Group: Callsheet and Risk Assesment

Here is the example of our Callsheet and Risk Assesment of which we had to fill out for when we undertook a shoot.

AT: Tuesdays lesson 29/11/11

In todays lesson Cameron and I were editing our new footage in with the rest of the previous footage. We have now got every clip we want into the timeline and now just need to make a few tweaks and maybe move a few clips around and then cut them up even more in order to create a fast cutting rate when at the chorus parts of the song.

[Insert picture of performance, brighton and slow mo shot]

Overall Cameron and I were very pleased with all the footage we have and both agree that the video looks very authentic, now its just making the video flow better and a few bits to edit.

JC: In what way are your video and printwork rich in connotation?

In the lead up to the production process, we primarily undertook research into critical theories and secondarily into examples of other artists' work and how these theories had been applied to those, in order to understand how and where to use them in our piece. With just one week to go, I believe we have been successful in transferring a great deal of what we learnt into our own work.

I feel that one trait that is present throughout much of the cut (apart from when Cameron is singing into the camera) is that of comradery. Whilst for our studio shoot we all needed to be in shot together, there are various shots we took around Brighton where it is as if you are watching a home video (filmed on handicam) of the band, sometimes with arms around one another etc. This connotes the idea that we are a proper band who are regularly in contact with one another and are good 'mates' and each have individual traits - for example, I tried to connote a grumpiness that was unique to myself throughout every shoot, but which could also be understood by everyone else.

Furthermore, there are also references to popular culture in our printwork pieces. The subjects of our work - emergency exit signs - have been manipulated but remain recognisable to their original forms, which is why I believe they are ingenious. They represent a clever twist on the images to suit our genre because the guitar on the back cover [INSERT STILL] links to indie/rock and the uniqueness of the images again link to the indie part. When considering this piece I also looked at the cover for 'Stars Of CCTV' by Hard-fi, where althoughthe image is not manipulated there is a cartoon picture of a CCTV camera, which like the 'Emergency' signs is associated with Health and Safety and is using the title of the album to connote a visual.

Our costumes also connote ideas of the genre we are interested in representing. We can all be seen to be wearing chinos or jeans, tight t-shirts etc, whilst in performance and some shots in Brighton we have authentic musical instruments. In this way we are conforming to stereotypical assumptions of the genre, whilst also again making our band more convincing as a product and in terms of authenticity of performance.

JC: How are you representing your artist across your promotional material?

Across our promotional material, we have tried to both conform to and break with similarities that have been used across The Pigeon Detectives' previous work. For example, in a number of previous albums, such as Emergency (which we are redesigning), a common theme is the colour red. This has been carried through to our digipak design as well as advert. Furthermore, for 'The Pigeon Detectives' logo at the top of the album and on the advertisment Alex found a similar font to that used in the album and advertisment cover for Emergency and created the letter 'E' [INSERT STILL] similarly so that the end is missing from it [INSERT STILL]. The digipak marks a reference to popular culture because we have included the use of an 'emergency exit' sign which is universally recognisable as they can be seen in most public and private non-residential buildings. The fact that we have also used the same design in our digipak as advertisment also agrees with previous pieces of work and for me makes our work more coherent.

As for the representation of the band in our piece, I feel we have successfully connoted a rebellious feeling throughout all of our work - digipak, advertisment and music video. Although we still have some progress to make on our music video, some of the shots we carried out in our friday shoot had the same sort of feel - especially when put in black and white - to that of the video for 'I'm Not Sorry' by The Pigeon Detectives, which we had been considering for a long time. Furthermore, our printwork - although on a more artistic/manipulative route than previous albums - also carries this idea [INSERT STILL]; it shows the alteration of emergency signs, just in the same way that a graffiti artist - someone who would be considered to be rebellious - might do the equivalent to (for example) a road sign, in order to create an ironic message. This also helps to amplify the meaning of our use of the signs. Furthermore, the use of bright and bold colours embodies the potential behaviour of the band, as a rebellious character may often be considered to be outgoing.

