Construction: Day Ten

Today we worked on the ancillary tasks for our music video project which includes a digipak and and advertisement. We started with the digipak where we had to use Photoshop and measure out the dimensions that were needed for it to be the correct size of a real digipak. We then had to decide on photographs for the front cover (seen on the right) and for the song listings (seen in the middle). We made these choices because of the three girls lying on the floor looking upwards at where the songs are listed (in the clouds), however, we are still undecided at what is to go on the left of our first digipak. We then went on to decide on the typeface and the positioning of the text, this is important because the digipak must look as professional as possible. We downloaded several fonts from DaFont and used different fonts for the band name, album name and the song listings. We chose to do this because we want to make our digipak as 'un-static' as possible. We also thought that it was important that our song listings and album name were in clear, bold fonts that the potential audience would be able to read quickly and easily. 

Furthermore, we also want to incorporate the concept of our music video into our digipak and eventually our advertisement. This is focusing on bright and blocky colours that catch the audiences attention and reinforcing the unity of the girl band which is also important to our target audience (which is younger girls who see friendship as important). When completed, we want our digipak to be professional because it is important that the band that we have created would actually have potential within the music industry.

First Draft Music Video

Construction: Day Nine

Today, our group decided to re-shoot the green screens that we are going to be using throughout the video as our performance shots. To do this we had to independently set up the green screens in our media classroom, thinking about the lighting, framing and the creases (which were an issue last time). We done all this in reply to our feedback which suggested that the shots in our first draft video were very 'static' and we should include more close ups. When actually filming, which we can see a photograph of Amie doing underneath, we had to ensure that our lip synching was in perfect timing even more than before, because of the fact that the shots are now close up. Furthermore, as we can also see below, there are various shadows behind Amie when we were filming which were due to the placement of the lights, however, after uploading our footage we discovered that these can easily eliminated on Premiere Pro when we add the block colours that we want using the Ultra Key and then playing around with the saturation of the frame.

Construction: Day Eight

 

We have faced a number of technical issues when editing our music video. One of these issues has been with the green screens because there are visible creases in the background that have proven very difficult to remove. Our group tried using the Sixteen Point Garbage Matte, but it didn't work out well for our background, so we decided to remove the effect and go ahead with re-shooting our green-screen shots to get rid of creases in the background.

However, our group did use ProcAmp to modify the colour of the background for all of the clips. In Libby's green-screen, the creases in the background have gone, thanks to playing with the brightness, contrast and saturation of the ProcAmp effect. This is a more vibrant, brighter colour, that catches the viewers attention even more than before. It also adheres to our genre and links back to the concept that we had before we even starting filming, which was 'bright and blocky colours'.

As we can see above, there are visible creases and shadows in Maddie's shot (with the green background), but no visible creases in my shot (with the blue background) nor Amie's shot with the orange background.

These other clips look a lot more vibrant now than before, thanks to the ProcAmp effect, by playing around with the brightness, contrast and saturation. This manages to disguise the gloomy weather on a typical November afternoon in London. We chose to increase the vibrancy of these colours in particular because they are very conventional of the pop genre. We have incorporated this all into the narrative of the video which highlights the three girls having the perfect day.

Construction: Day Seven

We have been continued to edit over the course of this week. We also completed our first draft and received feedback from our peers which allowed us to understand further what we need to do to improve. We decided that we didn't have a wide enough range of shot types. For example, you can see in the bottom photograph that we have continuous long shots running through the video and we can see in the top photograph that we also have enough mid shots, so we need to work on different angles and close ups. We also decided (after looking back on various conventional pop videos similar to the one that we are trying to create) that we do not cut our clips quick enough during the entire duration of the video (see Move by Little Mix below) so in order to work on this we have been cutting clips and moving them around, whilst ensuring that they are still in sync to make the video faster paced and more exciting. This is seen in the middle photograph above. Finally, we have also decided to include more narrative in our work. This will mean shooting more cutaways which will give the audience the opportunity to understand the girls individual personalities. 

