Sunday, 15 January 2017

Draft Music Video

Music video

Draft Album Advert

Here is my final album advert as part of my ancillary tasks. When designing this album advert, I felt that it was important to include both the male and female characters to show the contrast between the two. However, I decided to make the male character dominate the advert in terms of size as I felt it best represented the relationship between the characters. I have overlaid an altered version of the back cover of the digipak with just the image, title and song list onto an altered version of the digipak's front cover. I have added "Debut album out now" and a link to the artist's website. This message above entices readers and the message below invites them to learn further about this new album. I have also moved the title further down to overlap with the top of the male character's head to cover the whole width of the page. The reason for this was because it met conventions of other album adverts that use more center-stage titles and text.


Draft Digipak



Front cover (Page 1)- This is the front cover of the digipak, portraying the main meaning behind the music video of the both confrontational yet vulnerable male character changing as a result of the female character. I have used a similar font as Kavinsky uses on their album for Outrun as it stands out and is easily recognisable to their target audience. I chose to keep the black and white color pallet in the image as I felt the way it contrasts with the title. This makes the title seem brighter and bolder and stand out further for audiences. About half of the man's face can be seen and this style is in the style of the artwork for the Synthpop song "Nightcall".


Inside left cover (Page 2)- This page thanks the individuals that contributed to the original "Outrun" album. I have used a red font for the sections that individuals contributed in and white font for the people's names. This red font matches the letter "K" in the Kavisnky title and contrasts nicely with the white font. This has a similar effect in terms of contrast that the font on the front cover has. I have implemented the phone and money from the music video as I feel that this is important in terms of meeting as it instigates the communication between the male and female characters.


Inside right tray cover (Page 3)- This cover acts as the tray cover which is located behind where the disc is placed in the digipak. This is a simple image of the shot of the man's head and has no writing or overly specific details in it. This makes it appropriate to go behind the disc as it is revealed when the disc is removed. This also draws a contrast between the image on front cover that shows the man's face and this shows the back of the man's head.


Back cover (Page 4)- The back cover of the digipak again features the bold colorful Kavisnky title that is instantly eye catching and recognisable to the target audience. The track list of the album is then listed below in chronological order of the songs on the CD. At the bottom of the page, Kavinsky's and his record maker's website addresses are present, allowing fans to check out their website. The image of the girl is in a similar style to the front cover with about half of her face shown but with a different character. This represents the similarities between the characters and how they behave. 


This is the final digipak that I have put together that is made up of 4 pages for the front, back and two interior covers.


Monday, 5 December 2016

Audience feedback

I have asked a number of people their opinion on their opinions of my draft as well as reviewing it with my teacher. As a result of this, I have got an idea of what I need to do to improve this draft. Below is a list of ideas for changes:
  • A need to revise the exterior shots ("overly domestic looking") of the back yard to be replaced with a female singer.
  • A change for a larger majority of the shots to be in back and white.
  • A change in the nighttime driving shots to make the shots not black and white but more saturated and to emphasize certain details in the shot without influencing the quality of the shot.
  • Rejection of the direct religious iconography in favor of a candle burning down over time in a time lapse way as well as a time lapse of the sun setting behind a hill. This can also be inter-cut with the woman as well.
  • Removal of the shots of the burning paper but potentially replace with burning paper with writing on it to add more meaning to it. 

Monday, 28 November 2016

Music video draft

Here is my first draft for my music video.

I now plan collect some audience feedback responding to my music video.

Thursday, 10 November 2016

Filming report dated November 10 2016

2/1, 2/3, 2/5, 2/7
For the lyric shots, I struggled (as a non-actor) with my ability to act on screen with singing the lyrics. I managed this by doing a number of takes for each lyric. I played music in real time to ensure accuracy with speed and managed this myself on the spot.

1/2
I decided to break this shot into two parts. The first half was quite simply a shot from top to bottom of the man sitting in a chair but I did have some issues with one takes being slightly blurry. The second part consisted of the man actually walking with the walking stick and so I did a shot of both the hand and the foot whilst walking

1/3
This shot was quite simple by me just facing the camera and staring at the lens which was obtained with little issue.

2/2
This shot of the head had some issues with falling out of focus when moving upwards. However, I felt that this created a preferable 'hazy' effect on the shot that fitted quite well.

2/4
I broke this shot up into two parts with the first half being a wider shot of the spine and then the second part being where the spinal shot move downwards the spine.

5/7
This shot was quite easily obtained by me just standing after being sat wearing the religious necklace and was obtained after a few takes.

Below is some of the raw footage from this shoot. This video is made up of numerous different shots.


Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Filming report dated November 9 2016

In this shoot, I filmed the shots that were present on the table. This shoot contained a large quantity of shots (13) with around 10 shots being completely original shots and needing extra preparation.

1/1
For this shot, I varied in the way I shot it. My first idea was to film the shot with the camera resting against my chest using the strap on the camera to keep it suspended in the air using a mini tripod to push the camera away from my body to achieve the shot. After a few takes of this shot and reviewing the footage, I decided that the shot was not what I was looking for and so decided to instead decided to use a stationary and taller tripod to gain the shot. After that, I faced minor issues with getting the money put down in the correct location to be in the shot properly. I also had issues with syncing my button pressing on the phone with the button pressing in the song. To counter these issues, I revised the shot multiple times before shooting and used real in-time music to ensure I was in time.

1/4
This shot was relatively simple by just laying the skull pendant on the table, adjusting the height on the tripod and then filming.
1/5
For this shot, I had some issues with the prop as it not only reflected light but also caused some issues with the camera falling in and out of focus. I varied a few shots of tighter frames as well as wider shots and decided that I would also trial shooting a shot of my drinking from the flask but decided in the end not to use this shot.
1/6, 2/8, 5/6
For these shots, I found it worked quite well as I had minimal issues with setting the paper alight and filming it. I did however, have to be careful that I kept the lit paper far enough away from the camera and table to avoid causing damage. The paper burnt quite quickly and so I shot my setting 2 different pieces of paper on fire and was sure to get shots of the fire at different stages throughtout such as its beginning flame, the highest point of the fire and the end of the fire. The paper did burn very quickly which did increase the risk of burning and also led to quite a mess of paper shrapnel being made after I put the fire out.
2/6
For these shots, I filmed the weapons together and separately doing shots that tracked upwards (bottom-up) from the hilt/handle of the weapons to the end. 
5/1, 5/4, 5/8
These shots of the candle were quite easy to shoot and I was able to cover 3 shots after setting up the camera but I had to be sure not to move the candle at all for continuity.
5/2
For this shot, I had little hassle with the shot as I just placed the camera in front of the camera and opened the match box. I did vary the shot on my first try at a side angle but this made it less obvious of what was happening in the shot.
5/3
This shot was also relatively easy as I just struck the match on the match box. I did two takes and ensured the box filled the frame and was not off center. I also slightly lowered the exposure rate on the camera to ensure that the bright light of the frame was not too bright. 
5/5
I had a few issues with trying to make sure that this shot worked with a tight enough frame around the bible. I also had to consider where my hands would be in the shot and also the similarity between the background and the bible itself with the brown color.

Below are some examples of the raw footage from this shoot for numerous different shots.