Group: Rough cut feedback

• The rough cut we presented to the rest of the class included the shot idea where both characters are pictured walking away from the camera using similar framing in slow motion. This idea went down well, but one suggestion was that we use this as a closing shot to the track instead of locating it near the beginning. To expand on this thought, we have decided to use this advice and consequently film a prequel sequence to the car theft whereby the chav actually gets in his car to make the narrative clearer.
• Another comment we received was that the meaning of the juxtaposition was not yet clear. On top of filming the prequel to stealing the car, the group has decided to try and include more shots of both characters in frame to exaggerate the meaning of the contrast between them both. With these plans and the shoplifting shoot coming up we are confident that the meaning will be presented clearly.
• We received a lot of questions regarding if there was to be more performance aspects incorporated into the video. Our re-shoot last weekend answered most of these questions though as we did not put many performance shots into the video.
• Another concern was the length of some of the clips - it was suggested they need to be cut down and we took this on board. The clips shown in our rough cut were not fully cut as we would have liked them to be so it's just a matter of getting round to cutting them to a shorter length.
• On the positive side, a consensus response was that we had incorporated lots of A* camera shots along with lots of camera movement to keep the audience interested. Responses also said we had fulfilled the mark scheme criteria of using a tripod when necessary and showing a mix of long range to close up shots. On top of this, the few seconds we had properly edited showed we had a done a good job of balancing the narrative alongside performance and filler shots in order to make the video seem less like a documentary.
• Something else as a group we thought we excelled in was that, compared to another group who were doing a performance video we felt our performance shots looked a lot more convincing, in the sense that our actor looked like she matches the grain of voice heard on the soundtrack and that her lip syncing worked effectively: it was in time, and she put enough emphasis on her mouth movements to ensure the audience believes she is singing rather than mouthing the lyrics.

Group: Shoot feedback 19/11/13

Strengths

• On this shoot we got plenty of shots: every action we filmed, we managed to capture multiple angles and not only does this mean we have enough footage to fill up the timeline, but it allows us to be flexible when editing as we have a range of angles or camera movements to chose from whilst deciding which shots to use.
• We managed to get a lot more done in a much shorter space of time during this shoot because we had planned ahead thoroughly and we knew exactly what shots needed to be filmed and how much of the total timeline this scene was going to fill up.
• We maintained continuity in all of our shots and made sure any unwanted mise en scene such as litter was out the way of the framing in this shoot. 

Weaknesses

• Only two of us shooting made it tricky to include many shots with both characters present without the shots themselves being filmed from a static tripod - this is something that is hard to overcome due to availability of others willing to get involved with our project.
• Despite us doing everything we could to ensure continuity was kept, we could not help the fact that one car left midway through our shoot and another parked next to the area we were using for filming. Although the car that left could not help being present/not present in the remainder of our shots, we feel it will not be noticed by the audience as they will be too concentrated on the meanings behind the narrative and the actual characters themselves to notice. We did well to not include the car that parked next to us in any of the shots we had left to do although this did limit our choice of angles and camera movement somewhat.
• There was only one location we filmed in - excluding the few outside shots of the rich character walking into the car park. However, we feel we used a good variety of shots and a good quantity of camera movement to make the singular location more exciting. Also this single location problem should be overcome during post production when we have footage from more locations to edit in as well to the track.

Group: Campaign - Band Image

• The brief was to create a magazine advert and digipak in conjunction with the music video in order to create and promote a cohesive band image.
• We chose to design an A4 portrait right hand page advert for EDM (Electronic Dance Music) magazine. This suits the genre of the track as the track itself is dubstep/edm, and the main focus of the magazine is edm. Also therefore will relate to our target audience of predominantly male 13-30 year olds.
• Use of visual motifs seen throughout the print campaign such as the stars image reinforce the juxtaposition between the two characters as the stars signify the space between the two personalities of the characters. Another visual motif used in the print campaign is the Seven Lions logo/text. This is used to remind the audience of the artist and therefore help promote the artist himself. This seems to be a common theme seen through his previous digipak covers as the leading line is always the Seven Lions logo and we are aiming to replicate this in our print work. The leading line therefore in both our digipak and advert will be the Seven Lions logo/text.  
• The back cover is a section about the artist (Seven Lions) and includes; a barcode, record label logo, and the white/black contrasting theme. The picture of the artist will hopefully be replaced by a picture of the girl who lip syncs to the video if we can get an appropriate photo.
  
