26th October, Emma's 18th Birthday and Filming!

Today we filmed most of the shots for the draft of our music video at our sea side location. As we couldn't get to the sea side, we decided just for the draft to go and film at Abbey Park, but, as it wasn't a convenient location to get to, we stayed local and ended up with two local locations to choose from. One being Enderby's Jubilee Park, and the other being Carlton Park in Narborough. We chose Carlton Park as we knew there were some good locations to shoot, we ended up finding a tranquil lake surrounded by woodland, the weather was perfect and the shadowing from the woodland made perfect lighting for the shots also. Whilst setting up, we had a phone call from Eve telling us she'd been dropped off, but didn't know where she was. This resulted in Katy running round Carlton Park (which is a massive place!) for about 10 minutes before eventually finding her, it turned out she was in seeing distance from where we were set up but obviously we couldn't see her. When she arrived, we did her hair and make up, to a standard which was recognizable from the camera and started filming, we were just over half way through with filming the shots when we noticed the battery on the camera was running low, we decided to carry on with the filming and towards the end, unfortunately the battery just completely died, however, we got most of the shots we needed and couldn't have wished for more perfect weather, so we packed up and went home as we were all freezing! Here are a few of the location and setting up shots we took...

The lake we filmed at was perfect for what we wanted to achieve from the draft, the weather was lovely and the sun was shining onto the lake so you could see the ripples in the water, we wanted this effect for our draft so we could get a realism of how the waves would potentially look when we came to our final draft of the video.

We filmed at this angle for quite a few of the shots as the lighting was perfect, the surroundings create a really tranquil feel about the location which we think fits well into some parts of the song.

Emma on the phone to Eve, we were just getting set up when we had the phone call! 

Katy setting up the tripod, this shows how close we were to the water! We were so cautious of knocking it into the lake, but thankfully neither of us did.

Emma setting up the tripod, here you get an indication of the surroundings, she looks very happy on her birthday!

Katy helping Eve get ready for the filming, it was freezing and this is what Eve wore for nearly 3 hours. However the weather was perfect for filming so it was a necessary sacrifice for our artist to be a little bit cold.

Eve in her outfit for the filming, we put her in floaty styled outfit as we thought the effect of the wind would look really good and relate to the tranquility of some elements of the song.

Eve preparing herself and taking a look at the 213 shot storyboard, we showed her which angles/shots we would be doing today and some of the poses and stances we wanted her in.

Another problem...

We have encountered yet another problem tonight when coming to film. We were only allowed to use the studio for an hour and our artist Eve struggled with time management to make it on time – therefore we postponed tonight’s filming. However last minute – just before I rang up to cancel our booking, we all were able to meet at the studio at half six, the time we had originally booked it for! With it being last minute we only had 10 minutes to get the equipment, dress out artist and meet there – which we did!
Due to only having little time, we decided to take shorter shots rather than focus on getting every single studio shot. These tester shots gave us a practice with the camera to ensure there were no problems or issues with the camera (which there were, however they were quickly resolved!). They will be uploaded on the blog shortly after editing. Along with this we took a number of close up shots, some with lip syncing, some without as a basis for our first draft. A majority of our studio shots are close ups and corresponding with the music they will only be on screen for short seconds as the music is so fast paced – therefore for the first draft we could use the same shots repeatedly just to get a generalisation of the overall effect. After editing, with these developed shots, we can add them into the video and see if it fits in with the pace of the music. With the final video I plan to take different shots for each close up so that I can change the expression in each shot to portray meaning and links with the individual lyrics. I feel that with constantly repeating the same shots is not only a short way round, but also downgrades the professionalism of the video and is also cutting out a major way to express meaning through the video to the audience - therefore not creating that desired audience reaction. The quality of the shots we took tonight turned out well on the camera along with the lighting used and also the additional prop of a fan being used. Our next day to film will be Wednesday which is the final day that all filming will hopefully be done.

Filming Schedule

Unfortunately our plan to film this half term hasn't turned out the way we had hoped. On Tuesday 18th we planned to film the studio location shots, however our room that we wanted to use (that we also used for the photo shoot) was unavaliable to use that night. With our artist, Eve working full time it's difficult to organise days to film. Therefore for the first draft we're making changes to one location in order to complete a first draft. As the Sea location is difficult to organise, we've substitued this idea for the first draft and decided to use somewhere more local and convieniant in order to get a real idea of the kind/quality of the shots. Our substiutue location is Abbey Park in Leicester. Our new schedule for filming is: 

Monday: Studio shots filmed. Room booked 6:30-7:30

Wednesday: Abbey Park to be filming along with the field location shots. The weather is so far looking hopeful and the wind is also something that will help to adding the effect to our music video!

The Label

Through researching some CD covers I’ve taken note of what particular ‘small print’ writing is put on them (seen in picture below). This I then included on my drafts to add to the realism and professionalism of the digipacks. With this I then created my own names of a producer of the Album and a publisher. This will be included on my final digipacks.
When designing the logo I considered key colours that reflect an established business and connotate things such as importance/status, professionalism and I also want them to be renowned for being a high quality label. On the producer label I chose a block font, that reflects music – through the filled in circles signifying CD’s, vinyl’s etc and with this I used a gold colour as that initiates the idea of ‘being the best’.
With the publisher design I felt it wasn’t as big as the actual record label therefore their design can be a slightly more subtle. I used a simple colour grey that reflects the typical business, simple design. I felt this worked for a less established business as it keeps the professionalism theme and doesn’t reflect any other unnecessary connotations. Therefore I’ve kept it plain and simple.

