Inspiration for my digipak and poster

For the original photo of my band for the poster before I had done any editing, I took inspiration from  the front cover of Blossoms's album and images I found of Arctic Monkey's. In both images the band are stood upright, slightly facing in. I think this gives them a sense of power and makes a big impression on the audience. When on a poster I think it will make them stand out become noticeable to the audience. The way they slightly face in gives them an air of importance. I have noticed this is a feature of the indie/indie rock genre.

Inspiration for my digipak and poster

The black and white theme for my digipak and poster has been inspired by bands such as Catfish and the Battlement, Arctic Monkey's and The 1975. Both of Catfish and the Bottlemen's album covers are black and white, as well as many of posters and images of the band. In addition, Arctic Monkey's use the back and white theme on their album covers as well as in their images. Black and white has become very associated with the genre of indie rock and rock. The 1975 followed this theme throughout the production, marketing and performance of their first album. Their album cover is black and white, all images of the band are in black and white, their videos are in black and white and their live performances have black and white colour schemes. This gave me massive inspiration to put my digipak products in black and white. Not only does it suit the genre perfectly, but it also represents what the band are about. Below are some images that gave me inspiration.

First cut of video

This is the first cut of our video. We have edited it and looked over it several times to ensure it is all in sync. Having asked classmates and teachers for some audience feedback, we have thought about adding in some old style clips of a party and people getting ready, as this will show the character remembering what her youth was like. We think this will really add to the narrative and make it even more clearer than it is. We might add in small snippets of clips we find on youtube. We don't want to add too much in to disrupt the video we already have, but we need enough to make them not look random.

People have also suggested that we could put a filter on the performance part of the video to give it a different look. We have experimented with many different filters and have come to the conclusion to put a "vintage" filter on them as we think this suits the style of the video and the narrative. It gives the impression that the video is older, and will make it unique and interesting.

Editing the video

The editing process of our video has been going very well, and we are now in the latter stages. Because of the amount of shots we got in the studio, the editing process was much easier than it might have been, because we had a lot of flexibility as to what clips to use and how much performance and narrative we had in it. We also got a very wide range of shots in the studio such as some of the drummer and some of the feet of the singer. This allowed us to fill in any gaps in the song that we didn't have footage for. Without these we would have small areas without any footage to put in, and this would be a problem.

However, there were a lot of challenges we had to face when editing. Editing on the beat proved to be very difficult because the beats of the song were often quite complex and we had to adjust the length of the clips in order for it to be on the beat. We managed to edit to the beat well in the end, although it was challenging.

Another difficulty was making sure the lip syncing was in sync with the song. This was difficult because we had to listen to the audio of the clips and the song at the same time. The lip synching had to be perfect otherwise it looked out of time. Furthermore, when we looked back at the video and realised a part was out of synch, when we changed it this changed the whole video, so we had to go and adjust it.

We have been getting feedback from family members and classmates as to what we can improve on and whether the are any small problems with the video that we have missed.

At the moment we are happy with the edit, although we are going to go back over it to make sure there are no errors that we missed.

Creating digipak poster

To create my digipak poster I chose one of my strongest photos, as this will make my poster the highest quality it can be. To correlate with the theme of my digipak, I put the photo in black and white, as all my other photos are. I then added a photo of smoke on top of the photo and lowered the opacity so that i could see both the smoke and the original photo. I thought that the faces of my my band were covered too much, so i gently rubbed out so of the smoke layer so that their faces are more visible. At this point I still thought that it needed some more work, so I decided to add a background to the photo. I wanted this background to not cover any of the bodies of my band so I used the eraser tool to rub out this layer that was covering the body. This created the look I desired, as the two different layers work well together.

The next stage of creating the poster was to add the features found on digipak posters. This included the album name, artist name, social media logos, and the record label. I downloaded all these images and added them to the bottom of the poster. This makes the poster look very professional and similar to ones found used by actual artists. The text is one of the main aspects of the poster as this tells the reader who the artist is and what the album is called. Because the poster is to promote the album it needs to be noticed by the reader. I need to make sure the text stands out and isn't overpowered by the other visuals on the poster. I have used the font I had chosen originally and am pleased with how it looks as it's very bold and noticeable. I have also experimented with different colours and have considered putting the album name in white, as I am conscious that it might get drowned out if it is the same colour as the other text. So far I am pleased with how it looks, and am going to ask other people what their opinions on it are.

