Filming Day 6...

Shown above is a selection of photos which I took during our final filming day outside Ollie's house and at Southerndown. These are the shots which Ollie and Rhys felt like were needed to fill the gaps in the latest edit they had completed on Saturday.

Rhys was not able to attend due to him attending fracture clinic for his leg injury, however, Rhys discussed the filming plans with me, Ollie and Alex and then we showed him what we had achieved when we arrived back to the school later on that day.

We used Alex's car to travel to Southerndown and to also film inside it. In order to film Alex inside the car, Ollie had to sit in the middle back seat, to get an over the shoulder shot of Alex texting Jade from the driver's seat. This shot worked well and looked effective when we watched the footage back.

We also filmed a medium shot of Alex in the car, from the outside:

This was rather difficult to achieve as we were trying to avoid the light glare on the windows as much as we possibly could. Ollie had to try a shoot this shot from a few angles to see which one worked best. We eventually found the angle shown in the picture above the best. We had to put Alex's window down slightly to avoid the glare and Ollie had to lean against the wall slightly to be able to see all of the Alex through the camera.

Iconic Album Covers...

The album cover that springs to my mind when I think about the most iconic album covers is the cover for, The Beatles: Abbey Road. Even though this album was released in 1969 it is still very prominent today. The photo on the album cover has inspired many fans to recreate the shot themselves at the same location on Abbey Road.

It's very simple but effective style is what I think makes it stand out. There is no typography of any type on the album cover which makes the imagery the main focus. The still image of the band crossing the road in unison suggests that something is happening and/or they are striving towards the future/victory. 

In contrast, the album cover for Green Day's: Dookie has a larger focus on the title compared to The Beatles cover. 

The large, bold typography stands out at the top of the album cover and it is clear from this who the artist/band is. The colourful illustration on the cover of.a bomb being dropped on America is one of the more memorable covers of the nineties, particularly in America as it is an accurate depiction of power that the album had over America. 

The album cover for Pink Floyd's: The Dark Side Of The Moon album stands out compared to many other albums as it has a very unique style.

The black background makes the rather simplistic image of the triangle and rainbow stem of light stand out. It is quite ironic as the album is called 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' whereas the other side of the triangle has lots of colour. This symbolic album cover stands out to many people as being a Pink Floyd album therefore whenever it is seen people automatically know who the album belongs to. 

The album cover to Rihanna's 2016 album 'Anti' has a very prominent colour scheme and strong symbolic element. 

The figure of a child wearing a crown could possibly be an implicit reference to Rihanna as herself as a child however, it is the icon that was used for her first single that made this album, the album itself and the icon were used for her tour of this album in 2016. The prominent colour scheme of red and white is effective and it makes the crown which is gold, stand out. 

Evolution Of Our Title...

As mentioned in a previous post, we added an opening title to our music video to experiment and put it in place to see what it looked like and how it worked. This is the first version shown below:

Ollie & Rhys continued to edit our music video using the software they had at home and they decided to experiment with our title and they said they wanted it to have more of a professional look to it.

This is what they came up with:

This version of our title looks much more professional and sleek compared to our first version. It fits in with the style of our video more and makes it look more like a polished music video product. This look should appeal to viewers, enticing them to watch on. The one thing that Rhys and Ollie did pick out was that that the title did not really fit the mood of the song so this is something we are going to look into. 

Digipack Planning...

The two most common digipaks are the 4 and 6-panel designs which hold 1 CD. Below are templates for each one of these which I found online.

    

For my digipak, I am considering using the 6-panel template, this way I can include more photos both of Alex and Jade and scenic locations we have been filming in, making it all relevant to our music video and theme. 

I would like to include scenic pictures on the outside such as some establish shots and then have pictures of Alex and Jade on the inside which are revealed when the digipak is opened. On our filming days, we have started to gather a number of shots which may be used on each of our digipaks.

The front of my digipak will also have the name of the song and artist printed on it to inform audiences what the song is called and who it is sung by. 

Music Video Titles...

Music video titles often go unnoticed for a variety of reasons; one being that many people know what the song is called and who it is by, therefore, the title does not make any difference to them and they are focusing more on the actual video; another reason being that titles can be quite unnoticeable and not stay on screen long enough for an audience to take them in. Often the font is rather simplistic ensuring that it does not take away too much from the opening shot of the music video.