At the same time however, our band image and related work could also be interpreted as being mysterious; there is no presence of us in our digipak design, the use of dark lights and resultant shadows, as well as colour saturation [INSERT STILL] and the whodunnit graffiti effect are all associated with mystery, through both myth (dark tales) and reality.

JC: Monday lesson

After friday's (mainly) successful shoot, it was important for us to follow that up with some good work today. We spent lunchtime and some of the lesson filming our slow-motion shots for use in the chorus. We were fortunate enough to have Harry help set up the equipment, which included a frame, a pair of spotlights, a camframe, tripod and a camera. Further to this, to create the effect of a beach, Cameron purchased a small paddling pool and some gravel to use.




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spotlights

 

We placed the camera horizontally above Cameron and zoomed in on his face in order to hide the black sheet we would use to catch any paint, as well as the paddling pool. As with our friday shoot, we played the track in double speed in order for it to be in time when we slow the footage down to half speed. For me, this was Cameron's best performance on the singing. Myself and Alex alternated with switching the camera on and off, and he and Harry threw most of the liquid at Cameron whilst I gathered photographic evidence of the process. Filling buckets with water and subsequently a water/paint mixture,  in total we took six takes of Cameron being covered in water, and four with paint.

I feel our shoot today has been very successful. We looked back at the footage briefly and it looked promising for a first playback. Hopefully we can get the footage onto the timeline quickly tomorrow in order to see whether or not we need any more filming.

AT: Monday 28/11/11

In todays lesson Cameron, Jack and I were filming in the drama studio, slow motion shots, we had cameron lie down in a paddling pool filled with gravel. Then Jack and I threw paint and water over, this looked very effective and when we captured it and watched it back in slow motion it looked very effective. We had set the camera up so it was over looking cameron at a birds eye view and then just had to zoom in so it was a CU of cameron's face, this also just kept the back drop of just the gravel which interlinks with the Brighton theme. Now all we have to do is gather all our other filler shots and sync them with the music and intercut them to create the fast cutting rate that we desire on the chorus.

CM: 28/11/11

Today I was the lead actor within our shoot. I had purchased a paddling pool and some gravel over the weekend. Then filled the paddling pool with the gravel within the drama studio. Then I lay in the paddling pool and gravel which gave the effect of lying on a beach. Then I got black paint and water thrown over me, which was filmed to double time lip-synching. Which when played back would be in slow-motion.

CM: Update on weekend starting 26/11/11

I have posted the footage edited with the performance on the blog so you can see the idea of the footage. I have also been to the shops and bought gravel and paddling pool for tomorrows shoot. We can then edit all lunch and frees this week and be good for the Thursday deadline.

CM: Rough cut slow-mo with performance draft

Some bits work really well but I am out of focus for the CU paint shots and also the screaming shots so we should re-film them tomorrow. This is an idea of where they can go.

AT: In what ways is our video and print work rich in connotation?

Our music video and print work is rich in connotation. To start of with mise-en-scene the cutting away from the performnce to the brighton footage shows this sense of authenticity within the band, also with all the members present shows this comradatory which is present in other indie music videos. In the performance with have this look of it being in an actual performance to a live audience with use of key lighting. Richard Dyer, wrote about two paradoxes that occur in music videos, I beleive that in our music video it conforms to these two paradoxes of us as the band memebers 1) Being simultaneously present and absent and 2) ordinary and extra ordinary simultaneously. In our performance we are extra ordinary as we are performing and appear to be playing the track infront of an audience thus making us present, however we are ordinary when we are in Brighton adding to the authenticity of the band however this also makes us absent as we are not there with the audience and do not break the fourth wall to interact with the audience.

The choice of costumes we have used conform to the "Indie" genre shown by the wearing of chinos and tight t-shirts. This helps develop the star brand that we have built upon . Upon doing so we are conforming to the myth of indie bands through the use of non verbal language to create this sense of rebelion. When the lead singer is in the archway shot the use of fish-eye helps connote that authenticity low fi feel to the video and connotes that working class feel which is further reinforced with the black and white with the high contrast effect.

