Finished!

We have now (unofficially) finished our project!


That includes our music video, album cover and myspace homepage for our artist.


We will have a screening with our class next Tuesday and then make any changes we need to...and then we are DONE!!!

Editing, Album Cover and Myspace Page

This week we have been working on editing the music video as well as the album cover and myspace page as the deadline draws closer (Friday).

We have decided now that the name of the artist will be Evie and the album cover is called 'Girl Afraid'. We are going to play on the idea of fears with the visuals on the cover of the album as this will tie in with the title and a theme of the music video. We still need to decide on an effective shot for the front cover of the album. We already know that the back will consist of a shot from the tunnel in which a silhouette of the girl can be seen in the distance.

In terms of editing, our video is coming together. We have satrted to put the ending together with the footage that was shot at the reshoot at the weekend. One option was to have the girl walk away with the the mask attached to her foot by string. However we did not like the look of this and after getting some similar negative feedback decided to have quick cuts of the girl getting up from the floor after the 'spark' bit putting the mask on. Originally the spark bit would have been the ending but we though it was not dramatic enough.

Apart from this there aren't many major issues or gaps. We did have a small gap at the beginnning where we planned to put together quick snap shots of the rest of the video. We got some feedback from Ms Blackborow who didn't like this but suggested we introduce the girl to the audience with some shots of her in the tunnel. We working on this at the moment too.

Trent Park Reshoot

Unfortunately I was too ill to go to the reshoot at Trent Park. The main thing left to shoot was the ending.

It's been raining quite a lot today but I'm hoping this didn't effect the shoot and that it went well.

I will try to come into school tomorrow if I'm feeling better as we haven't got long till the deadline.

Inspiring Album Covers

We took inspiration from the key iconography of this shot. There is a strong theme of nature with the flowers and birds in the background as well as the colour scheme of green and blue, which connote authenticity and freshness. The lungs on the outside of the artists body are quite surreal and suggest to the audience that the artist is unique and quirky. The way her body is posed with her eyes looking down demonstrate her quirkiness and also makes her stand out from other artists.

The key image on this album cover is quite surreal as the house in the background is reminiscent of a cottage in a fairytale. The bright red and yellow that are prominent in the image reinforce this. The horse imagery is also suggestive of mythical elements and the prominent green in the image connates more natural elements. The daisies also connate a sense of nature and also summertime and therefore a sense of dreaminess. Both these qualities suggest that as an artist Kate Nash is unique and different with an element of authenticity.

The image on this album cover has a cartoon/animated effect on it. It is very simple as is the colour scheme and the animated artist is dressed simply and is not groomed which suggests that she is again authentic and that her music is in a sense 'real' and sincere.

Editing, Album Cover and Myspace Page

We are getting even closer to our deadline with only about a week to go. I have summarised our progress so far in terms of all three products.


Editing

It is going well so far, but we only have a week left and still don't have all our footage! We are going to reshoot this weekend and I think we have enough time to edit the new footage. The only thing left is the ending. So in the meantime we have been working on the rest of the song. We were trying to listen to the lyrics and so when the song says 'I'm taking it slow' we have deliberately edited at a slower pace. We have also been adding more effects such as cross dissolves at this point in the song and at the beginning to make it more dreamy.

We need to get feedback from a teacher next week to find out if anything needs changing.

Album Cover


At the moment we are still planning and discussing our ideas for the fornt of the album. We already have the shot for the back, which is a ELS of Mia in the tunnel where only her silhouette can be seen.


For the front cover, we have been looking at album covers from the same genre as our song and artist, which is alternative/indie rock. We want to convey the genre and therefore have been analysing their signiifers. The main convention is that the image and style is unique and often abstract and weird.


Some of our ideas have been based around mythical imagery or images associated with nature such as trees. One idea was to use the silhouette of tree branches. We do not want to use an actual photo of a tree but only a image that is almost cartoon like. However, with a photo of Mia alongside this the feedback we have got is that it would be weird.

Myspace Page

We have not decided on the name of our artist and so have not created a Myspace yet. However, in preparation for the creation of it, we have looked at the myspace pages of other artists such as Kate Nash who we have taken much inspiration from. Her page is very personal and she has put a lot of herself and her personality into it. We like this idea and have decided to try and do something similar for our artist's myspace.

