Thursday 7 April 2011

Video Upload



This is the final video, ENJOY :)

Last Bits of Editing

Today, I did the last tiny bits of the editing that Miss suggested I do in the first hour. I changed a bit of the lip sync and a few shots. I had other people watch the video before it was fully converted to a .mov file. Now I have created the file and will be uploading the video to YouTube.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Video Complete!

So I filmed the last scene which took 15 minutes. I then uploaded the scene and edited it so that it all made sense. I copied the idea we had on the storyboard and so I had all the shots needed.


A lot of the lip synching was out of sync because when we imported shots, the lip synching moved along as it hadn't been locked. So I have put all the lip synching in place.


Also, I felt that the last part of the video was slightly boring as it just finished on to the doors (and not very attractive either!) so I imported the last clip on to iMovie and added a title at the end. I put the name of the song and the artist's name as she is a new artist so this would help to establish her as this is in big letters and pink, which is a popular colour for our target audience. I think it finished the video off nicely.


However I asked Miss to evaluate it as there is still a bit of time before the deadline and received feedback such as
- lip synching was slightly out at 3 points
- one image needs to be changed so that it has more energy in it


I will do these finishing touches tomorrow in my lesson. However, right now I am doing my evaluation.
So now the video is complete and I am asking people to watch it and give me final comments on what they think.

Filming Problem

So today we were supposed to film the last clip (throwing Jack outside) however my partner isn't in and we can't film tomorrow as that is the date for the deadline. So I have asked around for people to film for me and I have found somebody willing.
I have made sure that all the actors are available to film and so I'm going to get the location ready now and then ask everyone to come down to film. Then I will upload this and edit, once this is finished then the video will be finished as a whole and I will only have my evaluation to do.

Monday 4 April 2011

Editing Update 3

Today, in lesson me and Natasha both did some editing. We were supposed to be filming for the final sequence of chucking the guy out of the interrogation room however, the main guy went home early, even though we had booked him.
Instead, we started working on the final sequence.


I had a free lesson in period 5 so I went up to do some more editing. In this time, I finished the final sequence completely by implementing fast shots for the montage of the memories of when they were boyfriend/girlfriend. I have made it obvious that these are memories by using the 'sepia' effect on those clips. I sped up the shots of:
- Both of them running around (sepia also)
- Both of them talking and laughing on the bench (sepia also)
- Both of them walking together linking arms (sepia also)
- The artist freaking out
- The artist spinning around


Also, our feedback had said that the bridge could have been made better, so I imported the artist singing with the lights also as well as the old clips. This gives a variety of shots instead of just one boring one, it changes scenes on the beat which in a convention of most pop music videos.
I have put another small clip of the artist on the beat at the beginning because someone I was sitting next to said it would be good to have another shot on the next beat to make it sort of repetitive, which I found valuable advice. And people in class have told me that the video looks so much better now that we have re-filmed the chorus in the drama studies with the lights! So that's good!

Friday 1 April 2011

Filming

Today, we did so much filming! We re-filmed the chorus in the drama rooms, we used the specialist lights for this to make it look more professional, as our feedback from the showcase suggested that our current chorus (which was plain in-front of curtains) didn't look very professional. I suggested that we should use purple lights as the artist is called 'VIOLET Rowe' so this would be her statement colour so hopefully when people thing of purple/violet, this will be associated with Violet Rowe. This made a huge impact and the footage looks so much better. We were able to do this in the space of one hour as I got ready and turned the lights on during form time, so this was so successful within the time provided.

We also re-shot the beginning of the video as we realised the continuity wasn't great as we had a flood light in some sections whereas in others, it only used the light from a small lamp, also in this location we filmed the walking down bit again as last time my flower was on the wrong side of my head! So now, the whole first section's continuity is corrected and looks so much better. We also filmed some establishing shots of the artist getting ready (putting make-up/shoes on) which we want to put quick edits in at the beginning when she is walking down the stairs because the music is jumpy, so gives us a lot of room to do some fast edits instead of just plainly walking down stairs.