In our digipak we have use of popular culture in order to connect to the target audience, also the album cover is simplistic in its design and goes against other main stream conventions. This helps reinforce this idea of the 'indie' genre. Also the indexical signs of our printwork is that those who buy it are showwing that they label themselves as an individual who rebels in society or is seen as standing a side from the crowd and doing something unique as expresed within the 'indie' conventions.

AT: How are we representing our band across the promotional campaigns? What are the techniques?

In our promotional campaign we have used the idea of popular culture in our digipak in order to create this reference point with the audience that they themselves can identify. Also the use of indexical signs such as the emergency signs and the bold font acts as a label of who you are. We wanted to carry on the themes they had in their album covers so we have used the same font and used similar colours to what they did and played around with it more to make ours stand out and continue to promote their star brand.

We used a big bold font that is simple in its design so therefore it is easily read however it takes a different spin on the usual font with a different stylised 'E' as shown in the picture above. This just adds little bit more interest to the font and stand out more building more so on the pigeon detectives meta narratives as they are upcomming band and are getting more so established.
The predominant red has been used across their previous promotional texts and therefore is key to the piece. The simplicity of it allows for an easy reading path and understanding of the theme of music, the album being called 'emergency' so therefore is a pun of its meaning.

AT: Reflection on Friday's shoot

On fridays shoot we all feel it went very well and found a good location to use, I was camera man, Jack and Cameron were directing the shots. We were pleased with our ideas we had come up with and used slow motion capturing in 240 FPS however this does distort the quality however looks fantastic.

The problems we faced, when we watched back the footage we were out of focus on the close up shots and the shots were too far away and it was too dark, we are arranging to shoot again on the monday in the drama studio instead therefore we can control the conditions easier with the lighting and allow to control it more.

After we have done this we will spend our free's and lunch times editing the video in order to have it completed in time.

CM: In what ways is our video and print work rich in connotation?

Our music video and print work is rich in connotation. Firstly with our mise-en-scene within our production there are many visual signifiers. The instruments along with the stage and lights, has the connotation of a concert to an audience. This adheres to the theories of Richard Dyer, who believed that music video has two paradoxes. 1) Present and absent at the same time, 2) Ordinary and extra-ordinary. The performance shows them as being extra-ordinary as are a band. Yet our Brighton footage shows the band going through the streets of Brighton which is ordinary. Also the band are present when they are singing into the camera, yet absent as are up on stage and away from the general public and audience.

The costumes have the connotation of "Indie" which is with the tight jeans or chinos, also tight t-shirts. This enabled us to demonstrate the genre of music were performing, and also enhance the star-brand into what they wear and do. This is reinforcing the myth that "indie" bands all wear tight clothing. Furthermore, the non-verbal language used in our performance has the connotation of anger/rebellion, through the use of clenched fists/teeth, and also kicking/throwing cans and snapping objects. Moreover, during the performance the non-verbal language with jumping around and throwing my body around the stage signifies the rock genre which helps to establish the band as an Indie/rock band, again we are enhance the star-brand. Moreover, the graffiti and the lead singer being trapped in archway shot, signifies no freedom which is why the band is rebelling, has the connotations of being oppressed by society.

In continuation, the use of the fish eye lens gives a psychedelic feel to the music video,  this has intertexuality with urban music videos who use the same technique. This can help widen the target audience as has techniques used from other genre music videos which could meaning gaining some of the audience who normally wouldn't listen to our genre.

Furthermore, the print work  conforms to the genre as is individual. Also the colour of red signifies anger and rebellion which helps to promote our brand. Also there is intertexuality within our print work, as iconography such as, emergency signs but has a unique twist upon the common image. We have used a popular culture image so that all readers can relate to our advertisement and in turn buy the track. Which makes it an effective promotional tool.

JC: Jump cuts idea

I've briefly edited and uplaoded a shot we took in Brighton with the fish-eye lens which included all of the members of the band. This is something we might consider implementing in the final edit.