 

Construction: Day Six

This is a zoomed in section of the editing process that we have been going through on Premiere Pro. The blue clip on the top line is the clip of my green screen and the pink clip underneath is the colour that we have inserted to replace the green in the green screen. The green clip right at the bottom is the soundtrack to our music video that runs all the way through. 

During the course of the week, we have been continuing to edit using Premiere Pro, this has taught me various skills that will be valuable throughout the A2 course such as how to sync up the music to the actions on screen, how to cut clips and how to add a block colour behind us performing in front of the green screens (which is shown above in the second photograph). We have encountered several minor problems whilst editing such as clips last such as the music not syncing correctly and not having enough footage for when we got towards the end of the video, however, we have documented this and have already decided what to improve in our second draft.

Construction: Day Five

This is the photograph that we are going to use for our album cover. We believe that it is very conventional of a girl band (which shows a strong link to our concept) and reinforces the idea of unity and friendship because of our positioning in the photograph. The colours and costume (which are also included in our video) also prove that we are one artist and makes us stand out.

This is a photo of the view that we wanted to incorporate into the background of our music video.

The photos of us as a group that we could potentially use for our album cover, they are a perfect representation of us a group which is clearly reflected in the mise en scene of the image which highlights us being a group (in unity) and dressing in correlation which the genre which we are trying to adhere too.

On Friday, our group went to London to film because it was one of our locations that represent the perfect day. When filming we done several runs of the whole song in different locations such as the bridge that we are standing on in front of the London Eye and also a section of grass behind the Southbank. We also took some photographs as a group for our digipak and CD cover because we were in full costume and thought that it will be relevant. When filming, we encountered problems that we had to overcome such as framing, lighting and location, however, we managed to make all shots the best that they can be. Furthermore, we filmed cutaways whilst we were in London of what we saw as stereotypical actions for the girls to be carrying out, such as laughing, taking photographs, pointing at maps, posing with the street artists and jumping off of the walls. These will be inter cut between the performance shots throughout the video and will contribute to the narrative.

Construction: Day Four

Today we went to Morden Hall Park and filmed the bridge section where the three band members meet up and before they take the journey to their perfect day. We decided to use Morden Hall Park because it has a more picturesque setting. The photograph above shows me and Charlie setting up the camera and tripod in order to create both the perfect shot and to make sure our mise en scene was correct according to the genre of our music video. 

We have decided to re-shoot the clips that we took in Morden Hall Park because they establish the narrative (so they are very important) but they are not completely in focus, which is something that we need to work on to improve our camera work and mise en scene.  

Construction: Day Three

These are the photographs that I took when setting up the green screens for our second round of filming. In the first picture we see me, Amie and Maddie performing together as a group, we are wearing the appropriate costume and the composition of the shot has been framed so that we can see our facial expressions. In the second photo we see Charlie setting up one of the three lights that we used to film with the green screen and eliminate any shadows. In the third photo we see Maddie taking part in a solo test shot which we done perform each of us filmed/performed. Finally, in the fourth photo we see Amie helping to set up the green screen, something that we all took part in and allowed us to gain technical knowledge by doing. 

We also encountered some problems when rendering our work, so have decided to use Premiere Pro to edit the remainder of our video instead of Final Cut Express. This has already proven to be much more effective when editing together as a group. 

During editing, we realised that the mid shots that we took of each of the girls have a very high quality, but the close ups are out of focus and in some cases, blurry. This means that in order to have consistently smooth mise en scene, we will need to re-shoot these clips. These will mean that in our finished piece, we can have lots of performance shots that can be inter-cut with narrative and quickly cut, which is what we have been aiming for throughout this project. 

Construction: Day Two

These are some screen grabs of things that we decided to go back to Amie's house to re-shoot because of composition, lighting and mise en scene all of which we thought would contribute to making our music video more successful. We filmed Amie waking up again, which was immediately more successful and then we reshot Amie putting on lipgloss because of the dark lighting beforehand and also tried to see what it would be like if she put on perfume too. These will all take part at the beginning of the video and contribute to the narrative which we want to be conveyed as 'the perfect day'.