In the third lesson, we filmed the artist and the male together (before he cheated on her) just on a normal school day sitting on a bench and walking and running around a field, just generally being young and happy. I thought this would be good to put in the montage at the end as memories before she shuts the doors as to prove she's finished.

We had a small amount of time left so we went and filmed Jack in the french corridors again and the artist lip singing, which we were supposed to do on Monday however, this has given us more time to do the last bits of editing.

So this was a very busy filming day (3hours) and I was knackered by the end of it, but we have all our shots now! Apart from the last tiny bit where the guys throw the main guy out, which we hopefully should be filming on Monday! I should be doing some editing on Monday period 5 and Tuesday after school, as well as in lesson time.

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Showcase of Our Video

Today, we had a showcase of everybody's music video's. My group went first. 
I was quite surprised with how much the feedback helped in terms of making the video look more professional because I was constantly working on it and so I was unable to notice things that people who didn't know the background to it would notice.


We got negative and positive feedback. Some positive points that were made was that the performance looks real, as in the facial expression matched the lyrics and the music. Also, they understood the narrative, which was great because that was one of my worries, that the continuity wouldn't completely make sense to the audience.
The negative feedback however, included statements such as the chorus didn't look very professional and that the costumes were very 'samey'.
So I suggested that we re-film the chorus but this time in the drama studios, so have booked the room, and I know how to use the lights so we should be able to do this on Friday. I will be bringing in another top, I think a purple one as most of the costumes lack bright colours, and Ke$ha always wears bright colours in her videos.


Here is the video that was presented, the black screens is when footage has not yet been imported/edited.



Monday 28 March 2011

Filming for Bridge #2

Today we finally filmed for the second bridge (line-up). However, Jack (the main male) wasn't in school so he couldn't film, instead of letting this get in the way, we filmed the other boys instead. We don't have to rely on other people so we did as much as we could and hopefully in the editing, it should come out right.
We only have 2 other boys (Jamie and Michael) that we officially had to be in the video, so I went down to the study centre to see what boys were in a free that would be in our music video. I asked about 7 boys and atlast, one boy said he wouldn't mind doing it! So we used those 3 boys and filmed as much as we could.
We needed point of view shots from me which we found difficult, as Natasha D is shorter than me but then  we tried putting the camera on a tripod infront of me, which worked well!
Altogether, I feel the filming today was successful, and so I should be uploading the footage tomorrow.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Filming Postponed

We were supposed to film today, however, the main guy couldn't make it so we couldn't film. I know that the deadline is coming up soon so we are going to try to find the next available date to film when we have got all our props, the actors and the location booked.
Instead, in this lesson time, we made the black strips to put in the background for our 2nd narration for the line up.

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Filming for Bridge #2

Tomorrow we plan to do the bridge for the second bridge. We should be doing in period 1 in the french corridors. Due to the drama room always being busy, we changed our location to the corridor which is also a white background. This is also a better time slot as this is a free when we have at least 3 boys with no lessons that can help us out.
I've downloaded the song that we're using on to my phone so I can play it whilst I'm lip singing so that it doesn't make too much noise and we don't have to have cables everywhere to connect an ipod dock.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Change of Plan (Yet Again!)

So we had everything ready but the drama rooms where my group wanted to film were being used by a GCSE class. This was a flaw in my planning and preparation but it has taught me that I need to book the location in future.
I will be going to ask the Drama teacher when we can use the room tomorrow to officially book it, but this means finding a date suitable for my group AND our actors AND the teachers so it may be a bit difficult but it needs to be done!
However, this is the last scene needed to be filmed! ...and maybe a few more extras for the ending to make the clips a bit more snappy but the timeline is looking good! I'm confident at this moment that the video will be finished by the deadline and to a high standard (hopefully).