JC: Thursday lesson

Today's lesson was a wake up call for us. We had a proper look through the footage gathered in Brighton - placing certain shots on our video timeline -  and were pleased with some of it, but both ourselves and Miss Fernandez were concerned about the amount of shots we have, and so we have taken the decision to film some more shots tomorrrow.

We therefore are going to be looking at videos tonight, trying to gather ideas. The first one I have come across is 'Spotlight' by Mute Math, below. Although there is only one shot, the video shows frenetic behaviour from the band throughout and for the majority of the time involves compressing the timing of the shot.

AT: Thursdays lesson 24/11/11

In todays lesson I progressed furthermore with our digipak and we have alot of ideas and just need to finalise which ones we are actually going to use then we have that completed. With our video we hit a speedbump with the realisation of not enough extra abstract footage in order to be intercut with the performance being the main story line. We are doing another shoot on friday and hopefully we will acheive the amount of shots we need.

CM: How are we representing our band across the promotional campaigns? What are the techniques?

• Across our promotional campaign we have represented our band as rebellious. We have a dominant reading path across our promotional campaign, starting with the bold font at the top of the advertisement, then reading downwards to the arrow and following the graphic and finally reading the name of the album and the reviews. The reason we have made this dominant reading path is because the advertisement needs to be clear, as is a secondary consumption to the reader who bought the magazine. Thus the reader won't be concentrating on the advertisement, and so the message needs to be conveyed quickly.

• Moreover, to help our advertisement "catch the eye" of our target audience, we have made sure we use colours that stand out (Dark blue and dark red ontop of a white background). The use of "white space" also amplifies the text and the graphic out towards the reader helping it to stand out even more. Furthermore, the use of "white space" is a standard graphic design convention and thus makes our promotional campaign look more professional.
• Also we are conforming to previous printwork done by the band, and so fans will relate to the graphic design as the look is a convention of The Pigeon Detectives, this shows continuity within the band. Furthermore, the similar designs help to develop and enhance the star-brand and meta-narrative. 

Here are the examples of their previous printwork:

• "Emergency" album:                                            "Wait for me" album

• "Up Guards and at'em" Album:



AT: Wednesday 23/11/11

In today's Lesson and tuesday's I have been editing our Brighton footage into the performance edit that Cameron had made. It has been a success however some clips not quiet working as we would of hoped they would however, the use of turning our clips into black and white by complete colour saturation and then turning the contrast up by 42.6 to 142.6 and then bringing down the brightness by 60.4 to 39.1 means that our clip has a more authentic feel to the clip and helps build our bands meta narrative.

The question we have currently is weather or not to film any more additional rebelious footage in order to go back to the idea we had similar to the car park north video produced by martin de thurah, I personally realy like the feel of this video and I think something like that would take our video to that next level and would suit the song and also support the conventions of the indie genre. Even if some of the shots are as simple as jumping of something and played back in slow motion , I feel what would be effective is the slow motion shots juxtaposed with the fast cutting band performance shots.

CM: Group Rough Cut

This is our rough cut. At the moment the this footage is having our Brighton footage cut into it.

CM: Technical deconstruction of "Marina and the diamonds" magazine advert

Deconstruction:

• Name of artist and CD name in the biggest font which creates a dominant reading path for the target audience. Thus as this is a debut album, it shows the name of the artist and then following the reading path you see the artist.
• The image of the artist takes up the majority of the page, which signifies her importance. However she is supporting dominant ideologies of woman and the ideas of Goffman, Jhally and Kilbourne with her lying down on her back which is making the audience looking at her in a voyeuristic way. The large image of Marina is very glamorous but also quite seductive which applies the male gaze theory and makes this advert appealing to men this supports Goffman, Jhally and Kilbourne.
• There is a simple colour scheme, white, black and a pink/purple colour this links with the colours of the CD cover which is helping to build a star brand and meta-narrative. It also demonstrates continuity between the two advertisements and a relationship is created for the target audience to follow, for example, the target audience sees the advertisement and then notices the CD cover in the record shop and goes over to the album, thus effective advertisement.
• The advert has quite a vintage feel to it by the vintage wallpaper used in the background. The artists name is in a handwritten style in large writing and this makes it seem more personal and stylish than a basic text. The relationship between the text and images show that the vintage theme is used throughout the advert. The singles that are already released are in a bold text as these would stand out and possibly be more recognisable to the target audience.
• The CD cover is shown at the bottom of the advertisement. The title of the album is also used on the advert and this is in a pink, which is different from the rest of the text so it stands out. It also shows up against the duller background. The target audience then would instantly recognise the CD in the record store leading to more sales and effective promotional tool.

