Planning the filming of the music video

Shooting for the music video is aimed to start on the 18th of November, with Megan, Will and Pete all present as 25% of the video is aimed to be shot. The rest of it is going to be shot over the week, with any pick-ups or reshoots taking place after the footage has been shot. A Panasonic HD has been used along with tripod.

Photography

Work began on photography for the ancillary products on the 16th of November, lasting until the 19th.

There were four photo shoots in total, three were on location in the fields near college with view to achieving an image that would work for the digipak.  The first two shoots went well but once I had the images in photoshop I wasn't happy with the overall result.   The third shoot went well, a Canon SD was used and by adjusting the shutter speed, it gave the images soft focus that places focus on the flower and this helped with knowing how to adjust the framing, as the chosen photo shows. This is as by composing the image to ensure the framing is positioned appropriately to place emphasis on certain parts, it helps with denoting what the message is and setting up the values.and once all the images were uploaded, it was a question of which image to choose that connotes optimism and feeling upset in the best way. The final image (below) has a great jump point for creativity as it already encodes a sense of isolation, and the framing is positioned so a variety of effects can be added without taking away from the meaning of the central object, a flower.

On the 21st, Peter has been scheduled for a photoshoot in a studio, for the magazine advert, CD and DVD, set to take place on the same day filming is set to begin. As all the photos are in a field, where filming is also set to take place and there are no subjects in the images, these are set to be taken after filming has finished that day. 

Doing a studio photoshoot was easier as the composition can be arranged in any order, in contrast to on location where there are factors including how many people are going to be on the fields and the weather. Ten different photographs were taken during this photoshoot and the mise-en-scene is basic but this is where Photoshop comes in, as anything from the composition to adding effects through new layer styles can be adjusted. The selected image is at the bottom and works as Peter has a haunted expression that conveys the feeling of being down, while the shadowy mood is countered with the finished effects that have been added on the magazine advert, CD and DVD.

Photoshop & first drafts

I used phototshop for two main parts of the project - manipulating the photography and creating the still products. 

Fonts had to be downloaded as none of the preliminary fonts looked professional enough, and it was the research I had done on similar products was really helpful in finding my final fonts.  

For each file of the digipak, a template was put in place to help them have the right look, I learnt how to place layers and to use the type tool to add text such as the band name and album cover title. 

I've included some early drafts below which show how much can be improved from the first draft, to the final which was completed on the 15th of February.

It started with one layer, just of the image and through using the Horizontal Type Tool the album title, "On The Edge" was added. Effects were then put in including Gradient Overlay and this is why part of the image has a comic-book appearance. This is the first draft of the front cover.

The final result is quite different and was achieved by responding to a lot of feedback and learning new skills, including placing the layers in appropriate order and adding new layer styles, especially when it came to adding Inner and Outer Glows on the titles and balancing them with a Drop Shadow.

The first idea for the back cover was to have the image be of a brick wall and place graffiti to create something that was urban iconography. However it breaks too much with convention, as it's very different to the other images throughout the digipak and the mise-en-scene doesn't fit as the composition is all over the place.






Instantly the final back cover connotes what the attitudes and beliefs are of the digipak, especially in combination with the titles so this follows conventions more clearly than the first draft and attracts the target audience of sixteen to twenty-five better.

Although I like From Street Art font, in this second draft here there's too much of it....





For the magazine advert - my original intention was to just have a dark background as by having the fonts, image of Peter and front cover stand out, it's clearly going after the target demographic.














Through feedback however it was learned the ideology wasn't made clear enough, so the background was adjusted to the background from the front cover, and the result works much better, and the products tie in together better.













By the time I was working on the CD/DVD itself I had gained enough knowledge about Photoshop and about media language to know how far to break from convention and when to pull back. As a result the only change made was taking   out the background layer so that just the CD artwork is left. 

Storyboards

These are the planned shots of what's going to be filmed for the music video. Each is given a scene description in one of the columns beneath each shot, with micro notes in the other that notes the technical aspects. Codes and conventions are followed in listing the technical aspects as it makes the composition easier. Talking about the cinematography, it's largely consistent of close ups as it's planned as an emotional music video, fitting with the attitude where the emotion of the song is pained. Short takes are also mentioned as the ellipsis is at a fast pace. This being the first concept of how the shots are going to look, they may change but the verisimilitude is going to be similar.