• The front cover contains the leading line (Seven Lions text/logo), along with other included artists and the Strangers title. The group is undecided over whether to take a picture to put on the front or whether to invert one half of the pane to fit with the half and half contrasting look.
• The extra panel is simply an image we took during our first filming trip in Brighton and contains the stars edited in to maintain the theme of stars throughout the digipak.
• The CD panel contains the Seven Lions logo along with the image of stars which keeps the theme of stars/space going whilst promoting star image.
• The left and right inside panels will contain photos of both characters in contrasting locations. The chav in a rougher area with a graffiti wall behind him, and the richer guy in a more up market area. Both will be looking at the camera to challenge the audience who consume this digipak - as if to say that the issues raised in the video could happen to anyone, even the audience.
• In both the digipak and the advert black text can be seen on a black background with a white box behind the text to make it visible. Not only does this link the two pieces of print work together, but it links the print work to the video in the sense that both characters contrast each other, just as the black and white colour scheme contrasts. The prints and video are also interlinked to create a cohesive artist image through the image of stars. The stars are used to signify the space (or distance) between the two characters showing that they are opposites to each other i.e. Strangers - which is the concept both the video and print work are based around.
• Dyer's star image is constructed in the fact the artist is present but not present in the print work. The fact his logo is on the advert and digipak, and the short paragraph about him is located on the digipak helps construct audience awareness of the artist and raise his profile. But at the same time he is not present as no images of him are shown on either the advert or the digipak, (although there is one present on the digipak at the moment, this is for demonstration purposes and will be removed for the final product). This present yet not present effect leaves the audience wanting more of the artist - so whilst being satisfied with his presence in the form of logos, the audience are left ultimately unsatisfied with the lack of actual presence of him through the use of images.

GC: Digipak further development

• So far we have the digipak planned and have been attempting to get to grips with Photoshop and learning the techniques needed to produce the look we want. Also we have decided on the fonts for both the Advert and the Digipak. The screenshot below shows the current stage we are at with the digipak - having got the CD panel completely finished, and the front cover partially finished, (all we need now is a photo from our next shoot).

Group: Filming preperation

• We are planning our next couple of filming shoots for Saturday 16/11/13, as well as Tuesday 19/11/13. We have decided that for some of the shots it would be efficient and useful to film within Tunbridge Wells, as it means it is easy for us to access and film some quick shots which we can add to our video.
• On Saturday, Rochelle and I will be filming the performance aspect of the video. I will focus on getting as many as different shots as possible, highlighting first person mode of address predominantly, so we are able to cut between this and the narrative. I will use a few long shots to establish the location, but focus on the close ups, as these are the meat shots of the video. I will try and include some movement as well while filming to make it conventional of a music video, and try to use as little static shots as possible.
• The Tuesday filming, George and myself will film some more of the narrative. We will be filming in Tunbridge Wells as well, as we will be filming during lunch and afternoon of the school day, so it is much easier to access by doing this. We will visit various areas around the town, places which fit the scenario for each character, and we will get the bulk of the shots we need to bring the music video together. By the end we should have more than enough shots, but if any are missing, or need re-filming, we can do this easily by revisiting the location.

GC: Digipak development

• Following our lesson today, we have attempted to blend an image of stars into the photo we took of the sea in Brighton using Adobe Photoshop. However, with each of us having limited experience using the program, we found this task not to be so simple. Eventually we decided using the blur tool along with the burn/dodge brushes in order to effectively blend the sky of the beach photo with the bottom of the starry photo. Below we can see that both images are very different colours. Alongside this, we noticed that the sun reflects over the middle of the sea causing a big light patch in the middle. Considering we plan to edit the stars over the top of the sky, we will need to find a way to get rid of this light patch and darken it in order to make it blend in with the rest of the sea.

• Also during the lesson the group decided on a font to use for the part of the  title that says 'with Myon and Shane 54'. The font we chose was Movie Letters (seen below), as we aim to replicate the layout of text used in another of Seven Lion's album covers, (also seen below).

GC: Digipak inital ideas

 

• In regards to the 6 sided template for the digipak, we have decided that the digipak will focus around the strangers concept. The group wants to promote band image on top of the half and half resemblance of strangers. For this reason, we have come to the decision to include the seven lions logo on the side where the CD goes, as not only does this help to construct band image but it fits well with the circular shape of the CD. We have decided to promote the digipak as a single rather than an album as this will allow us to focus on the strangers concept of the singular song as opposed to having to create a whole album image and therefore stray from the strangers aspect.