CM: A4 Advertisement

Today I have been creating our A4 advert for our music video. I had a few problems at first with pin pointing an idea but has eventually come together. There is intertexuatlity with the emergency signs, and also with the Pigeon Detectives font. This will help promote the star brand and meta-narrative.
I have created a dominant reading path with the font of the Pigeon Detectives being the largest part of the advertisement, which means the reader will begin at the top then following the arrow down and across. Ending up with Emergency title and the reviews from music magazines. This advertisement will appear on the back cover of NME, with the dimensions of 249mm in width, and 313mm in height, which is the dimensions of this advertisement.

How it was made:

Step 1)

• I had a blank white background.

Step 2)

• Then I added the base picture that was taken from our digipak, and adjust the dimensions slightly. Also I downsized the "Emergency man" to make the main focus the Pigeon Detectives font.

Step 3)

• Then I put in the stars at the bottom of the advertisement to be the last thing that the reader views, and therefore the good reviews will stay in the readers minds.

Step 4)

• Then I put on the "Emergency" font underneath the bold red line. Which helped to create a dominant reading path.

Step 5)

• Then I put the reviews underneath the the stars

 Step 6)

• I put the "Out Now" in the same font as "Emergency" and also the website for the album at the bottom of the advertisement. This is our final piece.

JC: Weekend work

Over the weekend I made more progress on Digipak ideas, drafting up my designs and looking at new ideas to bring in. I am looking forward to the lesson as Alex appears to have more ideas himself which we can use to collaboratively improve our design.

Whilst driving I was looking at a number of signs and thought about bringing them into the piece, such as a pedestrian sign. I am enjoying these ideas, because we are able to make reference to popular culture whilst also being inventive by putting a twist on traditional recognisable signs.

CM:20/11/11

Today, I have edited fully our performance part of our music video. However it is overall 1.04gigabytes and takes a long time to upload onto Youtube. This is rather painful as at the end of the upload it failed. I am going to upload it tomorrow at school hopefully.

To aid me in the editing process as I remembered how long it took to edit just our film opening, I bought adobe premiere 10.0, which is allowing me to have a lot more time to edit the footage and at a faster pace.

AT: Thursdays Lesson 18/11/11

In todays lesson I was predominantly on Premiere editing our Brighton footage and having it ready to be added to the rest of our music video shots. This process took quiet some time as i didnt realise the amount of footage we had actually captured from Brighton, however inbetween the editing I was also talking with jack furthermore about our digipak ofwhich we have made vast progress with now.

Hopefully we should soon finish our digipak and can then focus on our music video as a whole, Cameron has been working hard with synching the performance shots and has exported 6 different performance copies of which he has then cut inbetween each clip to create a fast cutting rate and keep the interest of the music video.

JC: Thursday

today's digipak

As a group we didn't achieve as much progress as we had hoped to do in today's lesson. As it was a double lesson, we decided to edit on two machines, with Cameron adding effects to all of our Studio shots, and myself and Alex working on editing and digipak ideas - in the end, Alex worked predominantly on Premier and I spent most of the lesson on Photoshop.

We decided early in the lesson to run with Alex's shade of red throughout the digipak, whilst I also added his piece onto the digipak template. After my computer froze, I decided to focus my efforts on looking into more digipak ideas. I drew up a draft back cover, which requires me to manipulate an image and text - therefore making the work my own creation. I can use the photographs I have taken of emergency exit signs and rearrange the text to creat a sign such as 'in case of emergency'.

