Fonts

I experimented with some fonts on Photoshop to see what possible fonts there are which I can use for my print advert and digipak.

Colour Palettes

Possible colour combinations which I could use for my digipak.

Print Work Ideas

The ideas I have for my print work so far are -

• For the front cover I may have a shot of the band. This is because the majority of the digipaks I have researched have the band somewhere on the print work. The colour of the band may be in a monochrome effect. The band will have a direct mode of address towards the audience. This is because I think having a direct mode of address may draw the audience in to the digipak,
• On the back of the digipak I will have another band shot. But this time the band will be concentrating on their instruments with a indirect mode of address. This may portray that the band are passionate about their music and work hard on their work which suits the target audience. The track list will possibly be on the left hand side of the cover and the bar code, record label and additional information will be put at the bottom of the cover (depending on what photo I get). 
• For the shots I want the band members to be wearing non branded clothing just like the target audience would. I also would want them to seem rebellious to suit the indie rock vibe.

• For the inside of the digipak I want the theme to relate to the music video. I'm thinking of having the tree (which is seen at the end of the video) included. At the moment I'm thinking of having the panels in a black and white effect and the CD in colour to represent where the album comes to life or vice versa. 

Digipak/Album Analysis - Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Digipak/Album Analysis - The Kooks: Inside In Inside Out

Rough Cut and Audience Feedback

Audience Feedback -
We showed our rough cut of our music video to a couple of people from our target audience. We collected our responses by getting them to write their answers down on post-it-notes.

Questions:

1. What target audience do you think the video would appeal to?
2. Can you describe what's happening in the narrative?
3. Is there enough lip singing?
4. Do you think there's a variety of shot types and camera work used?
5. Would you say the mise-en-scene is appropriate (for the Indie rock genre)? e.g. Locations and costumes
6. What are your thoughts on the ending? 16-25 is our target audience, does this ending seem too explicit for this age range?

Answers:

Overall, the feedback we gathered state that we need to include more close up shots of Calum to create more of a star image. In addition to this we need to show more lip syncing and instruments being played. This is key invention for the Indie Rock genre which our video lacks at the moment. Another element which the target audience pointed out is that the scenes that were filmed in the dark need to be brightened up.

Filters

Today we tested with some filters to get a better idea of what effects we can do on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here we experimented with the blur filter. We may use a blur filter at some point in our video to show our main characters messed up view on things and disorientation, or we could even use it for some flashbacks.

The footage was originally dark so we attempted to brighten it up adjusting settings such as the brightness, contrast and sharpness. However this made the footage look too pixelated to be used in the music video. We may have to refilm this part or practice with other filters or adjust the settings on other clips to fit in with this one.  

Finally we practiced with changing the footage colour. We don't think we will use this in our music video as it doesn't fit in with our research and the rest of the footage that we have got. Furthermore it doesn't fit in with the genre or narrative of the music video.

Risk Assessment

Before we went out to start filming we put together a risk assessment so we had a better idea of what risks we could come across and how to avoid them as much as possible.

Test Shots

Over the past week, me and my media group got together to practice some shots which we could include in our music video.
We used a variety of different shots to try and fulfill some of Andrew Goodwins theory's.

Advice On How to Film a Music Video

Here is a video that we were shown which has some useful tips on how to film a music video. We are going to try and take some of this advice on bored when we start shooting for our music video.

Music Video of the Week

Twenty One Pilots - Migraine
I chose this video because of the camera work. In this video there is the use of handheld camera work which isn't common in most music videos. In our narrative we have a stalker, so we may need to follow him with the camera in this way. This camera work may be effective in our work because if we decide to include a running scene it will be easier to film. It may also make the video more interesting as it adds more camera movements.

Time Management

Due to personal reasons I have fell behind on outstanding posts on my blog. Here is a list of what I need to complete and post on my blog.  I am aiming to get these complete before the end of November.

We have started filming and we have got a variety of shots of Callum and Sasha (happily) together. We need to take photos of them together to go on a fake Facebook page for the laptop scene. We also need to sort out who is going to be in the band as we are having trouble getting people who are free to film at the same time we are available to film.

Lyrics for Remember You Strategies - Silent Party

V1
Hiding again then we're hiding together
Beat the rush make the most of the weather
I feel the walls around you breathing
A tidy home and a heart thats grieving
I'm not leaving not leaving no


Chorus
Play nicely and play gently
You're angry and quite rightly
?Jump into
and jump off of dont think on and dont give up?


