The shots we filmed with him at my house was
  • The boyfriend arriving to the house / walking down the road.
  • Brian running down the stairs
  • The boyfriend and Brian meeting at the door
  • Both Brian and the boyfriend running back down the street to begin the chase
  • The girl running down the stairs to see what's happened








For students that do not do any kind of drama or are in front of the camera often, I feel like me, Liam and Aaron acted out our narrative well and we was able to successfully create the narrative with serious tones rather than a more immature approach which could have been an easy flaw as we are all friends in school. I feel like the cuts of the boyfriend walking towards the door and Brian running down creates suspense. My favourite shot was the one of the boyfriend being shown through the glass of the door because it creates a thrill which we wanted to do. The most difficult shot, which is cut up in the music video is when Brian brushes past the boyfriend outside, the reason of this being difficult is because all of us needed to be in the scene so we had to leave the camera on the tripod and perform in front of it. Despite the shot being awkward to film I think it worked well and it's not suggested in the music that it was all from one long shot.

THE LAST SHOOT: Oxleas 3

At the start of the day me and Liam went to Oxleas in the morning without Aaron to film the footage we lost when we had Kameron as the boyfriend. This took longer than we expected but we was still able to get home and meet Aaron in time to film with him. I think Liam performed just as well or if not better than Kameron as he knew exactly how the character is supposed to be portrayed as. I had to film everything which I previously mentioned that I was not confident with and it was out of my comfort zone to be filming without relying on a tripod.



During the morning we did stumble through a problem which was that I did find it extremely difficult to run with the DSLR without making the camera shake as much as my body was moving. I also found it hard to run the same pace as Liam and also keep him in frame whilst filming. Despite these problems, we kept reshooting until we got effective footage which is where we lost time in the day but I feel like it was worth it rather than having footage that we wasn't comfortable with. The footage we got of Liam was a good start to the morning as I feel like we had shot stuff which could have been arguably better than when we used Kameron.

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Poster Update


Sinead's feedback on the poster was very positive. She only told me to tweak a few things with the poster and I have done so. The first change I have made is changing the / between the numbers to dots because the dots are more fitting to the front that I decided to use for it. I agree entirely that the changing of a slash to a dot as made the poster look a lot better. Sinead also mentioned that the website is just tucked into the corner and should be brought out more as it is quite an empty poster so the website should not have to be tight. She thought my image on the poster was strong with the overlaying and I agreed, I find the overlapping of the images really effective and I feel like it fits the conventions of the genre well to selling the album.

Digipak Final Changes



I decided to get some more feedback from Sinead before handing in my final digipak. The feedback was helpful as I understood where Sinead was coming from when being critical about the digipak. The main thing she brought up was that the front panel is not as strong as the inside studio shots of the band members which I understood completely. I liked how the front and back panels were in colour as it brought some difference to the digipak rather to have it all black and white. I decided to keep the original images which were overlapped and duplicate them a few times so I could build up a unique design for the front panel. The front panel still has that ghostly effect but it has two images overlaying each other so it fills up the whole panel, I did not like before that the top quarter of the panel was just empty in comparison to the rest of the digipak being very full with images. I moved the band name and album name to the centre of the panel and I feel like it looks a lot better. 

I also included my CD design onto the digipak to demonstrate how it would look if it was to be produced. I also have a digipak design without it to show the studio image of Chris behind it. I really like how the disc is because the signatures on the drum skin brings a unique and collectable feel to it despite this being the band's first studio album.


Saturday 14 March 2015

Change of roles

Due to Liam becoming the new boyfriend for our music video, that left me to direct the rest of the music video. I was anxious about this decision as I feel like being behind the camera is not my strongest point and I was not as good as Liam is. I accepted to do it nevertheless as I strongly believed that in the position we was in that Liam would be the best actor we could get in our time and knew exactly what we needed for our music video.