 

Moodboard

The images selected here on the mood board illustrate a variety of moods and demonstrate the feel that I want to achieve in my product packaging and advertising.
I particularly like the slightly blurry and impressionistic feel of the flower image and the girls in the rain.
The images can be interpreted to reflect both happy and sad moods and have a dreamlike quality.

Font Choices

Here are the fonts being used for the front, back, inside, CD and DVD of the digipak and magazine advert, and it will be explained why they were selected to be part of the composition:

Inside digipak, back

This has mainly been used across the front and back of the digipak, featured in headings of the band's name and to list the contents and titles, where the representation is intended to give a professional appearance, as the font appears modern.

"MoonFlowerBold"

Back, mag,

Used twice, once to give credit to the artists on the back and as the main font in the magazine advert, it's stylised and bold that means depending on the colour that's used, it can transmit any message.

StaticBold

Back

Only used once, for the copyright information on the back cover, it's not a particularly unique font but can be thought of as mixing MoonFlowerBold with a more standard font, therefore being useful as a back-up font, which was it's purpose.
"StaticBold" is a superb choice as it's different from the other fonts, in that it looks similar but there's something about the aesthetic that, from my point of view, makes it ideal to highlight certain information. The information that it's intended to be used for is likely technical.

FromStreetArt

The expressiveness this font gives makes it a natural choice for introducing the ideology of the digipak, as it's also a font that can transmit a range of feelings through it's mode of address, just by adjusting the colour. As a result it's been used for the titles on the front as well as back covers, tracks/video titles on the back, CD and DVD and in a screenshot of the front cover in the magazine advert. Within each text the feelings vary as the subject matter is different, but the ideology remains the same.

Codes and conventions of music videos

The main codes and conventions for a music video are:

Codes:

• Camera shots - Usually there's a mixture of long shots, close ups and extreme close-ups to place emphasis on the musicians and to ensure lip-synching is intact especially with extreme close ups on the lips.
• Movement - Whip pans, tracking shots that move at a pace on a dolly and crane shots keep the performers in the frame, along with vertical tilts and horizontal pans so there's enough variation and coverage
• Editing - Terms can range from jump cuts, to MTV or montage editing. Jump cuts symbolise the camera moving from performer to instrument to location and so forth without having any narrative continuity. MTV editing is where this moves at such a fast pace, it encourages repeatability to be able to catch up and montage editing follows the musicians as the video moves forward.
• Effects - Once the sequences that have been filmed are put together, digital effects are added including split-screen, CGI, colorisation and lots more.
• Lighting - This is one of the more important codes as it sets the atmosphere and mood for a music video. For instance if there's extreme high-key lighting, it can enhance the star image of a musician or if there's a change from colour to black-and-white, there can be a shift in the song.
• Mise-en-scene - The components of props, costume, location, body language and others all combine to also set the tone of the music video, as well as informing the story. It can be that a video is set in the 70s, and the costumes are exaggerated to create something that's a parody, for example or by staying true to convention and having the location be a concert hall or studio.

Conventions:

• Narrative - A series of events are unified within time and space and have the musician go on a journey or it follows their performance in a single location. To ensure repeatability generally the narrative is one of the components that has less focus, and is suggestive. 
• Band performance - There has to be authenticity in the performance of the band and this is why there are often close-ups of lips to show lip-synching, instruments being played, chorus shots are repeated and there are specific shots and angles that gives a view of events including audience reaction.
• Solo performance - Here conventions of a band performance are repeated, one of these being lots of extreme close-ups of lips. There can also be first-person views of the artist engaging the audience as this takes advantage of mode of address.
• Star image - Whenever someone is promoted by a record company most artists don't receive as much fame. Therefore it's a case of them being marketed to suit the image of the record label, stars being manipulated in the process and is why audiences relate to the metanarrative in music videos, as their image is manipulated where it appeals to a particular target audience along with others.