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Changing The Plan

Jack (our actor) has contacted me to tell me that me and him have a last minute school commitment which will take half an hour after school. This may affect our filming time but hopefully not too much.
Also, I've managed to get a few of my friends to play the guys at the line up for the second chorus and they've all agreed to come to school tomorrow at our decided filming time so this should be a successful filming session.


Today, in drama I took down the set that was stopping us from filming our second chorus so we can use the white background. So, hopefully in my free lesson tomorrow, I will make the black lines for the line up to make the scene more believable. 


This is what I want it to look like.

Friday 11 March 2011

Filming for Narrative

Today we did the filming for the narrative and it was successful because we finally had Jack to play the 'guy'. I asked him when he was next available to film again and he said next Wednesday which works for me and Natasha.


I had a free first lesson whilst Natasha and Jack were in class, so in this time I...
- Printed pictures of Jack with another girl from Facebook (which I got permission for in form time)
These are the pictures I printed out and
stuck to black paper.
- Bought black paper so I could stick the pictures to the black paper and cut them up so they looked more professional. 
- Got a camera and tripod from the technician
- Got our tape for the camera
- Got the lamp 
- Got the ipod dock
- Got the flood light
- Got the extension lead from the hall
- Got the story boards so we knew what shots we needed in particular
- Got a table
- Bought all of these things down stairs to our location
- Painted my nails blue so that it is the same colour as the one we filmed the scene with before
- Got into my costume and did my hair and make up


I bought all this down so it was ready for filming when the group
were able to join me.
This was all ready by second period so it was ready for filming, this was great because it meant we had more time to film and less trying to get ready.
I thought Jack would be best in just his school uniform, minus his tie and scruffy hair. I gave him some water so it looked like he was sweating so it matched the image in our story board. 


He worked well and we got the shots we aimed for. Other than a teacher coming in at the end asking us to stop for health and safety reasons as we were in the way of the fire exit, but it was fine as we had shot all of our shots by then. 

Thursday 10 March 2011

Booked the Actor

I have messaged the boy (Jack) that we want to use in our video to make sure he is free for our video shoot tomorrow. He has said he will be free so filming will definitely proceed, we will be filming the interrogation scene which is the first bit of narrative.

This is a print screen of the conversation

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Editing Update 2

I haven't been in this week so far due to being off time table for a performance so this was my first day in school this week. 

I went straight to the editing computer and edited in the first chorus. I put effects in such as a colour change for certain beats. My partner thought they were pointless but I felt that a music video doesn't always HAVE to have a point to it, it just makes it more interesting to watch. She agreed after a while so we kept it in.

I'm quite enjoying editing, I'm getting used to it so I'm finding that I can edit scenes a lot faster than with my lipsync activity.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Editing Update

Half term has finished but I've been ill with the flu so I've only just come back to school yesterday. However, I got stuck straight in as I uploaded the footage that hadn't been uploaded from the tape.


Today, I made the bridge whilst in class. I put the pan shot across instead of quick shots because I thought this was the most effective as it was the nicest shot. Also, it was a good shot to add the 'blur' effect in, which I put in to make it look like a dream.
Then, in my double free, I came up to do some more editing in which I edited the second chorus so that it lead straight on to the bridge so therefore, a nice chunk of the video was complete.
In the left over time, I started on the first chorus. I wanted to make sure I hadn't used the same shots for both the chorus's because they're both of the artist performing. However, I didn't finish this, just a start.

Saturday 19 February 2011

How I Made My Album Backing


It started with just this image:
I thought this would be a suitable back as it is full on glitter so it's fun and girly because the front is more serious and based on this music. This is bright and reminds the audience that this artist is the best of both worlds: a serious artist (the front) but also a fun person in general.
I then cropped this image into a square and used the purple-ish side for the main image because her name is 'Violet' so it is more personal and post modern.




