Digipak Editing

I have changed the colour of the background to a colour that is similar to the background images and the leaves to keep a consistency throughout. I looked at having an image there for example leaves but they didn't look right against the other images of leaves so i decided to change it and leave it simple and have just a colour.

Digipak Changes

I wanted to include an element that made us appear more indie, for example the guitar. I tried photoshopping in a picture of a guitar however I feel that it looks quite out of place so I am going to leave it at is original. 

However, I like the idea of having a small image of a guitar next to the title 'after midnight' as I think this subtly gives off the same indie vibes. I will get some feedback on whether this element works within my digipak. 

17th December 2013

Journal:

Today I have been editing my digipak and I feel that to make it appear more indie I need to include an element that portrays us as indie, for example a guitar. I might include a guitar into one of the images, if it looks right, but if not I will leave it as I think that appearance and the overall look of the images are quite indie. Also, I need to include other elements in my digipak which make it seem more appealing for fans. I have included a section where there is an exclusive DVD however I am looking at other digipaks and thinking about including a sticker which tells people that its 'limited edition' or 'special edition' as the majority of the digipaks that I have looked at all have an element which make them different to a normal cd.

Second Draft (i) Digipak Advertisement

I have also included a twitter and facebook logo onto this advertisement so that the fans/viewers can be more interactive with the band and find out more about them. It makes them appear more social and open to communicating with the fans which is an element that is recognised amongst the indie genre.

Sixth Draft Digipak

I am really happy with this digipak as I think that it all matches quite well with eachother and I like the images that I have used. I have changed the back cover to one of us walking away from the camera and then places the tracklistings over this so you can see it a lot better. I have also used the old image of the scenery for the cd cover which i also think works really well. For the DVD I have placed trees over the cd and blurred it out to also convey the indie genre further. For the top left image I used an old one of us standing up as I think there were too many close ups and you are able to see our outfits and also the background, however I will speak to other people and ask for their opinions on whether this is a good idea or not. I need to start thinking about what to put for the spine of the CD as I have not yet included this and this is something I need to do. Also, I might place a sticker on the front of the digipak to make it different from other cd's and make it seem exclusive and worth the money. Also, I think I will include a chance to win tickets or to meet the band for fans to act as an interactive part for people and make them get excited about buying the digipak.

Fifth Digipak

On this digipak I tried including an old image back to see whether it suited it well and after consideration I do not think that it matches well over just the two spaces so I will not be using this. I am unsure of the back image with the tracklisting on as you can't really see the text very well so I am going to have to change this too. I have included an exclusive bonus dvd that comes with the digipak to make it more exciting for the fans and also persuade them into buying this exclusive digipak.

Second Draft Advertisement

As I previously spoke to my teacher and she said I needed to change the typography I have applied these changes to my advertisement so that the typography is consistent throughout the digipak and advertisement. I am quite pleased with the way it's looking at the moment however its quite plain and simple and I'm not sure if thats appropriate. I will speak to my teacher and ask her opinion on whether its fine or whether its too simple and I will make the appropriate changes to it.

Fourth Digipak

On this digipak I decided to change the colour of the CD so that it matched the colours of some of the backgrounds that we used and delete the flowers too as they looked quite out of place. I also changed the picture of us sitting on the sofa as after speaking to a few teachers they all agreed that it didn't really suit our overall look and didn't portray us as being indie, so I also changed this. I changed it to an older photo on the bench but I'm not sure that I like it because it doesn't really suit the overall look of the digipak and the really bright green background contrasts it. 

Third Digipak

On this digipak I have included the cd and I have printed the images from my top onto the cd to keep a consistency throughout and to also make it look quite unique. I am unsure on some of the images that are in it so I am going to speak to some of my teachers and ask for their opinions on the type of images I have used.

Typography Change

After speaking with sinead about my digipak and advertisement she feels that I (and also the group) need to change the typography for my digipak and my advertisement. I have chosen this font as it is quite bold which is often used in other indie genres digipaks/ cds or advertisements. Also its quite quirky too which also reflects the band, so i feel that this typography is a lot more suitable then the other flowery typography.

Test Shots/Videos

Test shots

As we thought that the 50mm camera lens was a good choice for our close ups in the music video we decided to do a test shoot of close ups to practice. As I am going to be the lead singer of the band there are more close ups of me so that we could see what it looks like. Also, we tested the girls standing behind me and seeing if there faces were blurred out or not.  I really like some of the images that we took and I feel that using this lens is really suitable for the music video as it looks really professional.