Music videos with larger opening titles are starting to emerge and are become more prominent in the music video industry.

For example, Ed Sheeran's music video to his latest hit 'Perfect' features a large opening title at the beginning of the music video.

This music video features a large title in the middle of the shot. It displays the songs title 'Perfect' and who features in the video (in this case an actress rather than a singer) The title is very noticeable due to its large size and the shot it is placed on top of. The establishing shot of snow capped mountains provides a simplistic but effective backdrop for the opening titles making them easy to read and stand out.

Music Videos are also including opening titles which just provide the audience with the artist/bands name rather than the song title. For example, Maroon 5's music video for their song, 'What Lovers Do' just features the large, illuminated title of 'MAROON 5' which spreads across the shot.

This is effective as the audience/viewers automatically know who the artist of the song is before they have even heard any singing. The title is also very large and eye catching, ensuring that everyone will be able to see it.

Opening titles in our music video

As seen in our first edit posts, we have quickly included a title shot over one of our drone shots just to experiment and see what it would look like in our video. Here it is below:

As a group we have discussed that we would definitely like to change the typography of our title as this was just the default font which was set when we added the title. We would like to change it to something slightly more stylish and something that is fitting with our video. 

When we shown our titles to our peers for feedback the main comment made was that the letter 'i''s were not capitalised. This was not our intentions, it is the official title of the song therefore, we are not going to make them capitals as it will not be the original song title. 

We are happy with the positioning of our titles, in the centre of the screen, as this grabs viewers attention and it is easy visable over the top of the shot in the background. 

Audience Feedback on First Draft

I showed the first edit of our music video to our teachers and peers to gather some feedback which might influence me what to improve on for the final edit of the music video.

There was obviously a few aspects which I wanted to achieve myself but I was curious to know what other people thought about it.


Feedback received:

"I like how there is a noticeable split between the shots of Alex and Jade together and of Alex on his own"

"The lyrics work well but some of the them don't fit as well as others within the black borders of the video. Some of them also need to be smoother." 

"The transitions at the beginning might look more effective if they are smoother and more in time"

I am going to look at this feedback and our draft videos again to try and improve them, this should result in a more professional product.

First Edit Without The Lyrics...

Show above is the first edit of our music video without the lyrics (see previous post) This edit is longer than the one with the lyrics as we had more time to focus on solely the footage rather than having to consider where the lyrics are going to be placed. We are all rather pleased with how our music video is coming along so far and are looking foreward to seeing it develop.

This edit also includes a title which we have put in the foreground of one of our drone shots to see what it would look like.

What we like about this first draft?

• Our shots fit the song and look effective
• The realtionship between Alex and Jade is clearly established 
• The two contrasting feelings and emotions (which were discussed when the song was first chosen) are shown clearly through the juxstaposing shots of Alex and Jade together and then Alex on his own. 
• The juxtaposing shots fit the juxstaposing lyrics of the song
• The sound quality of this edit is mucb better than our first draft with lyrics. This will be becasue we rendered and exported it at a higher quality 

What could be improved to this first draft?

• There is a slight camera movment towards the end of our title shot, this would have been from the drone moving. We can easily improve this by trimming this shot slightly just so we can cut that little bit of jaunted movement out. 
• At the moement the music video focus on Alex looking back at the places he has been with Jade therefore, we need to add some of our other footage of Alex on his own in place where he feels isolated and can not realte to. 
• We would like to change the title shot, specifically the typography of the title and make it more relevent to our theme. This can be changed easily as we quickly added the title to see what it would like when we had a verison of our music video without the lyics. 
• Also, another major improvement we have is to add all our footage and try and finish it as we are very pleased with how it is looking so far and would like this to continue. 

First Edit With The Lyrics...

Shown above is the first edit of our music video which includes the lyrics which I have previously mentioned (Inspired by 'The Chainsmokers' music video to 'Closer')

The edit is unfinished and already there are a few things which we have picked up on which could be changed and finer edited to improve the quality, however, we are rather pleased with how it has turned out considering it was our first draft.

What do we like about this first draft?