V2
Lift your head and let me check you for tears
A hand that leads and a hand that steers
I feel the walls around you breathing
A tidy home and heart thats grieving
I'm not leaving not leaving no


Chorus
Play nicely and play gently
You're angry and quite rightly
?Jump into
and jump off of dont think on and dont give up?


Bridge
The wind stopped.
The wave stuck.
Your hairs clean, your grass cut.


Chorus to outro.

Permission from Copyright Holder

I asked the copyright holder 'Silent Party' for permission to use their song for our media coursework. The band got back to me granting me and the group permission to use their song.

Props

Instruments for the Band

Depending on the amount of actors we manage to get will determine how many instruments we will need. I think we definitely need a guitar for the video. If possible, it would be useful if we could get hold of some drums and a bass to complete the majority of the instruments that are used in the soundtrack. We would like to use instrument




Laptop

One prop that we defiantly need to use will be a laptop for the stalker when he is looking at pictures in the dark. This will be easy to get as there are already laptops at the location a laptop will be needed in.


Camera

We will be needing a camera for the stalker for when he is out taking pictures of the girl. We already have a camera at hand that we could use for the video.

Costumes

The band - The majority of bands within the indie rock music genre usually wear dark coloured clothing. However there is usually some element of colour somewhere in what they wear.



Trousers: Dark coloured jeans (not necessarily black).




Tops - Plain shirts that are usually one block colour. Some have prints, or more than one colour.



Jackets - Band members seem to all be wearing some sort of jacket. Most are darkish colours. e.g denim, green, black and white, cream/white with black detail.



Shoes - Brown, black shoes.



Accessories - glasses, bowler hats



Hair & Make-up - The majority of the hair is messy and looks 'unstyled'. However, the one picture shows that their hair has been clearly styled. Members of indie rock bands don't usually look like they are wearing any make-up.



The performers in our music video (for the band) will wear clothing along those lines. Clothing that isn't bright yet stands out. Depending on the acters we get for the video, we will then decide how to style their hair to make them look like they belong in a indie rock band. The performers will most likely wear dark coloured jeans, a shirt and a jacket/coat of some kind. Shoes will be along the lines of the likes of converse.

                                                      The Stalker.

The stalker of the video will most likely be dressed similar to this collage of images (laid back clothing). At the start of the video he will look healthy and happy so we won't need to use make-up to change his appearance. By the end of the video we may need to use a bit of make-up to make the actor look tired and worn down to suit the stalker role.
We may need to have two or three different outfits for the stalker. This is because we see this actor become more of a stalker over time. To make the video more realistic and to show events happening on different days, changing the costume will help express this point. As the video goes on, his clothing could get darker to portray his sadness.


The Girl.
The costumes for the girl will also be normal laid back clothing. The clothing that will be worn will suit the season (autumn) so she will look in place and like she belongs in the video. Possible clothing items could be: jumper, jeans, hats, scarfs, shorts with tights, a dress with tights, a jacket, coat, converse etc.
Hair will be styled as a natural everyday hairstyle - nothing extreme. Make-up will also be basic everyday natural make-up. Nothing overly done as it won't suit the style of the video




Dude Number 2.
This actor will wear clothing along the same lines as the stalker. However this actor won't need any make-up to make him look run down and his clothing could be a bit brighter than the stalker to contrast the two characters against each other.


The actors will most likely wear their own clothes because they already fit in with the Indie Rock genre.

Lighting and Colour

For our video, we have come up with the idea of having our main character be a stalker. One of the ideas to highlight this is to have some shots of him stalking the female characters social media on a laptop in a dark room. Here are some examples of our idea:

- To get shots like this we would need to film in a dark room. We would also need to use another light source such as a torch to help add  more light to the shot where we need it. These areas might be to show more of the laptop, or to highlight and make the character look more clear.
- Using shots like these would help connote the creepy stalker theme. This idea should be effective as it's not a common theme throughout the Indie Rock genre. My group have also discovered that our target audience like things to be original and not mainstream and already done.






One example of interesting lighting techniques would be this movie trailer for a film called "SE7EN". One lighting technique which would suit our music video is the flashing off lights between some of the shots. It reminds me of a camera flash. Using this technique might add more of a creepy stalker effect to our video.

Time Managment

As of today I have some outstanding posts. These are :

• Posting Goodwin's Theory PowerPoint and the Purpose of Music Videos analysis PowerPoint - Both of these PowerPoints are complete, however I am having trouble posting them onto my blog via Slideshare. 
• I need to outline the target audience for our music video and post it. 
• Post the evidence of getting permission from the band to use their song.

- I'm hoping I get these outstanding posts complete before the 16th of October.

