Thursday 31 October 2013

Magazine advert



This wasn't my original idea for my magazine advert. The draft that I did was just me editing the album cover and putting reviews, quotes etc on it. I had the idea of this finalised magazine advert when I was shooting the photo shoot for all the photos I needed for my digipak. The raw photo is me looking into the camera with a magazine open in front of me. This adds the weird effect of a photo inside of a photo, quite illusive.

I kept the theme of the black and white contrast that is displayed throughout my digipak on the magazine advert.

Friday 18 October 2013

Digipak

From the research I have done on Digipaks, I feel the theme of it needs to be continuous throughout to be most effective. If the theme changed on a different flip side to one that has a different design, it'd look  tacky and awful. This is the reason that has ensured me to create a design to hold for the actual design of the whole digipak. This will be based and sort of inspired from the front cover that has already been done, the 'Paper Shop Dave' band name displayed in newspaper font on a newspaper that is placed on a table with coffee stain, lighter etc.

  • This whole design idea will be done in black and white, a very popular and traditional colour scheme for the majority of newspaper nowadays as that is what it was always like in previous times and decades. I would like to find a very nice effect on Adobe photo shop to make all the texts and pictures on the digipak to look like they are drawn or sketched by someone to give it a more realist look.

  • Font has to be the most consistent of all for a digipak. It has to portray the character of the artists and what they and their music is all about primarily. The greatest example that I have previously researched is the 'Paul Simon' magazine advert. The font on his magazine advert is his signature font used frequently throughout most his hardware products such as CD albums and his digipaks. It is very sophisticated which represents his music very well. With it being bold and slick, it looks very formal as well, this explains more on the side of his mis en scene and image he portrays. Not necessarily eye catching but smart.
For the font I will be using, is the most common italic newspaper headline font displayed below. It is the font I used in the design for the Paper Shop Dave digipak cover. I will keep the font and colour scheme of black and white consistent throughout.



After deciding my font and colour scheme, I remembered that due to such concentration on my filming and editing schedule that I actually need to focus some attention on the photo shoot that needs to be done. Band photos of performance and just day to day photos need to be took to a quality that I am satisfied with. After taking several different shots in various locations and mis en scene, it will help me create my 'Beatles - Revolver' inspired hand drawn band collage. Time will be used across half-term for filming the second part narrative better and capturing better performance shots, but also taking nice to the eye still shots, basically a photo shoot.

Individual dimensions:
Height - 125.5
Width - 138.5

Font :

Full digipak dimensions:

Width - 431
Height - 251

Full Digipak:




The final product is displayed above. I feel it has surpassed my expectations on how it was going to be. The scheme was kept throughout the whole of the digipak, which proved to be the hardest factor of the whole project. Being creative with what was going to be on the digipak panels didn't prove an issue for me, in which in planning it, I thought was going to be. It has changed from my initial plans. I find this occurs often, at the planning stage I am satisfied with the ideas that I come up with, and then change it once I get to the stage of completing the project.

I took inspiration from previously done album artworks, for example the collage page on the bottom left is a design based on the Beatles' 'The Revolver' album.









Friday 11 October 2013

Music video first edit




After filming the raw footage from most of the two narratives, Me and Nikki both found that we didn't leave enough time for us to edit it as successfully as we had wished. There is still time for us to completely focus on the editing aspect however, it has meant that our first edit isn't up to the standard that we are satisfied with.We knew that filming would have been time consuming, we almost got lost in a haze of filming that we forgot that the editing of a music video is incredibly quick paced. I do think that we captured certain shots that were required for our final edit which I am happy with.
Certain sections of the video need to be re filmed. There needs to be more close-ups shown on screen of the band members singing the vocals. This being done will establish the importance of the performers and idolise them.
The introduction is something I am reasonably quite proud of in this moment of time. The quick cut shots of me walking to the shed need to be timed better but this is all because of the slight rush that was on, due to me and Nikki wanting to meet this time line. I still don't think our time management could have been a great deal better particularly. We know exactly what we have to do and when to do it.
The lighting in the performance shed for me and Nikki has come across as a problem that we are yet to get too and resolve. The can be done when we go back to re film short clips for us to put in and edit, these clips will be focused on the types of shots that are lacking in the video such as close ups. Lighting can be adjusted in the software that we are editing in which we can do to the best we possibly can. I know this from my previous media project in AS of making an opening sequence for a thriller. The adjustments can be done to a really good level, it needs to be brightened up as it comes across on camera to be quite dull.
Another aspect of the video in which we are proud of doing is at the editing stage. The music actually starts at 0:57 when I enter the shed. We did this at the editing stage after the introduction scene because we wanted to portray the Paper Shop Dave performance/practice shed to be symbolised as a place of music. As soon as my hand reaches out to open the door, the music begins.
Towards the middle of the video being the performance section and the end at Attenborough with Jess, it is clear that we didn't have a mass amount of time to meet this deadline. It wasn't so much as rushed but we had to speed up the process by missing out quite major details. This isn't completely missing it out though as I have made notes on my computer as to what filming and editing changes need to be done.