• For the overall look and feel of the digipak we have taken inspiration from the actual cover of the single (right) - with light, glowing/wispy sort of effects. We aim to create a weightless, magical look whilst maintaining the half and half concept that our video is based on as not only does this link to the video, it also links to helping maintain artist image further. Another concept we took from this single cover is the use of stars - we feel this is a theme that could be carried on into our own design as it makes a visually pleasing backdrop but also keeps in tune with the magical/wispy theme.
• So far as actual images go, we took a few pictures during our first filming session in Brighton that are usable to incorporate into one or two of the panels. We still need some more but we plan to capture some more during other filming sessions or take stills from the footage if we don't take a picture we find suitable. Both of these images we feel we can use but feel they will need heavy editing to go for the magical, wispy look we are aiming for. We were thinking to maybe edit some stars into the sky of the photo of the beach, and cut out the graffiti from the picture on the left to use on the cover somewhere.

• We could not find the exact Seven Lions font shown on the Strangers digipak above, but we have been able to find a similar font called Eagle Book. This font contains similar N's to the one's found in the Seven Lions font, but the S's don't look the same. With some editing and resizing we believe we can make an accurate replica of the Seven Lions font to include on our digipak. In the image below, the original seven lions font is on top whilst Eagle Book font is shown underneath.

 

• So, for the template its self we have roughly decided the following:
• Inside Centre: Seven lions logo
• Inside Left: Graffiti picture with chav character
• Inside Right: More posh area of Brighton with rich character
• Extra Panel: Beach sunset picture with stars edited in
• Back cover: Paragraph about the artist (possible picture of Rochelle the performance actor, edited to look similar to that of the girl on the original Strangers single cover)
• Front cover: Half and half picture of Brighton or 50/50 page split including characters inspired by Sliding doors, (see rough draft to right)

Group: Feedback From First Shoot

• Our first filming shoot was a good experience for us as a group. The main benefit from the shoot was that we got a sense of what we wanted to include in our video, and were able to plan shots out effectively, and collaborate as a group to decide upon what our narrative will contain, and how it will all piece together as a whole.

Strengths:

• We got some effective shoots from the shoots, and now have a rough outline of our narrative, with some ideas with what we can film next time, and what shots we will film on our next trip. We have also got enough filler shots to use from the trip, and we are confident we have an effective and strong opening to the video that will fit in nicely with the music.
• From the shoot, we also took a variety of photos which we believe are good enough to be able to use in our print work. We have decent location photos which can easily be manipulated to fit our poster or digipak, we need some photos of the characters in the video now, and then we will have enough to edit together and begin working on the print work.

Weaknesses:

• The weaknesses from our first shoot, was the availability of the people involved. It was difficult for us to find a day or time when all members were available while simultaneously filming on a day where the weather was decent enough.
• We also had the problem of deciding on what would work when we filmed, and how we should do it best. We struggled to find the best locations, where it was quiet enough to film and also a good location to use which would be effective in our narrative.

Improvements:

• The improvements we plan on making, are ensuring that we film the majority of the day so we can make sure we have enough clips to use when it come to editing. We will also re-film a lot of the clips from different angles with different movements, to be able to cut between the shots.
• We will also make sure we have a more detailed plan when going to the location, and being confident with the places we visit, knowing that it will look good when we go, and fit in well with the narrative.
• We have also planned to go on our next filming shoot on the weekend, to have some of the performance filmed. This will allow us to begin editing a lot of our footage together in the following week, while also being able to start on the print work, as we will also photograph during the day.

 

 

Group: 5/11/13 Concept and Development

• During the course of the lesson, George uploaded all the clips we had filmed during the holidays onto the computer, backing up the copies of the files we had. We then together began looking through the clips highlighting the ones we thought were effective, and what ideas we could come up with, in reference to how they would fit in our music video.
• We also then went through the photos as well, and came up with ideas, of how the digipak might look with some of the photos might look incorporated in.
• I also did a reflection the first shoot, and how effective it was. From doing this I believe we can now highlight our weak areas and hopefully improve on them during the next shoot, making sure we film the required clips, and  plan the trips more effectively.

Group: Call sheet and risk assessment for trip to Brighton