CM: 16/11/11

Today I was exporting all our different performances into separate video files, meaning that I could then create a new premiere project with all the performances perfectly synced with the song and the other performances. This proved to be a time consuming task, yet the editing process will be much quicker now it has been accomplished. This is different to how I approached editing "Hitlist" due to the fact that whilst editing the music video I was changing the RBG levels, and saturation, brightness, hue, contrast, which meant that the each clip was the same lighting too. Whereas last years production didn't completely keep the same colours all the way through the production.

AT: wednesdays lesson 16/11/11

In todays lesson I continued on with our digipak, as mentioned in Jacks post previously I have been making my own emergency signs, ive taken inspiration from other signs and intergrated my own ideas and changed the look of them, In the screenshots below are my process of the creation of one of the emergency stick men, although it seemed an easy task it proved to be much more time consuming than anticipated.

To start the process I began by using the shape tool in order to create a rectangle and used this as the base. Then I used the shape tool again of a circle to create the head. After that I drew lines off the base in order to make the lges this was then filled in with the colour of the base.

I kept repeating the leg making process for the other legs and the arms, once I had made my complete man I went about rounding off the edges to make it more authentic by using the rubber tool, also throughout the process I constantly merged the visible layers in order to making the image manipulation easier. Then end result is the stick man you can see in the final picture above, the r3eason I did this was to show that it is my own work and I had created the image based on a previous design and reinvented my own.

This is completly different to last year as we didnt have any extra digipak or posters to create to accompany our work however we have found it a challenge but once we have had the ideas we are able to manipulate them furthermore in photoshop.

JC: Wednesday

Myself and Alex today continued our work on the digipak, whilst Cameron made more progress with editing.

The good news for us was that Miss Fernandez liked the idea of our album artwork, incorporating different signs into the peice, however we suggested that we went a different way with regard to colours. I decided to change my front cover to red, which makes the image stand out a lot more, whilst Alex has been creating the image he will be using on the inside panel, as we need to have made the image ourselves.

As well as editing the image, I have also been looking into different emergency signs to use in our piece. On the right are a couple examples that I have found, which we could use and then manipulate - for example, change the hand on the fire alarm sign to a guitar.

AT: Tuesday 15th November - digipak update

In today lesson we have decided as a group to revert back to the orginal album of Emergency, mainly because of the theme and ideas we already have and now as a group we have worked well to come up with continous ideas to work with the 8 Pane digipak that we plan to produce, we are keeping the orginal font that we decided.

[Preview idea of the first draft]

We tried a few ideas for the 'keep on your dress' album however we have alot more intertexual refrences with the emergency one and it allows us to help play with this indie genre more and experiment more. Already Jack and I have a few ideas and will be developing them further together in order to produce the final output and connote our genre and conform to generic Indie conventions. Cameron is working on the advertisement piece however also is playing a part in our 8 Pane digipak as he will have to continue on the theme for continuity purposes thus meaning that brand and album are visually recognised and established by the consumer.

GROUP: Audience Feedback of Rough cut

Today we played a rough cut to our class and we recieved very positive feedback. Our rough cut entailed only of our performance shots with colour enhancement effects, this is only a rough cut of our final piece and we have planned to do another 6 layouts of the 6 different performance shots that we did and intercut each one in order to keep the interest of the music video and have a fast cutting rate, also we plan to intercut this with our Brighton abstract shots with a colour saturation.

Some of the feedback of the rough cut that the audience liked were, the effective use of lighting and how the colour change added to this effect. The performance looked authentic and fitted with the grain of voice. The camera movement used was very effective and worked well. Also upon filming the performance shots we were told after seeing the footage as our end result that it was a great improvement of what we were doing as we had taken on board the feedback given to us. We plan to continue this good work and take on further advice such as the fast cutting rate.

The way this compares to the fim opening we did last year is that we are constantly gathering more secondary and primary research to conform to our genre. Also we are then testing our target market more in order to create the authenticity of the music video and therefore standing up to repeatability.