- One improvement is to make sure next time we film Paper Shop Dave is that we film more aspects/angles/shots of the band singing because looking back on our draft we actually haven't captured many close ups of the lead singer which I think we need to do to get the highest grade possible. 

Within our editing process we involve a lot of dynamic effects, one of which is fading. We found this works really well within our video because we was very careful whilst editing our shots together and we have realised that it helps to prove our music with a smooth and relaxed feel to it instead of straight cutting every single shot. However, watching the first edit back now it had met the deadline, I do feel that we used it far too much, so some straight cuts need to be put in at the right moments. Cutting from different close up shots dependent on how close they actually are can be quite a good idea. Although we found that the introduction looks much more professional that we have straight cut every shot because it looks more fast paced and gives of the feeling that the actor is wanting to get to somewhere important quickly.   
 
The instrumental of the song first comes in as I open the shed door as we found helped to build and create positive feeling and tension. The music track actually starting when shed door opens can also be seen as a sort of symbol of the shed being an environment of music, in which it is. At this point we had recently gone away and filmed our second narrative at our second location which involved Jess acting as Arabella. We then realised how close our deadline was and how much we had to edit in the short time we had which caused us both to get a little worried. From that we began to rush the editing process and not spend as much care with the little details which we had planned as we decided as a group we simply wanted to meet the deadline and we could re film what we needed after the deadline as we realised we have half term coming up. As shown above we did meet the deadline for our first draft which brought our spirit up as we felt more confident that had identified what we wanted to change and improve. 
  • The effect of the opaque level being decreased to make it appear faded behind another shot is frequently used. Watching it now, it is involved far too much. Straight, quick cuts to short shots need to be shown much more but this will mean filming some more footage has to be done which are currently planning.
  • There are some zooms that really need to be cut out. I didn't intentionally mean to put them in so I will go back and edit the shots to make it look much better. I have studied in my media classes that zooms are hardly used in music videos, they tend to look strangely quite tacky. 
  • Ambient sound needs to be arranged according to the location of the shot. For example, the shot that includes Me walking down the garden cuts out sound because we took it out in the editing stage as there was some noise in the background. A search on the internet is required to find a relevant ambient sound that can go well with the shot, considering the shot is actually taken from inside the house. The transition from inside the house to outside the house must change in its ambient sound, otherwise it will not look legitimate.

The most important job for us to do when we go to film more footage is to capture the Paper Shop Dave vocalists with varied types of shots and film the band at Attenborough and follow the storyboard. There was a barrier for Paper Shop Dave to come down with instruments and film at Attenborough nature reserve, this was the weather. Bringing guitars down whilst it was raining on the day just will not happen, the rain will damage them in one way or another. Not worth taking the risk.

The narrative isn't as of yet clear to the viewers. Very long and dragged shots come in towards the middle of the song which isn't what we intended to do but it was the time that held us back in this deadline. Our main priority was to meet the deadline with a rough narrative to work on for the final edit. Me and Nikki both learn best visually and verbally. Being able to watch our first edit, pick out all the flaws and discuss them together will make us work much better and quicker paced.

Friday 4 October 2013

Call sheet

What is a Call Sheet?

 The 'Call sheet' is usually a film making term for a sheet of paper issued to the cast and crew of a film production created by an assistant director, informing them where and when they should report for a particular day of shooting. It can be issued to other areas of work but it is most commonly found in film production. The production schedule is listed by call time, the time when people are expected to start work on a film set. The requirements for a filming crew is very demanding so the call sheet is basically a organisation plan.

Call sheets include other useful information such as contact information such as phone numbers of crew members and other important contacts. It is often to have the schedule for the day ahead, preparing the cast. It also involves when scenes and script pages are being shot, and the address of the shoot location, to make it clear. Call sheets have information about cast transportation arrangements, parking instructions and safety notes. Some can also involve risk assessments that may have to take place before filming in a remote location.
Call sheets may also provide logistical information regarding the location. It is common to find such items as weather information, sunrise/sunset times, local hospitals, restaurants, and hardware stores on call sheets. Preparation usually isn't a problem if a call sheet is done. Nothing at a location will surprise or frustrate any of the cast if they are aware of it. Spontaneous problems could occur if you don't have any idea what the location is like.

- An example of a well written call sheet is James Bond Casino Royale.
This sheet is numbered #6. This explains that the amount of detail on this one sheet gets replicated but with different information every time a new sheet is made.
 

  • Individual casting names with times of arrival and where they should be
  • There is also a 'Unit call' of 7:30, stating for all the cast to be there at that time.
  • Breaks are indicated in the top right.
  • Vaccination period made clear to cast with a time window of 08:00-20:00 to book an appointment (Safety preparation)