• The lyrics fit with our shots and tie it together rather well
• The lyrics are in time with the audio 
• The drone shots are effective and the lyrics stand out over the top of them. 

What we would like to improve to this first draft?

• At times the lyrics move into the black borders around our video, this is something which we could adjust when we go to edit again. We have added the black borders, therefore, the programme Ollie has used to design the lyrics has assumed that it can use the whole area of the screen. 
• The quality of the sound does not appear to be as good as it was when we were editing, this could be due to the way it was exported. When we edit again we will have to make sure we have set the video to export and render and the highest quality; this will take a longer amount of time to export, however, the quality will be significantly better. 

Filming Day 5...

Myself, Alex and Ollie went to Ollie's house to use the punching bag he has in his garage and his spare room while we were planning to use. We wanted to focus on the aspect of Alex starting to break down really pushing our theme of mental health along with relationships.    

 

Ollie filmed Alex punching the punching bag from many different angles to ensure we had covered a number of different shots. He then suggested that he will edit them all together and create a sequence which would go with the fast rap section of the song.
The high angle shot looking down on Alex lying on the bed would be used on the line, "I miss you when I can't sleep" this would further enhance his mental state of mind and how he feels towards the broken down relationship.

Filming Day 4...

Myself, Alex, Rhys & Ollie went to Southerndown to try and finalise our shots that focus on Alex and his character. We had slightly thought of a plan of what shots we wanted to film however we did decide that we would film what we felt was right at the time. This worked well as we felt freer and thought of many ideas on the spot whilst filming.

We used the sun breaking through the cloud to our advantage it looked really effective on camera, providing a powerful establishing shot.

   

The medium shot of Alex here is one that I took on my iPhone. We all really liked this still image and thought about it using it for our digipaks. I feel like that it captures his emotion rather well and his empty state of mind.

In order to get some of our shots of Alex sitting on the rocks, we had to make sure he could safely get up and down the rocks without causing any harm or danger to himself or any other group members. The high-level shots of Alex were working really well and with the use of two cameras, Rhys & Ollie experimented with many different angles whilst Alex was sitting on the edge of the rocks. 

To get some different and unique shots, we decided to place the camera and tripod on the ground near a pool of water. We then decided that Alex would past the camera, in the pool of water and then off into the distance. When we viewed this clip back we found it to look really effective and we immediately liked it.

A Range of Exisiting A Level Digipak Examples...

EXAMPLE OF A LEVEL STUDENT WORK

The above digipak uses a theme of red, black and white; this makes the digipak stand out from others that I have seen. The colours used are rather simple but effective at the same time. The images remain consistent throughout, keeping the same theme and some run over two sides of the cover. The main album title is placed at the top in a style of typography which makes the images stand out first.

EXAMPLE OF A LEVEL STUDENT WORK

This digipak above uses quite a lot of colour which makes it appealing. The light, pastel colours contrast with the black colour used on some sides of the cover creating a rather dis-jointed feeling. The images seem to be the main focus point on this digipak as the typography used is rather small and difficult to see, this creates the impression that the person who designed this digipak wanted the images to stand out and be the main point rather than the titles and information. 

AN EXAMPLE OF A LEVEL STUDENT WORK

This digipak is for one of Rhianna's albums 'Loud'. An aspect which makes it appealing is the fact that the person who designed this was persistent in keeping the theme and style throughout the entire digipak. The image used on the inside cover is one image which runs over the 3 sides, creating a very complete and definite feeling. This digipak looks of good quality and clearly shows who the artist is and what the album is called. 

EXAMPLE OF A LEVEL STUDENT WORK

This digipak has an evident colour scheme that runs throughout the entirety of it. The typography used allows the album title and track list to be seen easily and clearly. The front cover features the album title and artist only, placed on a black background, this is really effective in making the title stand out before opening up the digipak and seeing the other information and galactic style imagery. 

Change To Original Plan...

Due to our fast-approaching deadline, the group has made the unanimous decision to put a hold on the lyrics that Ollie is editing to go over our music video. We have decided that the main focus will be the completion of our music video in terms of editing and then if we feel we have sufficient time left over we will add the lyrics.

We have also decided that we will most probably only add specific lyrics that will be poignant to our narrative. For example, including the chorus lyrics of, "I hate you, I love you".  This will further enhance our narrative and make it clear how Alex's character 'loves Jade' when he is not with her but when he is with her he feels like he 'hates' her, reiterating his state of mind and mental health.