Music Video of the Week

I chose this performance (?) and concept based music video by Don Broco because of the camera movement. The camera doesn't stop moving throughout the video and it's the same camera movement throughout. To keep the music video interesting they have got loads of different things going on.
Another reason why I chose this video is how you can clearly separate the band members and actors apart by how they act and are dressed.

Music Video Idea & 5 Sections of Narrative

Our concept of our music video will be about a stalker who starts off as a normal nice guy and then turns into a stalker as their love whilts. The girl moves on whilst he doesn't so he starts to follow her around. Our location will mostly be filmed in the countryside, in town and inside a house (my house).

 1. Happy - The boy and girl are together. This is shown by bright colours, the acters are happy holding hands, watching a film etc.
2. Unhappy - Something bad has happened between the boy and girl. This may be shown with the use of darker lighting.
3. Unhappy & start of the stalker phase - Dark room with dude looking at computer screen possibly looking at photographs of the girl with him and then with some other dude.
4. Running - See the dude running through the countryside to get the girl but he can't reach her no matter how hard he tries.
5. Dude gets to girls house and looks through window at a scene that is symmetrical to the first scene but with a different dude.

Animatic

Pitch Feedback

We decided to gather some audience feedback for our pitch. We presented our pitch to a focus group of three people who we thought represented our target audience in some way. We asked them several questions which are shown at the end of our pitch prezi and recorded their response.

Pitch for Music Video

Music Video of the Week

I chose Wake Up by Mallory Knox as I like the way how the performance base part of the video is surrounded by the narrative of the video.

Indie Rock Music Video Research

The song we have chosen to work with is in the Indie Rock genre so I did some research of some music videos that are within this genre.

• Throughout all the videos, the camera always goes back to the singer of the group (star image.)
• 2/3 of the videos have the band performing the song (shows instruments)
• All the videos include lip syncing 
• General look of the bands is laid back - not much branded clothing, nothing dramatic with hair and make-up. 

Moodboard for Music Video

Unsigned Band and Music

My group have chosen a band called Silent Party. They are a British unsigned Indie Rock band.

The song that we have chosen to use for our music video is called 'Remember Your Strategies' from their album called 'Fair Winds and Following Seas.

Production Company

Our production company is called KDSV Productions LTD (Katie Thomas, Dani Morse, Sasha Smiley and Victoria Norton).

Katie Thomas -

Dani Morse -

Sasha Smiley -

Victoria Norton -

Creativity

1. Creativity is about a person expressing themselves in different ways. A person can express being creative in many unique ways such as moving, art, music, writing etc.

2. You can be more creative by doing more different things that you feel like doing. Creativity is different for everyone, there isn't a right or wrong way to express yourself.

3. Creativity comes from within a person. A person may be creative by the way they feel, a memory, what's happening around them etc. 

4. Creativity plays an important role in creating a media production. Without creativity each media product will be the same and will lack individuality.

Creativity is a big issue in education -                               

Creativity depends on being prepared to be wrong in what you do.

Creativity is having original ideas.


I agree with what Sir Ken Robinson is saying because when you're being creative or doing anything things may go wrong and no one should be afraid of this happening. In education you can be restricted in how creative you can be. In art in schools you have to follow a guideline to what your work should be, it's not entirely up to you what you create. But everyone can creative whenever they want to, even if they aren't creative often.


Being more creative -

Star Image

Amy winehouse star image from Dani_Morse

Andrew Goodwin

Research - Promotional Package

Music Video Analysis

Videos: 

Function/Purpose of Music Videos

Action Plan

7th September - Introduction to coursework brief.

14th September - Research and planning

• Choose artist / band song
• Ask permission from copyright holder etc

21st September - Research and planning:

• Create moodboards for music video
• Outline the target audience for the music video
• Create a pitch for the music video etc

28th September - Research and planning

• Present pitch and collate audience feedback
• Storyboards/ animatic etc

5th October - Planning for production

• Shot lists, shooting schedule and test shots
• Locations, casting, costumes and props
• Risk assessment

 12th October - 26th October - Filming

2nd November - 9th November - Editing

16th November - Editing

• Complete a rough cut
• Gain audience feedback on rough cut

23rd November - Editing

• Complete final cut on music video
• Gain audience feedback on final cut

30th November - Ancillary Tasks: Research and planning:

• Complete mock ups of print work
• Experimentation
• Complete photoshoot

7th December - Production:

• Produce print products
• Gain audience feedback

14th December - Production

• Complete final edits

4th January - 25th January - Evaluation

Brief

For my A2 media course I am going to create a promotional package for the release of a new album. This will include a music video, magazine advert and a digipak