Friday 13 March 2015

Change of Cast

Due to Kameron cancelling on us numerous times and us coming closer to the deadline. Me and Liam decided to drop Kameron from the music video, the new Brian will be Liam due to the short amount of time left. I am disappointed that Kameron could not finish the music video with us because I thought that he fit the role well and he was also studying drama so he seemed passionate about what he was doing. Arguably we should have recasted sooner due to how awkward it was for all of us to meet up as Kameron was only frees at weekends, Liam worked all weekend and I was only free on the sunday.

I feel confident that Liam will play the part of the boyfriend well as he knows how the character should be and we have also watched Kameron do a good job at playing the character behind the camera. We decided using him would be the best idea as we don't want anyone else to let us down and we would not be sure on how the other person would act until we had finished filming if we recasted another person but we are running out of time to take the risk.

Monday 23 February 2015

My House 2 (Brianstorm)

Me, Aaron and Liam decided to reshoot some of the night before and morning after shots during the week after school. Overall we did not get as many shots as we was planning to do but I feel like the ones that we did get work well. Unfortunately we was unable to use the shots of me and Aaron returning to my house the night before as the lighting outside was wrong, the framing was also awkward due to mine and Aaron's height differences. However, we was able to get me and Aaron walking up the stairs which makes it obvious to the audience what Brian is doing. For more clarity me and Liam thought it would be a good idea to have a clip of a condom wrapper dropping to make it even more clear for when Kameron's character comes into scene.





I really like the focus pull of the girl's phone ringing, I feel like it works well and creates suspense which is arguably quite hard to do in a music video and especially for this song as it is fast paced. I only like the shots of Brian (Aaron) getting changed as I feel like they are quick shots which create a sense that the character is trying to leave as quickly as possible which I thought would be difficult to do with cinematography. Despite this being the shoot where we got the least amount of footage, I feel like the shots which we did take work really well and i'm feeling positive for the rest of the narrative to be filmed.

Friday 13 February 2015

Rough Cut / Draft 2 of Brainstorm



This is now mine and Liam's second draft of our music video, since our first draft we have done two more shoots which are:

  • New performance shoot due to the feedback about the shots being too long.
  • Night before / Morning after (reshoot) of me and Aaron
As people thought Chris' vocals felt too long we decided to reshoot the performance using a steadycam instead so the shots are not completely still and can be tight to pay attention to the lyrics coming out of Chris' mouth and to acknowledge the members of the band in the video (Goodwin). We also shot a little more of the narrative but still have not done the shoot with Kameron and Aaron yet. We have filmed Aaron coming back to the girl's house and then waking up the next morning, the narrative is still not as clear as it could be yet because Kameron has not been filmed coming back to the house but we have included a focus pull of the girl's boyfriend trying to ring her, which a photo of Kameron appears when doing so.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Studio 2 (Brianstorm)

Due to our feedback from the class, me and Liam reshot the performance using a steadycam instead of just still shots on a tripod so the performance clips are more drawing and are tighter so the audience is less likely to get bored of the still shot for a few seconds. Unfortunately, James was unable to make it to the shoot so we will have to film again in the drama studio so we have equal amounts of the band in the video. Our technique for filming in the drama studio was a lot more effective this time as we played the song the whole way through and just recording the whole 3 minutes numerous times. I feel like this worked better than when me and Liam were focusing on specific shots which we had written down in the storyboard, this way was also a lot more comfortable and laid back as there wasn't pressure on specific parts.





I really prefer these shots a lot more than our first ones. The steadycam intensifies the position and role of each member of the band and shows a clear image of all of them instead of just the vocalist who is in centre when performing in our tripod shots. The colour grading Liam applied to the shots also makes them look a lot more professional and fitting to the conventions. I think the shots look a lot better when the background is value as that can take away the studio image and look more rehearsal like when there are links to school grounds in the background.

Monday 9 February 2015

Oxleas 2 (Brianstorm)

On sunday, Liam and Kameron filmed again in Oxleas Woods. Unfortunately me and Aaron were unable to make it because of work and family so Liam done some shots which contrast nicely with the ones we already have of Aaron. The go pro was also used again with the head extension to get the shots of Kameron running again. Some of the go pro shots will have be reshot because the strap is visable in it because of Kameron's hair being tied back and it being harder for him to hide it. I feel proud with what was done on the sunday and I feel like Kameron was a good choice for the part despite me having doubts on choosing him at the beginning of the project.