Panic At The Disco - I Write Sins Not Tragedies

I have decided to analyse this music video as we used it for inspiration earlier on in the project. The video is concept based and quite abstract. It's a great music video to analyse. There is a sense of a narrative and also some very convincing performance.


The video starts off with a normal situation - a wedding. The main performers is dressed in a red suit and holds a black stick and may represent some sort of a circus instructor. Pretty soon into the video we begin to see the quirky and weirder side to the video. Quite early on some performers who resemble circus performers but who are all quite strange and some creepy characters. They all seem to dance quite theatrically and sometimes aggressively. The main performer begins to direct his anger towards the groom. Finally he drags him outside where he witnesses the bride kissing another man. At this point there is a transition and the groom is now in the outift the main performer was originally wearing. This may represent a shift in his knowledge and awareness. Now that his eyes have been opened, he is no longer ignorant or in the dark. The whole narrative and concept matches the lyrics as can be seen with the line 'It's much better to face these kinds of things...' and whole idea of revealing the truth to the groom.


At 0:28 we are introduced to the quirkiness of the video with the wedding guests with white painted faces.


0:31 This is a really creepy shot where the quests simultaneously look at the camera.


0:36 Editing to the music (Andrew Goodwin) is visible here. As the beat kicks in the main performer smashes the door open and suddenly many strange character enter the room. So it signiifes the entrance of these weird, almost surreal characters.


0:41 Weird aspect of the video. These strange characters are juxtaposed with a normal, worldly situation.

1:00 Here the visuals match the music. As the music gets quieter the mad characters also calm down and sit down at this point.


1:15 We took major inspiration from this shot as the make-up is successfully extremely creepy. We decided to use the big red grin on our masked person. The white mask creates a similar effect to that of the white painted face.


1:28 This is another shot we took much inspiration from as we used a similar shot with the masked person blowing glitter out of her hand. In our video, this can be seen to symbolise the masked person's attempt to win over the main girl or equally it could be seen to represent the power of the masked person, or the part of the girl's self that it represents, and effectively the hold it has over the girl.


1:30 This shot is quite disturbing. I particularly like how make-up has been used to make the audience feel uneasy.


1.38 Over exposure this shot goes really bright. We tried experimenting with lighting and over exposure in our video.


1.43 - At this point the shot goues blurry and slightly out of focus. We have tried experimenting with focus and I think the blurry effect is effective in making the audience lost and confused.


1.45 - LA shot kicks towards the camera shows that he holds the power. Again, aimilarities can be drawn between this aspect in this video and ours, in which the main girl struggles to maintain the power against the masked person. In the tunnel, there are particular shots where the main girl sings into the camera and seems to be fighting hard to regain her power as can be seen in her facial expression.


The section after this is all edited to the beat and is again the visuals match the music. In this part of the sonag, people are dancing and being aggressive as can be seen on their facial expressions. There are random flashes at for instance 1:53 and this is something we could try to as there is a running theme of light in our video.


Hand held camera creates a sense of disorientation. This is evident at 1.55. We have tried to create something similar in some shots in the forest.

3:02 Fire is another link between our video and this video as we have used fire spinning in ours. We also have a shot where the fire almost blows upwards and this matches the music and beat in ours.

Editing Progression

The editing is coming along really well as we are steadily filling the gaps in the timeline. The footage from our reshoot in the tunnel, which we have captured and begun working on, is looking really good.


Now that we had the right footage, I have been working on the start of the sequence. Parts of it look good but the angles of the shots of Mia lying on the ground in the tunnel and forest do not match. As the shots are next to each other this is a problem. We are currently deciding whether we should have another reshoot or solve the problem in editing. We are holding a reshoot at Trent Park, but we all like the angle of the shot of Mia waking up in the forest and so ideally would reshoot the shot in the tunnel.


I have been trying to edit to the music and beat more this week. With the idea of trying to match the visuals with the music, we have also put other key shots onto the timeline. For instance we have a brilliant shot of the fire spinning when the beat kicks in.

What we have done so far looks quite different to how I imagined it would, but it still looks really good – possibly better!

Tunnel Reshoot

We had our reshoot at the tunnel yesterday and it went really well! We met fairly early at 10.00 and the weather was good so it was quite light outside. We got all our shots and finished quite early. We didn't come across any problems and things went quite smoothly.

I watched some footage back today and its looking good!