JC: Tuesday

In today's lesson, we worked mainly on printwork. After discussing the direction we should follow, we have decided to go with the 'Emergency' album title, because the album artwork we have collected thus far links in with this and different colours can be used to reinforce this connection, whilst it might be more difficult for us to come up with, design and produce a concept for a 'keep on your dress' single in two and a half weeks.

During lunchtime, I briefly went out of the classroom to look at some of the emergency signs outside, to see if we could incorporate any more of them into our piece. Alex also found a great picture on google images, which we will use on the inside cover. We have also decided that the predominant colour running through our work will be a dark blue, as can be seen in a revised front cover on the right. We will also be using the font that Alex has shown below.

JC: Editing ideas

Just a quick idea when I came across the track. Whilst I know it's too late to really replicate any sort of similar camera work, the use of black and white works well with the feel of the location, which like ours is urban (set in London). The use of slow motion is also quite effective in this video.

AT: Monday 14th November

In today's lesson as a group we discussed what each member had to do, Jack (animatic), Cameron(editing footage) and myself digipak ideas and layouts.

In the current development of our ideas we have decided to change doing the emergency album to the 'keep on your dress' album. This makes it easier for us as we can be more unique and we can include alot more intertexuality refrences in our printwork and link back to our final piece of how it is a representation of our music video as essentialy it is what is visualy linked to the music video.

The progress so far made is the font as seen in my previous digipak update post now we just need colour theme and visuals in order to potray the track. Once upon getting these ideas we can then start trying different layouts and test them to our audience and gain valuable feedback of weather they prefer a certain layout.

CM: Reflection post on Brighton shoot

Brighton:

• The first time we went to Brighton we had trouble with two group members unable to go which is similar to the problem we had with "Hitlist" (our AS production). Furthermore once putting the footage against the song we realised that the Grain of Voice didn't fit the lead singer. To over come this I had to change my singing style to a more "open mouthed approach. This has massively changed the authenticity within the production as with the new footage it seemed like I was actually singing the song.

(INSERT EXAMPLE OF DIFFERENT SINGING STYLE)

• Also the lighting in Brighton was planned we checked weather forecast to get the exact conditions we wanted. It was overcast but no chance of rain. This is a lesson learned from our AS production "Hitlist" where the lighting wasn't what we wanted and ended up completely contradicting the time of day we had set.

CM: 14/11/11

Today I have been editing together the performance and the old Brighton shoots, to see what the overall music video would look like, inter cut with performance and abstract shots. It is being edited for a rough cut showing in tomorrows lesson.

There is only one problem with the premiere software, which is when more things get added and the length of the music video the rendering and exporting stages are taking a bit of time.

Finally we have set roles within our group, Jack is uploading our animatic onto YouTube and the blog. Alex is creating the digipak and playing around with ideas. With myself I am editing the performance footage and new Brighton footage that we shot yesterday. We went back to Brighton to adjust my lip synching as it didn't fit the grain of voice in the first shoot, thus I had to open my mouth further and redo the shots. Also we did more band shots within Brighton than rather it solely being the lead singer (Cameron).

AT: Digipak Update Font

As a group on the we have established our font and below is the example of it. We may manipulate the font and move it round and change the colour other than that this is the typography we chose.

We chose the font as it is similar to their other fonts and want to have continuity within the albums. Also the colour of the font as we agreed in class was a deep red as it is iconic in the albums we have looked at and evidence of this of which we have commented on in our moodboard.

Furthermore, upon looking more into the positioning of the font we are undecided in order to break conventions of the dominant reading path or to conform to these conventions. Personally I am infavour of breaking conventions due to conform to indie conventions.

JC: Brighton analyis and photos



Filming in the doorway



Guitar in shot to block out the sun

On sunday we made the trip to Brighton to film more shots for our music video. As Cameron and Alex had done previously, we got there at nine o'clock to start filming early. We started the day with a close-up shot of Cameron singing in a door way, as we decided that we needed more meet shots - and at that, of the lead singer. For this, we positioned the camera straight on at the door, with Cameron taking up much of the frame. Alex filmed this piece. The one difficulty we came across was the low sunlight, which created some shadows from the camera and alex on Cameron. To stop this, I had to hold my guitar case up in the air to block out the sunlight. Not the most conventional method, but it appears to have worked.