Kameron works well for the part as not only is his body structure and movements good he also pulls realistic and fitting facial expressions in all of the shots. Kameron genuinely looks like an angry boyfriend that is ready to attack Brian at the end of the video. I think the contrast between the white and black tops also work well for this. I feel like me and Liam organised our setting well for Oxleas when we went out that day for location scouting as Liam was able to find the exact same place we memorised and took photos of to find to film at. I think using the exact same spot works well when editing Aaron and Kameron's parts together.

Friday 6 February 2015

Current Poster


I decided for the poster to share a similar look to the front panel of my Digipak. I decided to keep the design plain by only adding:
  • Band name as the largest text as this is their first studio album and their name is still trying to be spread out on social media.
  • The album title
  • Image of the band performing as the cover of the poster
  • Date of release
  • Social networks they are associated with
  • Website for more updates


Current Digipak


This is my final Digipak, towards the end of developing it I decided to make a lot of changes. I decided to break the conventions and them of just having the whole Digipak black and white, I left the front and back cover in colour but with the saturation turned down. I also decided to work on the spines of my Digipak. I thought having a black or dark spine like I originally decided to do would be dull and not visually interesting. I decided to change them to white so it is contrasting with the theme of dark colours on the panels.

I feel like my complete Digipak is very attractive and fits the conventions of the genre. The use of the studio photos of the band members also engages the idea that this is their first big album and they are trying to promote their image.




Sunday 25 January 2015

January Feedback



This is the feedback me and Liam received when we had done the footage with Kameron, Aaron and our first studio shots. People gave us good criticism about our studio performance and how well our actors are in front of the camera. The only criticism we got from our shots is because it's not done and still has a fair few blank spaces for the narrative of the music video. Another thing which was suggested to develop was that Chris' shot was too long which I agreed with. People really liked the focus pull on the phone in the morning to introduce the boyfriend into the narrative, I was happy with this compliment as I was pleased with how that turned out before we shared the work to other students and teachers.

Overall I feel like me and Liam received fair comments and i'm happy with the way people think the music video has potential to be good when it's finished. I'm feeling confident with the final product as most of the things that needed developing is that it needs be become more clearer which it will be when the narrative is done.

Saturday 24 January 2015

Rough Cut / Draft 1 of Brianstorm



This is our first draft of our music video. This draft contains 3 different shoots that we have done:

  • Aaron's side to narrative
  • Kameron's side to narrative
  • Studio performance
When looking at this put together the things that work are the performance bit, I especially like the shot of Sam playing the bass as it looks in sync to the instrumental. I also think the contrasting shots of Aaron and Kameron in the woods work well together and that once we film with them together it will look very effective.

The things that will be improved are the shots which me and Aaron are in at my house, I feel like the shots are too dark when they are supposed to be set in the daytime. The shots of Aaron running downstairs could potentially be more visually interesting and may also work better when we film with Aaron and Kameron later on.  

Thursday 22 January 2015

Using the head extension for Go-Pro (Brianstorm)



While filming I took a short video on my phone on Aaron using go pro to get the shots of Brian running. From the video you can see how me and Liam got Aaron not just run around on flat ground but we also got him to jump over things to try and get a shake filmed on the go pro to create suspense and to make it seem like Brian is running from the boyfriend in fear. The problem with the go pro extention was that me and Liam wanted Aaron's arms to be in the shots but it was quite awkward to do due to the positioning of the camera and because of the ground being damp and Aaron was worried about slipping or falling which was a possibility. Overall, buying the extension was a good idea and I feel like it adds a unique twist to our music video and it contributes an idea of panic to the video.