Creating digipak photos

I have been experimenting with my photos for my digipak and applying different edits to them. I have decided to go for a dark theme as this is appropriate for the Rock genre of music. I have put all the photos in black and white and added different layers on to give smokey and cracked effects. I am still experimenting with different designs and styles to find the one that looks the best and most professional, as well as ones that suit the genre of music. I have been adding a layer to my photo and changing the opacity before distorting it in some way to make it unique and put my own spin on it. There has been a lot to consider as I don't want the digipaks to look too over produced, however I do want them to be quite heavily edited so they are unique to my band, and are interesting to an audience. I need to consider the fact that digipaks are made to promote the album and represent the artist. One of the main points of a poster and digipak is too help sell the album, so I need to make the photos interesting enough to catch the eye of customers and make people want to buy the album.  I have been using my friends and family to give me feedback on the photos, such as how to improve them and what they like about them. Once I have done all the editing I am going to add the codes and conventions of digipak and digipak posters such as the album name, artist name, social links and a barcode. I also need to complete the binder of the digipak as this is also important.

Film diary: Filming the new idea

On Saturday we filmed our new narrative and we thought it went pretty well as we managed to get all the footage filmed. As directors we worked well with our actor to capture what we wanted.  We had a few problems with our tripod as it was a bit unstable, and led to us having to film some shots off tripod. Furthermore, as we were filming in small rooms, it did feel quite cramped, and this did limit the shots we could film on several occasions. This has potentially created some problems for us but we will wait until after editing to see what they have come out like. One of the main things we tried to do with this new narrative was making it more clear. We thought we did this well, as we showed the character was getting ready for a night out and looking at a reminder on the blackboard. We think that this idea will turn out better than the original idea as it was more thought through.

Positives from filming:

• We filmed all of our narrative
• We got all of the footage filmed that we wanted
• We have made the narrative as lot more clear
• We got a wide range of shots
• We got masses of footage, giving up maximum freedom when editing

Potential problems of filming:

• Some of our shots were limited because of lack of space
• Dodgy tripod meant we had to film some shots off tripod

Film diary: Planning to film

We are planning to re-film on Sunday. We are filming in my counterparts house, which allows us to have a lot more flexibly in terms of when we film. We have created a shot list that we go into filming completely repaired, reducing the chances of having to re-film. We are going to film all the shots on a tri-pod, as shaky shots are what hindered the quality of our shots previously. We are planning to take as many shots as possible to increase the variation of shots and give us maximum flexibility when editing. I have looked at our audience feedback from our last idea and are looking to improve on every aspect that needs working on. Our preparation is much better this time round than it was before, which will hopefully result in a better standard of video.

Finalising our new idea

For our new idea, we have decided to use Mike and Adam's mum. She will be the only actor for the narrative part of the video, and as Mike and Adam are in my group, this will make filming easier, as we have very few people to rely on and we have more flexibilty because she os of blood relation. We are filming the narrative in her house. This is the ideal location as it is perfect for the idea behind our narrative. Furthermore, we will have access to the house at almost any time, so we don't have to worry about it being used or having to book it out. Although our actor isn't very experienced, she will feel comfortable in her own home.

In terms of the narrative, we will film the character coming home from work. We will then show them getting clothes ready, putting on make up, ironing clothes and brushing her hair. She will then exit the house to go on the night out. This will show how she it trying to relive the lifestyle of her youth.This is a much more developed narrative than our old one, and will be much more simpler to film.

Re-filming and changing our idea

After reviewing our original footage and receiving audience feedback from classmates, we have come to the conclusion that our narrative wasn't working as well as we had hoped. In hindsight, the narrative was too vague leading to difficulty filming as well as the failure of getting the main idea across to the audience. Furthermore, we realised we weren't making progress with the narrative after re filming 3-4 times and not getting anywhere, this subsequently lead to our decision to create a new narrative. Our new narrative consists of a middle aged female woman reminiscing about her teenage years, shown through connotations of the 80's and wildness of her youth. The narrative will show a woman coming home from work and doing household activities. This will come across as boring, implying her current personality. As the narrative develops, the character is seen to dress up for a 80's reunion party. We will show her ironing her dress, brushing her hair, putting on the dress and her shoes. The shots will show that she still has her 'spark' and that she isn't actually that boring. We have discussed that this will be easier to film and re film if needed because the actress will be Mike and Adam's mum and the location will be their house, allowing us to film whenever we need to. There is also less individual scenes, so there is less to film and less interference with production. We hope this second idea will have a lot more substance and will look much more like a professional video. Below I have compiled a list of advantages of this decision.

Advantages of changing our idea:

• More clear, developed narrative 
• Improved quality of footage
• More suitable narrative for the genre
• Easier to film in terms of locations and actors
• Better link between lyrics and narrative
• Better continuity of narrative

Filming day 6

Today we re-filmed a scene of our music video. As it didn't turn our as well as we had liked previously, we decided to film it again in hope of getting some better footage for the video. Although the weather conditions weren't ideal, the smoke grenade looked better. We also filmed some footage without the smoke grenade to get a wider variety of shots. We are starting to question the whole narrative, as it doesn't seem to be working very well.

