Last bits of filming

Last night Ramsy came round my house to do some bits for the photoshoot (photos with him with the Jenga game, as he wasn't available for the first photoshoot). These photos were successful overall. I used my own digital camera at first but it didn't have a great effect as the photos were way too over exposed with the flash on but were very blurry without it, therefore the best photos were taken on my phone, as my phone has quite good camera quality. 

As well as taking some photos we also refilmed some lip syncing moments of the song (as Sally suggested as they were quite dark before when we filmed in college). These looked much better and were a lot brighter and clearer, yet also kept the torch effect. This time round I made sure the footage was a lot clearer. The only thing I wish I could have improved on is the amount of space I had (I filmed the lip syncing at the top of my stairs to match the white background previously but this was quite narrow so it didn't look as spacious as before in college) and the stillness of the camera - there was not enough room to set up the tripod so I had to try and match the previous footage that had been recorded on a tripod as best as I could.

I also took this opportunity to film the last scene of the video - where Ramsay reflects on the moment when Grace leaves and how he shows his feelings through his facial expressions and actions. Ramsay is not the best actor - this was an issue - but I tried to get him to do certain things which people would associate with being angry instead (e.g. banging on the wall). To make his emotions more real we also produced 'tears' by putting water on his eyes. This wasn't very visible on the footage though. I think Ramsay's acting skills will not be an issue for the final product - good performance will obviously make the whole video better but the way I will edit it will make it less noticeable. 

Rough Cut 3

This is my latest rough cut. I have sorted out the second half of the video as there was a big gap where the second chorus was and I had to think of what to put there. I was a bit worried as I needed a lot of footage that would out the strong points in the song, but I had already used a lot with the fountain and on the balcony. However I think I have filled this gap in well. I have added more thought beats before the 'silent' point in the song and I think this reveals more about the background of the song and the couple's past relationship (shots of them looking at each other/in the arcade together). I also particularly like the shot of the birds in reverse - it supports the build up at the end of the chorus yet also adds to the 'silence' bit. It all happens fairly quickly though so a lot of these are hard to notice unless you paused the video.

Some areas for improvement:

• I need to film parts after Grace leaves as I need to bring out the anger and frustration in Ramsay to finalise the song before the happy ending. This filming will be completed tonight and then edited in shortly after.
• There are some bits near the beginning of the video where I have added extra shots in to add more of an effect but I personally think the video flows better without it (less is more), so in the next rough cut I will take these out and leave it how it was originally.
• Some lip syncing parts of Ramsay are quite dark and not very clear, so when I film the last scene tonight I will do some extra lip syncing and replace these bits.
• In the second chorus there is a long shot and track movement of Ramsay walking along - this will be taken out as I only added this bit in to test out what it would look like. 

Ideas for album name and band name

To bring out my creativity in this coursework I have been advised by my Media teacher to try and come up with a different album name and band name for my work instead of using the original names 'The Tempter Trap' and their album name 'Conditions'. Although I think my work would still suit the original names I have took this advice on board as I want my work to be unique and show that my work is original and I have put a lot of thought into the process.
Although it is still a real name of a song by The Temper Trap, the song 'Trembling Hands' is a good name for my album, as I think it links in with the concept of the game of Jenga on the products as it requires a steady hands. But as my actor feels the way he does in my video it means he may have 'Trembling Hands' as he is upset and depressed about losing his loved one. 
I am yet to think up a band name. I like the name 'Blocks' yet I think this will take the idea of the block game too far. After a long discussion for band names with help from my peers, I have decided on the name Old Pine as it links in with the idea of nature and fits the indie genre.

Draft advert design

This is my draft advert design. I have left spaces where the text will go and have deliberately took into consideration the framing of the photo so that I can put text in places where there is a plain background. I haven't yet took this photo but this will be taken as part of my final filming shoot later on. If for any reason i am unable to take this photo the way I'd like or it doesn't go to plan due to the type of camera i have I will have to think up another idea or maybe use one of the photos I have already taken on my main photoshoot. Although I do think this photo will be achievable. The font I will use will be one from the list of those I found on dafont.com (see Font Experimentation post).

I really like the idea of putting reviews on the blocks of the Jenga game as I think this is quite creative and a good place to put them. I will have to make sure I use a black front or a dark coloured font so that the text is easy to ready, especially if some of the background isn't necessarily white like the photos from my photoshoot.