 I then put bright pink stripes up to make the image look more abstract, also pink clashes with purple so creates an 'i don't care' attitude, like rebellious from social norms as these colours wouldn't usually be put together. I put a box on the side so I had a layout of space where I could put the track names, I did it slanted so nothing on the album is 'straight'. It has also been made half transparent so it doesn't block off the glitter completely.


At this point, I put the track names in. I put them with different colours so that it wasn't boring however, they're still easy to see and do not clash too much with the background due to the box around it. I used neon green and neon pink because they clash with each other which fits the theme of the backing.





I realised that on other album cover backings, they have their production company and a logo for it, so I quickly made a rough logo on Photoshop: 


And I downloaded a barcode and also a few music notes to remind the audience that although the artist is fun, she find her music very important and not just in it for the fame. This was the finished result:



Friday 18 February 2011

How I Made My Album Cover

  This was the initial image. I then cropped it so that it was a square shape and took some of the colour out using the software: iPhoto.
This was the outcome. I then imported it to Photoshop to edit out the cupboard. I used the stamp tool to copy the wallpaper where the cupboard was. This was a very conventional pop album cover as it is just a close up image of the artists face.
I then did the album name and artist name using fonts from Dafont.com. I edited the colour of these by putting patterns in the artist name and embossing the album name.
To make the album more personal instead of too conventional, I searched online for an image of lips to resemble a kiss. I found this image to do the job: 
I then edited out the white bits to make it transparent so it looked like the kisses were from the artist straight on to the album cover and put the kisses on each side of the album name, I mirrored the image on one side to make it even, which I think is important in a successful album cover.
This was the final result after my editing: 


Monday 14 February 2011

Starting the Editing

Although we haven't done all the filming, I feel we have done enough to start the editing so today, I downloaded the song on to the mac, I used the specific one that we had used from my iPod so that all the lip singing would synchronise with the music.


I also have imported the clips that we have done so far which include:
- The walking down and up stairs for beginning of song
- Close up of eyes
- Bridge
- Chorus
I have also started putting this onto the time line on Final Cut so we can start the editing today. 

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Filming Chorus

Today, we filmed the chorus in the hall doing the performance part. I think this was a successful session, we spent about 2 and a half hours filming and we got most of the shots that we needed. However, I think we might need to film a bit more as we don't have enough different material as we were in a rush because we had to give back the props to the different departments before they went home.

Once we have uploaded the filming onto the timeline, we can see how much we have and how much extra we need if we do.

Thursday 3 February 2011

Filming for Bridge

We filmed for the bridge part of our video today, this is only a few seconds long but a key block within the video.
The shots were mainly the artist singing to the camera as it's supposed to be intimate camera work but we did also do different shots, like crawling towards to the camera just because it's quirky. I thought it would be a good idea to input quirky little shots at random intervals within the video as it breaks the conventions of a video running smoothly straight through.

Monday 31 January 2011

Finished Website

This is my final MySpace, it has been linked to the blog but I have also print screened it.



Friday 28 January 2011

Response To Album Covers

I printed a copy of each of the album covers and showed them to 30 pupils aged between 14-19 years old. I did a tally chart on the back as I asked each pupil which album cover they would be most attracted to buy if in a music shop such as HMV. 


This image got 16 votes. I also got feedback such as:
- 'I love the font'.
- 'The hair is cute and the bold colours really contrast well with the faded picture of the face'.
- 'The off-the-shoulder top really goes with the theme, as the other outfits on the other covers don't really'.
This image got 4 votes. I also got feedback such as:
- 'The glitter makes it really girly and Kesha-like' (The artist we are compared to)
- 'I don't think the hair has enough character to it to be honest'
- 'The title looks quite messy to me'.
This image got 6 votes with feedback such as:
- 'I like how this is different as it's self titled'.
- 'The 'V' is a good idea but it needs to be tidied up a bit to make it look more professional'.
- 'The colour is really good here, and the eyes look sharp'.