Editing

We have converted the music file into the specific conversion as it was in the wrong one and it sounded really bumpy but now we have changed it. The editing process has started and we are going to divide the editing between us so that we all contribute to the editing process as we all want to do it (instead of one person specifically doing it.) After looking at the editing that holly has started I feel that we should change one of the shots (the one spinning round) because even though it is 'fun' it looks quite serious and I feel that something more silly would be more suitable. I'm going to look over different shots and choose one that I think would be more suitable.

CD Cover for Digipak

As I am still unsure about my digipak CD cover I was thinking of experimenting with this picture to see if it works well as a disk cover or integrating it as one picture. The colours in this picture, with some alterations, would also work well with my digipak as I feel like my current CD cover is not relevant. I am also going to speak to my teacher on my next monday lesson so that I can get more feedback on ideas and whether it works well as a whole.

10th December 2013

Journal:

In today's lesson after I converted the clips we also played around with a camera lens (50mm) which focuses on the subject and blurs out the background. I really liked the effect that it gave and I think that we should use it for some of the shots within our music video. As we have a few close ups I think this is a really good idea as it will convey intimacy with the audience and it can also reference to Goodwin's theory of close ups and music and visuals which is important to adopt to.

Editing

I have started to convert the clips, that we filmed yesterday, so we can use them in the editing of the music video. We are going to review over the clips so that we can choose the ones that are best suited and that will work best into the music video. Once we have chose them we can begin to construct the beginning of the music video.

9th December 2013 (filming)

Journal:

Today we went filming in our lessons for our music video. We went to danson park and filmed several shots, these included one of the signs that we needed for the intro; our jump cut; tilting to the light (which we changed to one person); point of view spinning shot; band spinning; walking past and away from the camera and a point of view shot on our shoes. We still have more shots to take in danson park as we wouldn't of had enough time to do it today, but we know now exactly what we need to film as we have been ticking off the shots as we go along. The weather was quite good today and it looked very autumny which heightened the portrayal of our indie genre. As we were not able to film in London the other day we have planned to do this at the end of December or beginning of January as it will be a lot emptier. We are going to start editing in tomorrow's lesson so I am very happy with the overall outcome of the beginning of the music video filming. 

CD designs

I am trying to come up with different ideas for my CD cover as I am unsure what to use. I have coloured in the background a similar colour to the background of the front cover. I have also cropped out an image of flowers that are on my top and pasted them into the CD round the edges. This makes is seem quite indie and the use of flowers also portrays this. The fact that I used an image from my clothing also portrays this. I am going to get feedback from my teachers and see what they think about it.

Digipak Editing

I have updated my digipak as the colours were not matching very well and there wasn't much consistency. I have changed around some of the pictures, for example the back picture with our heads together is a really strong image and I think that it needed to be seen more. I have changed the typography on the back cover as it was quite hard to see and i have kept it the same as my advertisement to keep consistency throughout. I still haven't decided on an image for my cd cover as I need to make sure that it stays consistent throughout the whole digipak. 

London Research

I have researched into the locations that we are going and the trains that we would need to get in order to get there. We can get to charing cross from bexleyheath and a lot of the locations are walking distance from there. We can get the Waterloo line to go to Big Ben and the London Eye and the northern line can take us to Piccadilly Circus or Lester square. Camden Town can also be reached from these places so we will probably get a travel card so we can travel all around London. 

All the places that we need to film in are permitted and it's legal in the places we need to so this is very helpful as we do not need to get permission from the police. 

We have decided that we still wish to continue on going on a tour bus as this is an easier option for filming and it wil also allow us to go to different places. 

Filming research

I have looked at some websites to research into the day for when we go to London to film our music video. As we are going to London we have to make sure that we take plenty of shots and that we are happy with everything in the shot as it will be difficult to retake the shots again. The idea of getting a tour bus is so that it would be easier to film and it will also allow us to go to different locations. The idea of using the location of London makes it seem quite indie as some of the places we are going to hold the connotations of indie/folky/rock within them. 

Music Video Discussions

First Draft Digipak Advertisement

This is my first draft for my advertisement for my digipak. I have used the image that is on my front cover of my digipak as I want to keep a consistency throughout the digipak and the advertisement and it would make the album easily recognised. I have similarly used the white typography too as this is used in the digipak. I have changed some of the typography on some parts as it looked strange without a different typography and I am happy with the one I used as it makes the album name stand out. I have included the record company logo and the bands name as this is important for them, and the web address would allow fans to find out more about them. I have also included a star rating which makes it look really realistic but also because it makes the album seem really good and then persuading them to buy it. Adding to this, I chose to use the magazine 'Q' as this writes about similar genre based bands such as indie bands. This would allow people who read this magazine to encourage them to then buy the Digipak. 