Draft digipak design

This is a drawing of my digipak design. This is just a draft for now as I haven't yet thought of an idea of how to design the cd itself but I think this is a good draft for what the final digipak will look like as I have based all the pictures I have drawn on the photos I have already taken on my Photoshoot. Some of them I will take when doing my final bit of filming very soon, as I want my actor to be in at least one of these photos and also in the picture of the advert.

I like the third bottom photo design, as I think the framing of the photo will be good to put the track listings on. I made sure I thought about framing when taking my photos as I didn't want the text to look messy over a main part of the photo. I made sure there was a lot of white open space to put things like barcodes, titles and artist names.

I also like the bottom first and second photos. These photos are quite blurry but I did this on purpose to show the blocks going down in action and think this will have more of an impact and will show the development of it falling down across the design of the digipak, leaving the audience thinking about what this may mean and intrigue them to the underlying meaning of the album photos.

I am not quite sure what to have on the actual cd itself, as I forgot to actually put the cd on the digipak design. This may be kept as the same image as the one on the top second panel, to look like when you pick the cd up out of the cover it will also link in with the photo itself of picking out the block in the tower. I will think about this more when I get down to designing the final digipak design.

Font Experimentation

While drafting out my advert and digipak designs on paper I had to take into consideration what style of font I would like to use on the final products. This is quite an important element to think about on my digipak and advert as the font could say a lot about what type of genre the artist is based under. If I used a sci-fi style font it would come across as confusing and wouldn't suit the theme. As my chosen genre is indie/alternative rock, I would say this has features of authenticity. Indie is very 'nature' based, and very original. Therefore I quite like the idea of the album font looking as if it has been handwritten to add a personal touch. I have searched for fonts on dafont.com to get more ideas and have picked out these fonts in particular as I believe they will make the album come across as more 'one of a kind' rather than a popular chain of font which may be used to promote a pop album:

My favourite fonts in this list are probably 'Coffee' and 'Janice Hand Ink'. I like the Coffee font as the black background looks a bit like fingerprints and this will link in with the album name 'Trembling Hands' (taken from a name of one of their songs - this also links in with the idea of the Jenga game as you need steady hands to play the game). The other font looks very handwritten and messy but this suits in with the theme. For the artist name, Blocks, I may choose another font which has the letters in blocks themselves so that it might highlight the name of the band more, however if I keep using different fonts it may make the products messy so I will try to stick with only one or two.

December Plans

This is a calendar to show my plans for the December month. I am using this way of planning of time to help me stay organised and aware of deadlines to make sure they are met.

FRIDAY 30TH NOVEMBER - This date I am hoping to submit my third rough cut to show firther progression with editing my video. This should have no black gaps where footage is needed to be added and should flow well, yet may need a few adjustments on certain effects, transitions and narrative story.

FRIDAY 14TH - This date I hope to have finished my final version of either my digipak, advert or poster. I think this will help if I get one of these done by this date as it will ease the pressure to finish all of them for the next few weeks. If I finish one, the other 2 should be finished quickly and easier as they will all have the same layout and presentation to show they all have a connection with one another and it doesn't look messy.

FRIDAY 7TH - This is the deadline for the FINAL CUT of my music video. This means my music video should be done and completed by this date. I do not think there is a problem to not meet this deadline if all my previous plans from November go ahead. This is also the deadline for my advert, digipak and poster designs, but as mentioned above, if I balance out the editing and print designs I should be able to get these all finished by this date.

WEDNESDAY 5TH - This is a WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY day. This means I can use this day to catch up with any coursework. This wednesday is particularly ideal as it is the last wednesday I can use before the deadline of the final cut.

WEDNESDAY 12TH - This is also a WORKSHOP WEDNESDAY afternoon. This wednesday will be ideal to try and finish off one of the print products - either digipak or advert.

WEDNESDAY 19TH - This is the date we break up for our Christmas break. I should have all the practical work of my coursework done by this date, including digipak, poster and advert designs alongside the final cut of the music video. I should be prepared to start my evaluation when I return to college in the new year therefore could be starting to think about questions for this part of the coursework in this time off.

November Plans

This is a calendar to show my plans and deadlines for my coursework in November 2012. As you can see, important dates I have highlighted in yellow.

MONDAY 5TH - This is the date we return back to college from our October half term break. I plan to have all my filming for my video finished by this date. I think this should be done as I won't have left all of the footage for the half term anyway, so I will only use the half term break to finish off or add any more footage that I think will be useful for when I return to college.