Leona Lewis - Run

I have decided to analyse this music video for the single 'Run' by Leona Lewis. We are currently editing and having a reshoot soon so I thought we could gain some inspiration from it. The setting is the same as ours as it is in a forest. I also like the extremely effective use of and experimentation with lighting as well as the editing throughout the song. However, compared to our song, the genre is different and so is the theme.

At 1:09 I particularly like the gradual fade, which ties in with the music that changes at this point. There is also a fade at 0:48 and up until this point the video features one long take. This is extremely effective in building up tension and setting the atmosphere. The fade also matches the song which is quite slow and sad.

At 1:11 the extreme long shot is then contrasted with a CU of the artist at 1:16 which is again very effective.

At 1:33 there is a fade to lack which again matches the music which gets quieter a this point. We have quite a few pauses in our video but I think we will use those for some interesting shots and editing as the rest of the song is slow and so will will use slower shots or fades at other points.

I really like the shot at 1:39 where the camera moves around a tree, which remains out of focus as the artist stays in focus. We have already experimented with the camera by chnaging focus on our last shoot. I also tried this shot and will bear it in mind for the shoot.

1:44 - There is a red tint to the shot and I think we tried something similar to this effect by using sweet wrappers (purple, green and pink as can be seen on the group blog) as we have tried to experiment with lighting and exposure etc. I really liked what we did because it really tied in with the dreamy effect we were going for as it looked quite surreal.

At 2:05 there is a really cool flicker effect with the light that we could perhaps try out as it would add to the confusion and sense of being lost that we are trying to convey in our video.

There is an amazing shot of sunlight streaming through the trees at 2.56 which is visually extremely effective. I think we need lots of footage of something similar. We could also have some shots where the camera is spinning or moving really fast to reflect the main girl's madness and sense of confusion.

3:03 - There is a few flashes of light that is tinted slightly red that looks really cool. We could try out this effect as we are trying to experiment with light and the colour red could reflect the extreme emotions, such as passion and obsession, that we are trying to convey.

At 3:12 there is a handheld shot that I particularly like.

At 3:22 to 3:23 there is an interesting shot which is an ECU of the artists eyes. The shot then goes really bright. We were already thinking of using an ECU of eyes and I think we could use exposure to get a really bright shot.

4:07 - Another really shot of light streaming through trees and surrounding the artist.

The shots in this video are generally quite long, which will be very different to ours as most of our shots seem to be quicker, even though some will be longer.

Editing: Progression

Now that we have footage from all our locations (although we are not going to use all of it) we have started editing. We captured the footage on Monday and Tuesday and then began putting together sequences.

We began working on was the sequence of the main girl waking up. We wanted swap between shots in the tunnel and forest using graphic matching but we found that the footage of this in the tunnel did not work or match with the one in the forest, which we much preferred. Therefore we will have to have a reshoot in the tunnel.

I began putting shots of the main girl walking in the forest and then also shots of the masked figure without properly revealing her.

So the editing is going well! Once we have the correct footage it will come together much better.

Shoot 2 and 3: Grovelands Park and Trent Park

Thurday 29th October - Grovelands Park

Friday 30th October - Trent Park

Costume

MAIN GIRL (Mia)
Black/silver dress
Make-up - natural, more subtle (eyeliner, eyeshadow etc)
Converse

MASKED PERSON 1 and 2 (Selina and Mary)
Faded blue jeans
Black suit jacket
White mask
Make-up - Red lipstick (for Selina)

Props
 Black stick
Sparklers

Problems/Lessons Learnt

We arranged to meet up at 1:30 for this shoot and it took a fair amount of time for the actors to get ready so by the time we actually started filming it was fairly late and therefore getting dark quickly. We coudn't shoot much as it was getting dark and we didn't have the paglights either.

At this shoot, we did get some incredible footage of Matt fire-spinning, which looked really cool on camera, so I'm looking forward to seeing it at school on the computer.
 We learnt our lesson about arranging to meet to late and for the next shoot the next day we arranged to meet earlier at 12. We also managed to get the paglights in case we needed them, which we did.

Originally we were going to have one main masked person (Selina) and two background masked people (Mary and Matt). However, Matt couldn't make it to the shoot on Friday but we decided that we could shoot our footage without him. We shot some footage with Mary in it as a background masked person but may not use it in the real video as it might look random with just one and Selina may no longer look like the main masked person.
 I think both shoots went well and we definately have some footage we can use from both shoots.
 We will have to reshoot at the tunnel as the footage we got from there needed better lighting. So next time we will film in the day and make sure we have the paglights.