I am quite happy with the overall look of the advertisement but I haven't decided yet on whether to use the image stretched across or to have a plain background. I am going to speak to my teacher and ask her on her opinions and how I can improve both my advertisement and my digipak. 

I took inspiration from bands/artists that are similar to the genre of our band. For example, Florence and The Machine uses her album cover as the image for her advertisement which is something I have done.
Kings of Leon use one image spread across the entire page and then the text over it, which is what I have also done, however they use a different image to their album cover but it is very similar which keeps the consistency.

25th November 2013

Journal: 

We need to start filming for our music video so we are going to plan when to film.

On Friday 6th December 2013:

• Filming all the parts that take place in Danson Park 

Saturday 7th December 2013: 

• Filming all the different locations in London 

Places to go: 

- Charing Cross

- London Bridge 

- Camden Town 

- London Eye 

- Trafalgar Square 

Filming for Music Video/Journal

Journal:

As we have done our animatics and got our feedback we need to start deciding when we can start filming for our music video, as we have a lot of different shots in different locations. I have marked off the days of next month when I'm busy but I'm free the majority of the time so we need to decide as a group when we can get together and start filming. We also came up with an idea today for our music video, for the notion of looking, where we want to film on a bus. We are going to go on the open top buses up London which will allow us to get a variety of shots and locations and also it would be totally legal to film with a tripod ect. 

21st November 2013 (feedback from animatics)

Journal 

Feedback from our Animatics: 

I am really really happy with the overall feedback from Leanne and the rest of the class.
People commented on how our genre was well presented and how we have used the genre characteristics within our animatics, which is one of the main things.
People said how we used Goodwin's theory really well which is really important as this is the main conventions that need to be used within Music Videos, so I am glad that people have picked up on this.
They said that the overall pace of the animatics was very good too and that it goes well with the song, which is something we wanted to present within this.
There were comments on the animatics suiting the target audience and that it would be something that would want to be watched over again.

People commented on the things that we needed improving on which was the notion of looking and the intertextual references. However, we have shown this in our music video but you probably couldn't notice it in the story board images.

New Digipak Photos

This is a video of some of the pictures that we took. I am a lot happy with these photos as they make us look more like a band and more friendly and relaxed with one another; this was one of our first issues. We have resolved some of the issues that people have said about. We have took a lot more close ups too which was something that was needed as they are a new band and need to be recognised. We had someone take our photos too which was also a lot more helpful for us.

Second Draft for Digipak

This is my second draft for my digipak. After getting feedback from the class and also from teachers about the quality of our pictures we decided to take some more. I was really happy with the new pictures as you are able to see our faces a lot more which is needed for a new band. The pictures are also quite laid back and relaxed making us fit into our genre more. I have stayed with the same typography as people agreed that this was suitable and also with the same colour. I am going to ask for more feedback on this digipak so I can make more changes if they are needed. The pictures make us seem a lot closer as a band which is also another thing which we needed to do.

Goodwin's theory

We have applied Goodwin's theory within our music video for certain aspects.

For example we have included:

• A relationship between music and visuals,
• A relationship between music and lyrics, 
• Intertextual Reference, 
• Notion of looking, 
• Close ups (the record label influence)

For the relationship music and visuals appears throughout a lot of the music video as well as music and lyrics. We have tried to link the music and lyrics but to an extent where it is consistent.

For our intertextual reference we have chose a section from her music video where the camera moves around her. We chose to do Blondie because we felt that the fans of the band 'After Midnight' would also be interested in this type of music. We have chose her as we want the band's roots to come from this era and their influences come from this too, however the band take a more modern approach towards their image/music. As we have included a lot of scenes that are based in London we wanted to choose and iconic artist that is famous in Britain. 

We have used the notion of looking through different cinematography, for example we have used a point of view shot to make the audience feel closer with the band. It also makes them appear natural and normal people who are just having fun. 

The use of close ups in reference to the record label is used in order for the audience to feel more in touch with the band. It also puts the bands image out there and for them to be noticed more. 

Animatics

So today we completed the animatics for our music video. I am really happy with the way it looks and it allows me to have a better insight as to what the overall video will look like. We have a lot of different locations and some are up london. When we film up london we need to make sure that we get loads of shots as it will be a lot harder to reshoot. We have included an intertextual reference from one of Blondie's music video where the camera turns round her laying down and we have done this for all of us.

Story boards

This is all the story boards which I have drew out. I am really happy with the overall look of the storyboards as I feel that it applies everything for the Goodwin theory and it corresponds well with the tone and pace of the song itself. I am going to put them into a video for the animatics so we can see the timings of each step which will help us to consider if we need to make any changes. I