We have decided that we will experiment with what we have of the lyrics so far to see how they fit our video before making a definite decison on whether or not we will be using them at all.

Research the term DIGIPAC...

A digipak is a patented style CD or DVD packaging and is a registered trademark of AGI- Shorewood, an Atlas Holdings LLC company.

Digipak style cases grew popular among record labels and recording artists in the early 2000's. This style of packaging is often used for CD singles or albums. Digipaks were the first alternatives to jewel cases - which are plastic CD cases - used by major record companies.

Digipaks can give a CD a professional look and feel and can really enhance the CD product. Usually, there is a plastic section of the digipak which holds the CD and then this is attached to the cardboard/paper background and cover.

There were pros and cons to the digipak; the primary advantage of one was its aesthetic appeal. They looked appealing and many bands/artists liked to use them for their products. However, the major disadvantage of digipaks was that they didn't last as long as previous CD covers/cases such as the plastic jewel cases. Though they were not prone to crack like plastic jewel cases, they were easily torn and shown signs of wear much earlier.

The three-section digipak also opened up many more design options as there was a lot more space and was considered the more 'premium' version of CD covers. They were also slightly more expensive than the single sleeve digipaks or jewel cases.

Change to Original Plan...

When we were at the college editing we realised that we could do with getting some more footage which focuses on the relationship between Alex and Jade but also getting footage which supported the theme of mental health. We noticed that we did not have many close up shots of Alex which highlight his expressions and feelings, therefore we decided that needed to see when we were free to film these shots.

This was not expected as we thought we had enough footage, however, when we began the editing process we started to see where there were some gaps in our narrative. The editing process is also very time consuming which we are going to have to consider when filming these extra shots; we can not spend too much time shooting them as we have to ensure we have enough time to complete editing before our deadline.

As a group, we decided that we were going to visit our previously used locations to film relationship shots and then film in ollie's house to focus on Alex's state of mind. Ollie has a boxing bag in his spare room therefore, we had the idea of filming Alex punching this to reflect how he is feeling.

Shown below is a schedule I made four our extra shots and editing sessions. It has proved to be quite difficult to fit extra filming hours in due to our differing school timetables and part-time work commitments, however, we have been able to find some time where we can film. The schedule also displays our editing sessions that we have left. We need to make sure we definitely have all our footage by Thursday 18th Jan so we can have two full editing sessions to ensure we get the music video completed.

Editing Day...

We were lucky enough to be able to go to the college that we are in partnership with, to use their macs and software in order to edit our music video. 

The software which we are using to editing our music videos is, 'Adobe Premiere Pro'. This is the software which we used last year for our AS thriller opening project, therefore, we are aware of the basic features and functions of this software meaning that we can easily approach editing and make good progress. We only know the basics of this software, so, whilst we are going through the editing process we are learning some more advanced features of this software, enhancing our music video. 

We are also using a programme called, Adobe After Effects which Ollie is familiar with. This is to produce and add the lyrics over the top of our music video. Ollie has found this aspect of the project rather time consuming as he has to add each lyric individually and track the movement of each line, meaning that it takes a while for him to go through the whole music video. 

To be as productive as possible, we have been using two macs whilst editing so we can edit the footage and the lyrics at the same time. This means that when both are done they can easily be put together.

Filming...

Above is a short video clip of Ollie filming Alex at southerndown. This shot shows Alex throwing pebbles into the sea. Ollie is filming a medium shot of Alex doing this. It is a rather poignant shot as the beach area is isolated apart from Alex, therefore, this highlights how he is on his own and feels empty as he looks out to the sea. 

Filming Day 3...

Our 3rd day of filming was dedicated to getting the shots of Alex on his own; focusing on his loneliness and empty state of mind. We wanted to ensure we got as many shots as possible of Alex on his own to really draw an emphasis towards the fact he feels isolated, representing his mental health issues that he is facing of depression, anxiety, loneliness etc. 