PRODUCER - Republic Records (sound)

PUBLISHER - Collection Music 

Looking at Digipacks

An idea of a digipack layout, context, fonts, information on the digipack, use of graphology and overall how it comes together through colour scheme and all of the above.

Analysing an album release poster

Analysing an album release poster

Analysing an album release poster

Camera Shots

Colour Palette

Magazine Advert Draft

This is a very rough draft of what i want my magazine advert to look like, i will make some changes to it along the way.

Digipak Draft

This is my draft version of the digipak for Eve T's album Entourage. Overall i'm really happy with the way it's turned out, but obviously as time goes on i'll more than likely make some changed to it.

Poster draft

Digipack Draft

After creating the mock up of my first draft I decided that I know longer liked the left cover, and cover inside images. They have a busy feel to the CD and don't quite work well with the overall pack. I included those images to portray that animal print, however I feel that the new images that have now taken their place look better. However much more is to be added and changed!

Music Magazine Album/Song Adverts...

Draft Digipack development

CD Cover Analysis

The third and final cover i'm analysing is Jack Penate's 'Everything is New'. Again i've chosen a cover which has a very simplistic layout, there is no colour scheme, the cover is just in black and white which i think looks really good. The use of image is again like Jessie J's cover, with the artist facing and making eye contact with the camera. The font used for the name of the artist and album cover is in times new roman, which is a pretty boring font, yet i think it looks effective within the overall outlook of the cover, the cover looks reasonably effortless but professional. The layout is really simple, which i think the majority of the time looks the most effective, i really like the simplicity of the cover and the colourless scheme, i think i will try and achieve a similarly simplistic look when making my digipack.

CD Cover Analysis

The second CD cover i'm analysing is Daniel Merriweather's 'Love and War'. The use of image in this cover presents a sort of typical streetwise representation, with Merriweather walking through urban surroundings and looking like he's putting his hood up. There isn't any use of direct address in the cover,  i like the fact he's looking infront of him down towards to ground, giving the impression he wants to keep himself to himself, the background i think works really well as it doesn't conform to your stereotypical cover background, and it looks interesting. The colour scheme is pretty simple, with the neutral colours of the image and the predominant black and white text which is situated at the top of the cover, the font used is quite interesting, i like the fact that the name of the artist and the name of the album are in different colours and have contrasting backgrounds. The overall layout and effectiveness of the cover is simple yet effective, there is only one image, which is very basic, but the text used isn't very subtle and adds some contrast to the cover.

CD Cover Analysis

When looking at albums covers to analyse, i haven't stuck to covers which comply to the genre me and Emma have chosen, the covers i have chosen, i have chose because they are aesthetically pleasing, and use colour schemes which compliment the colour within the picture of the artist, which is something i wish to achieve when making the album cover for Eve T. 

The first CD cover i'm analyzing is pop/R'n'B/soul artist Jessie J's album 'Who You Are'. The use of image in this cover comes across very effectively as the image is centralized and Jessie J's facial expression creates the element of direct address, the colour scheme used is a simple gold and black scheme, which i think reflects Jessie J's genre well and doesn't overpower the small space in which it occupates. The layout is very simple, there is just one eye catching image, which fills the space nicely, and the two pieces of text which introduce the artists name and the name of the album/song. There are two different fonts used, in two different colours which creates contrast and adds a hint of colour to the cover, i really like the use of gold in this cover, as it adds a touch of class and glamour to the cover, and breaks up the monochrome element. I like the handwritten style font used for the text, i think it adds a personal aspect to the cover, and creates an overall professional look without alot of detail.

Identifying Eve T

CD Cover Analysis & Mock Ups

With developing and producing ideas for the CD cover I started to create mock ups with photo's from the photo shoot. With these, I added effects and fonts to get a generalisation of what images fit and work well as a CD cover - therefore helping me to narrow down the 300+ photo's Katy and I had taken when we conducted a photo shoot. 

Before hand, I'd already come up with some idea's of editing and the style of the cover when conducting primary research. However when creating these new CD mock ups I furthered my inspiration by looking at albums I had myself to get ideas. This helped me to understand what effects (by using photo shop) work well producing a professional looking CD cover. With this I tried to create that 'hip hop/dance' style about it- this referring to the font, layout and colour pallet. Furthering from this I then looked into a variety of albums from a broad variety of music genre's- which I got from an on line music magazine review. When creating my Digi pac I have to ensure that I keep that professional convention in order for it to look real and publishable - Therefore my next approach was to apply elements from the CD cover's I'd researched (in some ways I tried to directly copy) into creating my CD cover. This involved using similar photo poses, the same colours, layout - which all constructed my final results. 

What I hope to achieve from doing this is..because I've chosen a wide variety of contrasting CD's - by getting ideas from each of them I've given myself a lot more choices towards what I can do with mine etc, rather than simply adding writing to a photo. Below you'll see I've put the initial idea next to my constructed idea from that. What is noticeable is how clearly I've used that CD cover for inspiration. Note these are only mock ups and are far from my finalised idea. I'm going to conduct further research into a digi pac, identifying it's key features and what I need to include within mine. One thing I have in mind is that in my digi pac, it will include more than one photo of Eve, therefore after identifying key features I can then see what pictures work well with each other, i.e. which ones compliment each other, portray Eve in the correct way and also advertise the digi pac well and in an established manner. 

CD Cover Analysis

CD Cover Analysis

CD Cover Analysis