Preparation for filming day 6

Tomorrow on 05/12/17 we are planning to re-film one of the scenes as it din't go as well as planned before. We are going into it with everything planned so that we cover everything and do it to the best quality we can be. Hopefully it will result in much better footage and will look better when edited.

Potential digipak pictures

These are photos that I am going to use for my digipak. I am quite happy with these photos as I have got a wide range of shots and I think they will be good for the digpak. I think they are good quality and will allow me to explore different editing techniques. 

Film Diary: Preparing for fifth day of filming

We are planning to film the final scene of our video this week. The scene involves building and lighting a fire and watching it burn. We are going to create a shot list so that we know exactly what we are filming. This will help us capture the best possible shots for the video. I am also planning to take some photos for my digipak. As the narrative is a big part of the video, I want some pictures of the actors for the digipak as this represents the theme of the song. In addition, some of the digipak photos I took in the studio didn't come out as well as I had hoped.

Film Diary: Fourth day of filming

Today consisted of us filming all the visuals in the studio for the performance elements of the video. We hired a studio in a local city as we thought this would look most professional and slick for the music video.We organised transport for all of us much in advance, which meant we could focus on what we were going to do when we were in the studio. We also had to make sure we had all the codes to the main entrance and individual studio. We learnt from previous experiences and went into the shoot with a set shot list of what we wanted to film. This helped us a lot as we managed to get all the shots done and get extra shits to fill the gaps. We decided to film the song in individual shots that we had planned at the start, and then we went through most of the song in one take, getting as much footage as we could. We tried to get a varied set of shots to make it as interesting to watch as possible. We experimented with high angle and low angle shots and long and short shots etc. We had made the decision to have a drummer in the video, and this really paid off as it allowed us to get a wider range of shots. As our drummer knew the song, it will look so much better as it looks as if we have a proper band. We got a lot of shots of the drums, as this will make our video be a level above a lot of the other videos.

At the end of the session I took some photos for my digipak and digipak poster. I decided to get the photos with the instruments in as this is a big part of my bands identity. I took some of the lead singer individually, the drummer individually and both of them together. When looking back at the photos i took, I have realised that some of them are out of focus,. To rectify this I am going to take some more.

In hindsight we could have got a few more shots to fill in some of the gaps just in case. Although we tried to do this, we started to run out of time at the end. Furthermore, we had some trouble at the start linking the phone to the speakers so we could play the song out loud. This cut into our allocated time a bit and we could have planned that beforehand. Overall we thought it went very well, and our planning and practice allowed us to get some good footage.

Below I have attached some photos of us doing the filming.

Film Diary: Third day of filming

Today we filmed the majority of our narrative. The filming went fairly well but I feel some of the footage and performers suffered as a result of the cold weather conditions. Originally, we went to a local park in Thornbury to film. There were a few implications which delayed our filming. We required bikes to film on and and to help develop our filming by using bike footage to get more shots, however, we could not use bikes to film because they were left at our old house and we didn't have keys to get in. More implications were down to the weather. As soon as we got the camera out to start filming, it started to rain and we didn't have a cover for it. This meant we had to delay our filming to protect the camera. On review, this was actually a good thing that it started raining because we had time to edit our idea on what to do as a result of not using bikes, which we had planned to use. Overall, I think the shooting went fairly well and we filmed everything we wanted to do.
We then went on to the industrial estate on the other side of Thornbury. This filming went well as we didn't have to change much to our idea. This allowed us to be confident on the camera and we filmed this piece quicker than the previous scene. Also, our actors felt more comfortable in front of the camera in this scene which enabled us to film in less takes. Also, as it was freezing cold, our actors didn't want to stay out much longer so that's maybe why they took it more seriously. This scene consisted of two people spray painting a wall and then getting kicked out of the area by a member of public.
Furthermore, we could not film the third scene, to do with the fire because of the rain we encountered. The rain obviously made the floor and wood wet or damp meaning we could not start a fire. This isn't a major problem because we have enough time to film this along as the rest of the week is fairly dry, otherwise we may have to think about making a new narrative part to put in as a replacement.
Overall, the days of filming went really well and is now available for editing together. Although there were a few implications, we managed to adapt to these and overcome the the problems we faced.

Film Diary: Second day of filming

The second day of filming was quite challenging due to the weather which was out of our control. One of the main parts of our video consists of our character cycling down the road with a smoke grenade, however it didn't look as good because of the wind. We were pleased with a lot of the shots we got however we think it could have looked a bit better. I think we managed to improvise well due to weather conditions however we could have researched what the weather forecast was for our day of shooting. We managed to get a wide range of shots which will look very good when cross cutting between the performance and narrative. In hindsight we could have planned a bit better as at some points we weren't sure what we were filming. We are going to edit the whole video and see how this section looks in whole video. Then we are going to decide whether to re-film or not.