 



Absract 'stair' shot



In addition to this, we also attempted a number of abstract shots. I suggested an idea that had come to me which we filmed, which required each band member to stand in a different position on the steps, coming in some time after the other until we were all in place. My idea was to cut this in time with a part of the guitar solo, producing three separate jump cuts. We also tried a couple of handicam shots of all the band members running down stairs, and also had an attempt at a shot where we all ran towards the camera with a fish-eye lens on.

shadows



Crowd shot



Like on our reccie shoot, we tried a crowd shot which could then be sped up. When we first came to do this, it was difficult as the Churchill shopping centre (where the shoot took place) was not open. We waited for around ten minutes before the area started to fill up, and then decided to shoot. Once again, Alex was filming Cameron, and it was my duty to make sure that any passers by did not disrupt the shot by doing anything stupid. We filmed around four minutes of Cameron standing still, before observing two minutes silence.

 

I feel that this trip was extremely successful. Apart from a shot of the band members steeping out of the car - which we had no time for as the battery ran out on our camera - we now have all of our footage, and the quantity which we have will allow us to choose from a variety of shots to edit into our final production.

Group: Brighton Filming Sunday 13th November

In our filming on Sunday the 13th the day ran very smoothly as we had no issues with time management as everyone was on time the weather was clear thus allowing us to film in our exterior locations. The mise-en-scene we kept the same from our previous filming in Brighton and the weather fortunatly was similar to that of our previous filming.

[Screen shot previous footage] [Screen shot new footage]

The problems we encountered were the battery life, the batterys died during our shoots however we did have a spare but also this battery died and therefore we were unable to get one of shopt ideas, however we got all of our other shots plus extra handi-cam footage.

[Screen shot of extra shot ideas]

Overall the day out was a success and we had our extra band member to come along aswell during the filming. Cameron, Jack and I all took turns when filming in order to make the handicam footage look more authentic. Predominatly I was camerman, Cameron was director of shoots and positioning, jack was incharge of camera equipment and helped with the directing of shoots and filming. We approached the graffitti shot differently this time and used a variety of camera angles and shot the same part over and over in order to acquire enough footage that we can cut between and cut back to.

[Screen shot of graffitti wall]

The way we approached filming this time was alot more systematic and we had managed our time more effectively for our shoots unlike last year were we had a few issues. Hopefully this will show in our final production as to the quality and effort put into the production of it.

cf Feedback - planning

Cameron - L3+ /4-

You started very well with an outstanding video analysis; however you are not commenting on other posts and you need to contribute more detailed reflection and analysis on key processes such as audience research, pitch, film shoots. You have been organised in your shoots, excellent time management, however the blog is the evidence of the planning process and you must prioritise it. There is almost no detail on the editing process so far and no reflection on drama shoot? Your construction is strong, but you are throwing away marks here - get organised!

Alex - L3+

You have completed necessary tasks, but they are a little brief. Research is well informed by critical theory, but reflections are proficient, not excellent. Look at other groups' and see level of detail being included.

Jack L3+/4-

Excellent research and you are commenting / using the blog collaboratively. See comments above for missing elements

To secure a L4 planning - the following must be completed:

1. detailed reflection from all of you on contributions to construction - direction, camera man, editing, issues with performance, mise-en-scene etc. This is particularly vital for shoots, however the post-production process must also be illustrated with screen shots, rough cuts etc

2. Draft mock-ups of print work from all of you

3. Use of ICT - background image must be your own design, posts need more multi-media elements, embedded clips, images, links

JC: Digipak mock initial ideas

Here is a copy (in two separate images) of our initial digipak ideas. Our plan is to have a six-pane digipak piece, with two separate pullout pieces to accompany the design. Our design is based around a central theme of the manipulation of Emergency signs,  which ties in neatly with the name of our album, Emergency.