Wednesday 11 May 2011

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Sunday 12 December 2010

Filming - Day Four

Today we planned to finish all of our photos and finish filming the footage for our video, we started off at a field in Church Langley taking pictures of the actors on the hill to apply to our video. We managed to do this quickly enabling us to start filming at Jess' house where we needed footage of the girl actor walking into the house for the last scene and also of the 4 male actors reaction. After completing the filming successfully we took pictures of the male actors wearing shirts and changing constantly which will be used as an effect for our video. We also took pictures and filmed for the chorus of our video using our actors.
Overall, today's filming and taking pictures were very successful as we completed everything we planned to do so we can edit for the rest of the week making our video have a professional approach as we'd be spending a great deal of time on making changes.

Thursday 9 December 2010

Filming - Day Three

We spent today after school taking pictures of the male and female actors to apply to our video, we took some individual shots and group shots making sure we had enough for the last verse. After taking pictures we went back to Louie's studio with Zak filming him singing the first verse alone so that we had more footage and different shots to apply to our video when editing. We felt that it was successful as the actors all turned up and we got everything done that we wanted to for today's filming session.

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Editing - Day One

In today's lesson we were given three hours for our production work, as we hadn't planned to film anything today we thought it would be essential to start with the footage we already have to start editing. We got all the pictures we took from the studio to add at the intro of The Maccabees song, as it was approximately 32 seconds we wanted to make sure we had enough pictures to edit into this particular part of the video. We cut down the length of some pictures so that we were able to have a good variation of shots but also needed to consider the consistency throughout the beginning part of the video. As well as applying photos in our video we added quick footage of some of the actors performing on their instruments giving the audience a glimpse of what's to come further on in the video. Whilst using the Macs our work we edited got deleted as the software shut down unexpectedly, therefore we re-edited some pieces by memory to make sure we were back on track with the intro completed.

Despite having trouble with our work deleting we achieved a great deal today than what we thought we would have, as well as finishing the intro we managed to edit the footage we had from the live studio performance in the video. This meant we could apply it into the first verse of the song in our video resulting in the first verse also being completed. After showing our teacher and other people in the class our first part of the song they noticed a great deal of the pictures having red eye, as it was obvious to a lot of people it was something we needed to consider changing. Therefore we stayed after school to edit every single picture and re-apply them into our video to make it look consistent and have a more professional approach.

Monday 6 December 2010

Digipak Research

After conducting extensive research on the internet on digipaks the two definitions I felt helped me understand what it was the most are:
- A thick paper (almost cardboard-like) CD package. The paper is a folded one- piece section with the CD resting in a normal plastic tray, like those in jewel cases and this tray is glued to the paper.
- A form of a jewel case which holds one or more CDs/
DVDs with the outer cover made of card as opposed to plastic.

I feel quite confident when creating my digipak due to my experience within media and having the skills required in order to make my product successful as well as having a professional approach for the music industry.

I have researched previous digipaks in order to get a better idea of the conventions used within the product which I can then apply to my final product. When analysing a variety of digipaks I found that most of them include:
- A creative image used on the front cover of the digipak but isn't always necessarily an image of the particular artist or the band.
- A consistent theme used throughout the product.
- Band, Song and Record Labels logo,
- Titles - Band, Album and Song name.
- The back cover of the digipak usually presents the track list.
- Barcode as well as price.
- DVD detail: Age certification or "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" label
- Copyright Protection logos and information (©, ®, ™)
- Pictures: front, back, middle (inside and outside)
- Limited Edition: Exclusive DVD included, bonus tracks or uncut version.
- 4 sided with 2 spines: 2 pictures outside (front/back cover) with possibly two inside the digipak.
- 6 sided with 2 spines: 2 pictures outside (front, middle and back covers) 2 inside with production pictures and possibly a production & artwork booklet

Research of CD album covers

As the front cover of my digipak was the most essential aspect I analysed The Maccabees, You Me At Six, General Fiasco, Two Door Cinema Club and Paramore album covers. The reason is because it links with my music video track research and analysing these particular covers would link with the genre of music I'm focusing on. The Maccabees album covers don't actually have the images of the particular band but the images are very eye catching due to the use of bright colours. Although this would be a good idea to use for my own digipak I'd prefer to take pictures of our actors due to the fact I'd be advertising the band and would want my target audience to be aware of the band members. The album covers for both Two Door Cinema Club and You Me At Six doesn't use the band members on the front of the cover, but instead use intriguing colours and images in order to attract the audience's attention. This is a good technique but I personally think the album covers are quite bland and I would prefer to use pictures. The album cover for General Fiascos is of the back of a young boy's body wearing bunny ears; this image is very random which could link with the characteristics of the band. I feel this is a good way to attract someone purchasing the album as it's different and wouldn't be stereotypical of other album covers. Overall, I feel that a picture of the whole band would be essential on the front of my digipak, the use of bright colours would attract my target audience and most album covers are quite simplistic; I will also take into consideration that I need to add the name of the album on the front cover.



Back cover: Track Research
When creating a back cover for my digipak the most essential thing I need to include is a track list of songs by the band you are focusing on. As I'm already doing a song from The Maccabees I thought it would be ideal to research their songs to apply onto my track list from their album Colour It In. After analysing back covers of many albums I've found that the track list has roughly between 10-20 songs, a barcode, copyright protection logos as well as pictures.
Colour It In
01. Good Old Bill
02. X-Ray
03. All in Your Rows
04. Latchmere
05. About Your Dress
06. Precious Time
07. O.A.V.I.P
08. Tissue Shoulders
09. Happy Faces
10. First Love
11. Mary
12. Lego
13. Toothpaste Kisses

Sunday 5 December 2010

Filming - Day Two

Sunday 6th December:
As we were left with four actors we decided to get a replacement that we thought could be reliable in order for us to catch up with previous work we've missed. During today's filming we managed to take a variety of pictures with all five actors and started filming the first verse in someone's studio. By filming this straight away it will aid us to start editing our video whilst filming as well, helping us to catch up and finish the work by the deadline date. We had a problem with filming today as we had forgotton a tripod resulting in us lacking on the footage we needed. Therefore we decided that we'd keep what we'd filmed but come together on Monday 7th December to finish the scenes within the studio.

Monday 7th December:
Today I was unable to attend the filming session due to late notice as I'd already scheduled to work, but the group were fine with this situation and decided to film without me. Unfortunately, the replacement for our video let us down due to the fact that he was busy so we've came to the conclusion of using four actors who we genuinely feel are reliable and will attend every filming session arranged.