In terms of the weather, it was very cold but rather calm conditions, this meant that we could take our time filming and get a variety of shots. At first, we struggled with what we should film but then we decided that we would go back to all the areas which Jade and Alex were both filmed together and re-film very similar shots of just Alex on his own. This worked rather well as it would be a continuous reminder that he is now on his own and Jade is still in his mind. 

What went well on the day?

• We successfully took a range of shots which focused solely on Alex.
• We put together a more solid structure in terms of where we would like our music video to go and the structure of video. 
• We filmed in a variety of areas in our chosen locations ensuring a range of angles. 

As mentioned in a previous post, Rhys has broken his leg, therefore, he was not able to come and film this day. Ollie took over his role and was in charge of the physical filming all day. This did not cause us any real issues as Ollie knew how the equipment worked and felt confident in taking over the role. When we finished this filming day we went back to the school and explained to Rhys what we had completed and we showed him some of our footage.


The picture which is shown here on the left is of Alex looking into the pond and you can briefly see his reflection in the water. We had the idea then for the camera to pan up showing his empty looking facial expression. This reflection in the water will highlight how he is looking back at himself and replaying the memories of the relationship he had in his head.

One Broken Leg...

Quite early on in our filming schedule, Rhys ( A group member ) happened to break his leg in a basketball incident. This had quite a large impact on us as a group as Rhys' role was cinematographer (he was the member who would physically be filming most of our shots/scenes) This meant that to resolve this issue Ollie had to step in on our next filming day to take over the role of Rhys.

We also were using Rhys' car in our music video and as he was the only one insured he had to drive back and forth to location, this is obviously now impossible as his leg will be in a cast for at least six weeks.  To resolve this issue we are changing cars, we are going to use either my car or Alex's car. 

Further Location Discovery...

Our favourite location we are using for our music video is at Southerndown beach. When we were filming there recently we ventured a little further than what we had previously done and found two amazing features/locations which really appealed to us.

First, there was a historic castle which was abandoned, it had a castle tower, ponds and natural spaces of nature which provided us with a variety of different aspects we could use. We really liked the ponds as these could be used to see reflections and the castle tower could be used for shots at height.

A short walk beyond the castle we discovered what we are calling a 'secret beach'. This was a small beach surrounded by cliffs and there was a waterfall. This beach is very spectacular looking and provides a brilliant area to film in. 

Filming Day 2...

Below is an account of our 2nd day of filming for our music video:

I was not able to attend this filming day due to having a university interview, however, I spoke to the members of my group and had a clear idea of what was going to be completed. All other members were able to attend, including Jade, who is the female character in our music video. 

 The group was successful in filming a rather large amount of footage on this day, particularly the footage which features Jade.

← This image which can be seen here is a picture of Rhys filming footage of Alex and Jade sitting in the front of the car. The car used belonged to Rhys and he found that he could get the best angle if he sat in the back of the car and filmed from behind Alex and Jade. It took a short while for him to try and find the best angle but he took many attempts at this shot before he felt it was right.

We were rather lucky in the fact that all our loactions are not very busy and particually on this day as the weather was not very good there was not many people around. This meant that we could freely film wihtout having to worry about any members of the puplic being in the background of our shots.




The next image shows Rhys filming Alex and Jade sat on a wall that → overlooks the rocks and sea. Rhys filmed from inside the car and used the Gorilla tripod for extra stability. It was a very windy day therefore, the gorilla tripod definitely helped to stabalise the tripod. Alex and Jade had to make sure they were safe on the wall in the wind before filimg commenced.

After speaking to the group I found that the day went well and everything was achieved. Jade would still be required for at least one more day to make sure all the shots she is needed for are completed. We would also like to have Jade for at least one more day to ensure continuity within all our shots.

Our next aim was to have a day filming which focused on Alex's character and his mental health state of mind. This would ensure that we really built on his charcacter and made sure that his feelings and mental state of mind was established.


Below are a few more images from the day ↓

Contacting the Artists...

Alex used Twitter as a way to contact the artists for our song on our music video. We all agreed that Twitter was the most beneficial social media channel to use as it has such a large platform of users and most celebrities use it. 

 

We are still waiting for a response of both artists, however, we decided that it was a very good idea to reach out to the artists and ask them if they would like to see our version of the music video that they both featured on. We also thought that making contact with the artists would raise awareness of our music video product and it might help us to get it promoted and marketed.