This image got 4 votes with feedback such as:
- 'The font is so cool here!'
- 'I like how she looks like a cartoon here'
- 'She does look like an out of control artist here'






From this, I concluded that I would use the first album cover. This won't be hard to edit the MySpace page as I have the template ready to easily change.

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Images

Today, we wanted to film the beginning part of the video on the stairs, so we did this. Afterwards, I thought it would be a good idea to take some more images, which we could use for the album cover. Also, I was in different hair, clothes and make up than before so this would be suitable.


The images are on the group blog. 


We should be filming the next bit soon as we couldn't film the first scene as the boy we need was in an exam. Also, we need to film the rest in the drama rooms which are busy right now.

Monday 24 January 2011

Album Cover Art Designs

I've made 4 different album covers so I can chose which one is most effective. I will give out a questionnaire asking students in my year group which album cover they would chose to pick up.






Saturday 22 January 2011

Website Update

The banner I created was a few pixels smaller than I needed for the banner of my MySpace page so I made it larger whilst changing the font and adding some leopard print. I added these because I decided that Violet Rowe's image needed to be more edgier. As I know consistency is vital in trying to establish an artist, I then had to edit the font of the album cover, this was fine because me and Natasha D had discussed that we thought a different font would be more appropriate for our target audience.

This is the new banner I designed:

So the new album cover looks like this:

The MySpace page now looks like this: 

Friday 21 January 2011

Website Update

I have played around with the MySpace designer and found that I could input a banner. I made one (below) advertising the artist and her album. I think Violet should be her signature colour, however, I will easily change this banner when we have the finished album cover, this again is just a draft.


I put hand prints on the side as this artist is one that is trying to break out of the 'typical pop star' stereo type, she produces catchy songs that appeal to most. The hearts in the hand print show a juxtaposition of her feminine side and her rebellious side.

Thursday 20 January 2011

Album Artwork

Today, me and Natasha went to the drama studios to take some images for our album cover. The typical conventions of an album cover for a pop artist is normally a close of the artists face, to show their importance without the need for props. We took a few images with props so that we had a selection (these will be on our main blog)
However, at home I uploaded the images and edited one to get a basic idea of how we wanted it to look. Below is the image I practised with which I will show Natasha D tomorrow and hopefully we will use it as inspiration for our final album artwork. 

Website Research

I wasn't 100% sure on what a good music Myspace page involved so I looked at current artist's websites to get a feel on how they looked and what they included in them. Here are a few that I looked at:



Wednesday 19 January 2011

Violet Rowe's Website

I decided that Myspace would be a suitable software to create a website for our artist as it has helped many other artists before because it allows, music to be uploaded and bought and to become friends with other people and artists.


I made an account for our artist which can be found at www.myspace.com/violetrowe


At home, I uploaded:
- A few images of the artist as I realised that a profile with pictures is a lot more attractive than one without
- Some gigs and interviews
- A biography about Violet Rowe
- Added a few established artists and up and coming bands all within the Pop genre to generate more fans


I realised that the layout for MySpace has changed from how it used to be, so I have looked at a few forums to see if people have written tips on how to create an effective MySpace music page. I haven't found anything too helpful yet, but I will play around with it myself to see if I can improve it.

Monday 17 January 2011

Marketing Plan for Violet

As I had previously made a marketing plan with a fake artist earlier (Reuben Jay), I thought I would make one for my current artist (Violet Rowe) so that I have a good idea of the kind of artist she would be, this will help when coming to design the album cover, the website and even with regards to the acting, filming and editing of the music video. So here is a quick brainstorm of my ideas:

Saturday 15 January 2011

Artist and Album Name

Today, we decided the name for our artist would be Violet Rowe. We based this on artists such as Pixie Lott and Katy Perry who use 'stage names' within their profession instead of their real names to make a quirky, catchy name. This way it's unique and recognisable if someone was talking about 'Violet'.