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Oxleas and My House 1 (Brianstorm)

In our first shoot we was able to complete quite a few shots from the storyboard. The day included going to Oxleas Woods, our new chosen place to shoot and then to my house to film the scene of the night before / morning of the chase. Aaron played the role of Brian well, he was mature and was able to show fear when running in the clips we shot.







To film these specific shots we took a DSLR and a Go-Pro camera with us. The Go-pro was to film Aaron's face when running through the woods. The Go-pro allowed us to reveal facial expression during the chase and gives the music video some suspense by seeing the facial expressions of Brian and also the boyfriend when we have filmed with him as well.

Tuesday 13 January 2015

Oxleas Woods



Before filming, me and Liam decided to look around at the location of Oxleas Wood and to tweak our storyboard so the location fits with it. We found a specific spot which would be ideal for what we need for the chase scene. We found a central part in the woods which was quite isolated from the rest of the woods so our filming would not be interrupted by local residents. This central part had other paths coming off of it which would work well for the chase scenes and would be easy to film. I feel like this location will work well and I am excited to film this specific part of the music video.






Monday 12 January 2015

Change of location

Due to the distance of Tile Kilns Wood, we have decided it would be more practical to shoot in a location based closer to us due to the most likely need to reshoot. The commute to Tile Kilns Wood would be a struggle to do ongoing times. The new places we are taking into consideration are one bus away or a 5/10 car journey away for when we need to travel with equipment.

The first place we are considering is Oxleas Wood, this is our most local woods and it is easy to get to. This is a huge amount of land so we are going to have a look and reconsider our shots from the storyboard here first due to the amount of different locations there are here. There is also a car park in the middle of the woods. I think this place may give us the space we need that Kilns Wood has. Despite our storyboard being based on the locations there, I think it is possible that we can fit our storyboard to this location as well.

The other place we are considering is Abbey Ruins / Woods. This would be awkward for us to go due to it being slightly away from where we live and there is a tourist location part in there due the ancient monument there. There is also a nature reserve so filming may be slightly inappropriate for this location, depending on where we decide to film there.

CD design



For my first CD cover I decided to create it as a drum skin and overlay the drum skin with the band signatures, I found default copyright free ones online and then edited them on photoshop so they look more printed onto the drum skin and not just dragged onto the drum.

I have decided to place this over James' face on the digipak, this is because in the band James is the drummer and it makes the most sense for it to go on top of him. I found a template online to demonstrate how that part of the digipak would look once the CD has been took out. I am questioning having the drum skin slightly transparent so the ongoing theme of the band's studio images on the digipak is still clear.

Wednesday 7 January 2015

Drama Studio 1 (Brainstorm)





 We shot in one of our three locations. We followed our storyboard to create these clips, by the end of the night we got footage of:

  • Close up bass
  • Drums shot
  • Wide shot of the whole band playing
  • Lead singer: "Your rendezvous rate means that you'll never be frightened to make them wait for a while"
With the lighting we used in the studio, I feel like these shots worked really well and are effectively accurate to the ideas we drew up in our storyboard. When placing these clips into final cut pro, the lip sync works really well and looks realistic and professional. 

Friday 2 January 2015

Costume





Due to my band's genre being Indie Rock and to make it easy to cast people me and Liam decided that we want our band members to dress casual and in clothes which can be found in high street shots. We had an idea for the main vocalist to wear a checked shirt as when doing my research of current indie rock bands that seems to be a convention in them all. Underneath the checked shirt I want to have a basic tee as that also seems to be a recent fashion which would grab an audience to the young males that watch the videos. I want all the band members to wear tight skinny jeans and preferably dark colours although that would depend on the types of shirts that my actor would have.

For shoes I wouldn't want my actors to wear trainers as they are contrasting to the more formal and dark coloured clothing. Ideally I would like to ask the group of boys which we ask to be in it to wear desert boots and perhaps loafers as it suggests a more indie culture whereas white trainers to me connote more of a pop image. I feel like I am not being too fussy about the appearance of the band member as when researching into the indie rock band member's clothes there doesn't seem to be a strict style other than usually checked shirts and dark clothing which is high street today.