THURSDAY 8TH - This is the date I travel to go down to visit a university, and will therefore be away for a full college week. It is vital that I organise my work around this week off as I don't want to end up being behind when I return to college. I plan to start a lot of my editing in the three days before I go away so that when I get back I won't be under too much stress. I am also planning on taking a camera with me for the week in case any oppurtunities to film arise and I can add extra establishing shots into my video to add to the setting, even if my actor/actress isn't in this footage.

FRIDAY 16TH - This is the date I return back to college from my week off. I will try and catch up with as much editing as I can when I get back.

MONDAY 19TH - This is my first deadline to submit my first rough cut onto my blog. I think meeting this deadline will not be an issue as I only need to submit 30 seconds of editing and I will have hopefully done this in advance anyway knowing I go away. This is also a good time to start thinking of ideas for my photoshoot for my digipak.

WEDNESDAY 21ST - This is the deadline for my photoshoot for my digipak. Again, I don't think this will be an issue as I will be up to date with my editing by this point and can dedicate this lesson to doing the photoshoot, and thinking of ideas for it in advance will come in handy as I will be prepared and know what I am doing. Wednesday is also a half day at college so it is an ideal day if I need to catch up on any work in the afternoon.

FRIDAY 23RD - This is the final day we are allowed to do any filming, as we have already gone past the deadline for filming yet people still need to refilm or haven't done all their filming yet. If I need to refilm any parts for any reason, this shall be all done by this date. This is also the deadline for a second rough cut to be submitted, but I think I shall meet this deadline fine as I will be balancing out the work between photoshoots and editing and will be on track with my editing and will have hopefully progressed in that week from the last rough cut.

Torch Light Effect

For part of my lip syncing footage I had the idea of shining a torch on my actor/actress' face for a 'personal' effect. This also links in with the idea of a torch being associated with if someone is lost: if they can't see their way, they use a torch. This gives the lip syncing parts of the video more of an edge and makes it more unique compared to if they were just stood by a plain white wall singing the song. I personally think the torch effect definitely supports the mood of the video by having the 'spotlight' on the actor and showing the audience how he feels about the girl and the situation of them breaking up.

 

This is an example of my footage with the torch effect. I think this idea brings out the lyrics of the song and makes the audience think more about what they mean and what they mean to the actor. The video by the XX - Crystalised inspired me with this idea with their idea of reflecting images onto their faces to give the video a more psychedelic/artistic feel:

 

 

My original idea was to not use a torch on the actor/actress' face but to reflect an image onto their face just like this idea. I was going to reflect an army like pattern or an image of the world to reflect upon the idea of being 'small in a big world' and feeling lost and not knowing where to place oneself. I then changed this idea as I thought it was too like this original XX music video and didn't think it would be very clear to my audience. I also thought the idea of the torch effect was more creative as it was very easy and simple to do yet it had a great impact and brought out the feelings and emotions in the storyline.

Old home film recording effect

After rethinking some ideas for the flashback I came to a conclusion that I needed some sort of effect to be put on for these bits of footage, as if I just left it as normal without any black and white filter etc then it wouldn't be very clear. I took some inspiration from one of my favourite music videos: Always like this by Bombay Bicycle Club. I noticed that they made a lot of their video look vintage and authentic by using a film burn effect and tv screen framing around the footage to make it look more dated. I thought this would be a nice way of showing the two's past relationship.

I achieved this effect by searching old film burn effects online on youtube and effect websites. I found the one I am currently using on http://www.digitalcinemafoundry.com/2010/02/19/free-film-burns-exclusively-here/ which were free to download. This definitely made the footage and narrative more clear but I also liked the idea of the footage being 'projected' or shown on a TV screen, so I then found a TV frame on Google Images, saved this in Photoshop (after erasing the inside on the frame), added it to my timeline on Final Cut and overlayed it over the film burn and original footage.

This is a print screen of my footage with the film burn effect and TV screen overlay:

I think this definitely adds authenticity to the footage and makes it seem more special. Even the mise-en-scene changes the overall mood of this particular scene as both actors are laughing and smiling together which shows they were once both happy together adding a contrasting mood to the theme of the song. As well of it being very similar to Always like this it also reminds me of a particular scene in the film 500 Days of Summer where the character's emotions and feelings are shown through a split screening of 'Expectations' and 'Reality' although I haven't used split screening, I have just used similar framing and vintage effect:

Photoshoot

Today in the lesson I did my photoshoot for my digipak, as today was the dealine for this task. I bought a game of Jenga a few days before. I then went into the photography studio with my friend Jenn who takes Photography and didn't mind helping me. I then set up the game of Jenga on a white wooden block and adjusted the lighting for a shadow effect. I wanted the white background and white wooden block to make the pictures look very simple and plain for more effect. These are some of the photos we took:

Some of the photos we took were quite blurry from not using the flash, although there were enough altogether for the digipak. I also used my phone camera for the photos of knocking the tower blok over as my phone had a special shooting effect that would take 8 photos in a row and this was more suitable for what I wanted to try and achieve. Alhough the photoshoot was time consuming due to having to keep stacking up the tower blocks, I think these photos are okay and I will not have to take them again.