We decided the name for the album should be self titled as this seems to be popular with new pop artists as it helps get themselves established.

Monday 10 January 2011

Costume for Artist

So the artist is a pop artist, so I've looked at a few current pop artist to see the type of clothing they wear. Here are a few images that inspired the look that I'm looking for in our artist:



This is Beyonce. This is her on stage performing and she is wearing a floaty shirt and shiny leggings. She's a very empowering artist who has made her mark on the music industry, so her fashion is always pretty god due to the people that choose her clothing. I like this idea and want to use it to inspire the outfit for the artist performing in the video, which is the chorus. 



This is Cheryl Cole in her music video. She's also wearing shiny leggings, heels and a bright red jacket. This jacket is eye catching because of the colour, and she is also known for her fashion sense. This outfit inspires the clothing I would want the artist to wear in the bridge of the video because that it when it is supposed to be obvious that it is a music video and not real life, just like Cheryl Coles music video.




This is Ke$ha, this is the artist who's song we are using so she is a big influence on nearly every aspect of the video and marketing. Here she has a laid back outfit, just a plain baggy top, leggings and biker boots. I think this would be a good costume for the narrative as it's more personal and more just like a normal person. Therefore, I'll see what clothes I can find that slightly resemble this in my cupboard!






This was a picture of Lily Allen just on a normal day out, but her clothing is also the sort of look that I'm going for. I like how the focus is on the bottom half (leggings) instead of the top unlike the others. It's also a chilled outfit and suitable for maybe marketing my artist.










So these are the images that have inspired me, so I'll be seeing what I can find to resemble these as I know they work well in the industry especially with pop musicians. However, I don't want to completely copy them, as for an artist to break through the music industry, they usually have to have something different about them so they can bring something new, interesting and refreshing to the industry.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Pop Album Covers

Because our artist is from the pop genre, I decided to look at album covers that were specifically from the pop genre. Here are a few of my favourites:









These album covers range from 1999 till present so it shows that most pop album covers use just their face at the front to establish themselves as artists. Instead of breaking this convention, I have decided I want to follow it as it is a debut album so it will be more likely to succeed.

Sunday 2 January 2011

Post Modernism Within Album Covers


This album by the clash is a perfect example of post modernism. It represents:
- Anger
- Sophisticated
- Artistic
- Real Event
- Black and White
It has the conventional artist name and album name.
The colours clash, which fits in with the artists name.






-The Clash's album is an allusion of Elvis's album.
-This is post modernism.
-The Clash's album was a homage to Elvis's album which shows they're proud and shows they stand fro rock and roll.
-Both album images are in mid action.
-Same font and colours are used.


Parody (making)
Satire (political parody)
Pastiche (taking elements)
Homage

Modernism and Post Modernism within a Music Video

Modernism
- Believes in experimentation.
- Broke boundaries that were set by previous art types.
- Elitist - appealing to most educated.
- 1900 - 1950s
- Stravinski - so shocking it caused a riot.


Post Modernism
- Pastiche.
- Eclectic - taking bits and pieces and putting them in a new context and creating originality.
- Self-referential, refers to itself.
- Wants the audience to be aware it is engaged with a text.
- Breaks the illusion of reality.
- Allusions - reference to another text - intertexuality.


A video that uses famously modernism and post - modernism is Telephone by Lady GaGa ft Beyonce. (This video is already on the blog)
- Their colours and graphics are allusion to Tarantino's Kill Bill.
- It crosses genre between music video and film.
- The jump cuts break the illusion.
- Self referential, GaGa expresses some of the famous rumours about her.
- Placing things that don't go together such as wearing a white dress whilst working out.
- A lot of product placement which helps to break illusion, a parody of product placement.
- Conscious of the production process.
- Madonna Vogue reference.
- Vehicle is an allusion of Kill Bill.
- Thelma and Louise references.
- Subtitles break illusion.