Construction: Day One

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These are screen grabs of the shots that we filmed on our first filming experience. They were shot in Amie's house in the bedrooms which are stereotypically pink and girly which we thought was a good representation of our genre. We did not have to lip synch when filming this section because it is going to be used in the introduction of the video where it is instrumental only.  We filmed each shot from a variety of different angles in order to get the best result possible. We also tried to use a variety of different shot types so the mise en scene is more varied. We then uploaded the footage and began to edit it using Final Cut Express. 

15. Talent Release Forms

These are the Talent Release Forms that are proof that our band members are willing to perform in our music video. This means that they are part of a legal contract and will turn up to all recording sessions and work in line with our schedule. Libby, Amie and Maddie have signed these Talent Release Forms.

12. Advert Designs

These are the advert designs that my group created for some ideas ready for our computerized design. The first advert was created by Charlie and shows the three band members standing together facing the camera. Charlie has focused on the conventions of our genre which include bright colours, matching costume and he has also included heart shapes, lip prints and the number three in the background, all of these which are recurring motifs for our band and reinforce the idea of unity and most importantly, adhere to our genre.

The second advert was created by Amie and also shows the three band members confidently facing the camera. The brightly coloured stripy background fits well with the conventions of our pop genre. It would also appeal to our main target audience and immediately catches attention of anyone that would see it. The block writing at the bottom reminds everyone that our album and the single (for the music video) are out now. Furthermore, the font that has been used adheres to the connotations that we are trying to convey.

The last advert was created by me and also shows the three members hand in hand at the camera. The fact that they are hand in hand highlights the unity of the three girls in the band. I left the background a neutral colour so the band members costumes stand out against a plain background. The fact that all three of us show the three band members in the same position is proof that we collectively feel that this would be most successful. Finally, I have also used font and colours that adhere to the stereotype of our genre and attract the same type of audience that we are hoping for. 

14. Location Permission Letters

These are emails my group has sent to Morden Hall Park, London South Bank and Brighton, the locations we're planning to use for our music video. A location permission letter is needed to gain permission from the places we're planning to film in to avoid issues with when filming our music video.

16. Track Permission Letter

These are emails my group has sent to EMI, Innocent Records and Virgin Records, the record labels who have signed Atomic Kitten. A track permission letter is needed to gain permission from the record label to avoid copyright issues with the label, so we are able to film our music video without hassle or copyright issues from any companies.

11. CD Cover Ideas

These are some ideas that my group drew out whilst thinking about the digipak that we need to create for the artist whose music video we are also going to create. The CD cover will have to adhere to the conventions and genre of our band which is a girl band, focusing on the pop genre that we have decided to call 'Threedom'. The main conventions that we have decided to focus on are bright and blocky colours (something that is also going to be conveyed in our video) and the weather which we have decided should always be bright and sunny which connotates a good, fun and vibrant mood, something we want our artist to be associated with.

The first idea was doen by Amie and focused on the idea of freedom, this is why she thought up the name 'Release' and used a balloon to represent that the band members are young and fun and free. She has also used bright colours which adhere to the stereotype of our genre.

The second idea was done by Charlie and he focused on the weather having an effect on the band members, this is positively represented in our song and therefore will be illustrated in our video. Charlie also used bright colours which adheres to our genre.

The third and final design was done by me and I decided to focus on bright colours/ illustrative design such as polka dots which represents stereotypical girls and draws the audience in. I have also chosen to use lipstick and nail varnish because they will be recurring motifs in our video. Furthermore, I chose the album name 'Third Time Lucky' because it reinforces the idea of unity and the girlband having a close relationship. 

We have now decided to change the name of our band from Threedom to Miss Melody, as it relates to music, has catchy alliteration and sounds innocent.