The photos I have circled are the ones I like in particular and that I think I will end up using a few of these selected photos in the final products.

Rough Cut 2

 This is definitely an improvement from the previous rough cut. I spent a lot of time on editing the video yesterday in college so I did get quite a lot done. There are fewer gaps to fill where I need to add footage and I am hoping I should finish the final cut within the final deadline. There were some issues with some parts of the footage where Ramsay is lip syncing as most of that footage is too dark, therefore I have decided to try and refilm these parts as it won't be too much effort and we will not need to come all the way to college especially to match how dark it was, this can be done at home instead which is more practical as Ramsay and I live round the corner from each other and it saves him walking a long way to my college and back. I am hoping to still have the same effect with the torch but it will appear a lot clearer on the video and won't need too be brightened (which could make the footage appear grainy and unprofessional). I am hoping to do these bits of refilming tonight if my actor is available. I also have some issues with the last scene where Ramsay and Grace are arguing. This drags on for way too long and needs to be shortened so that the flow of the song is stable. However, after discussing it with Sally she suggested I do not have to reveal everything about why Grace leaves, I could create an enigma and leave the reason why she leaves for the audience to interpret which could make it more interesting and mysterious. I may do this by cutting out the footage of them both arguing and Ramsay slapping Grace, jumping straight to where she packs her bags and leaves.

Photoshoot Idea

Today after college I went to the town centre and bought the game 'Jenga', a stack of wooden blocks that you have to pull out whilst trying not to let the tower fall over. I like the idea of using this wooden block tower as a metaphor of Ramsay's life in the video, being that the tower block can represent his life and can easier fall over and 'fall apart', explaining how he feels without Grace in his life. I think this is an interesting way of interpreting his situation. The simplest past time family game can highlight Ramsay's feelings, showing that in life you build things and then sometimes something can happen and when it is near enough perfect everything can go wrong and it can knock you back down again.

One issue I have with this idea however is that my audience may not understand why I have used a wooden tower block game as the front image on my digipak. The only way I can think of making this clearer is by including footage of Ramsay actually playing the game in the music video, so that people will see a connection with the video and its album cover. I have decided that I will do this while doing my digipak photoshoot the upcoming Wednesday.

From doing some research on digipak album covers, I've noticed that a lot of the albums categorised under the 'indie', or alternative rock, genre do not always the most eye catching images. Depending on the artist, some like to keep it more simple to provoke thought and allow their audience to interpret the album in their own way. 

This style of simple album cover includes some of the following:
Rolling Stones - Sticky Jeans

XX - X

Arctic Monkeys - Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

However, in other genres, such as Pop, the artist is almost always present on the front of the album creating a 'star image' and being an icon for its fans. For example, pop artist Prince uses an image of himself on his album covers: 

Rough Cut 1

So far I think my video is going quite well.
As this is the first rough cut there are a few big gaps where I haven't finished the entire video, but these will be filled after when the final video is posted.
I have decided to stick with my storyboard on the first 30 seconds of the video with the Thought Beats reflected in lots of different cuts and jump cut edits. I think this makes the video more interesting from the start which will hold the audience's interest and create an enigma. I also like the idea of not revealing much of Grace's character until nearer the end of the video. This means that I will take out and replace the shots of her walking within the first 10 seconds of the video as I think this makes it more confusing for the audience.
Areas for improvement:

• I can't use a lot of the darker shots with the torch as they are too dark to see, so I may consider re-filming this so I have clearer footage of lip syncing.
• I will change the part where Grace and Ramsay are sitting on the tree stump looking happy in a flashback as Grace looks directly at the camera making the video look unprofessional.
• After the first chorus, I would like to change the black gap into a fade out transition so the video flows better.
• I will change all the parts where Ramsay and Grace are together to black and white or in a sepia effect so that it's clearer that they are flashbacks and not the present day in the video.

Animatic

This is my animatic for the planning of my music video. Although the visual doesn't match the song exactly, this is roughly the storyboard I would like to follow. Some shots I have accidentally missed out, and because of the way Final Cut works it would have taken a lot of time just to add them back in. But the structure of the shots still follows the ideas I have.