Website drafts

I played around with different effects for my background, I decided to do three different images and tile them as a background. On Ellie's Goulding's website, she has added colour and dual tones, to make it more exciting. I thought this was a good idea and decided to do a similar theme for mine.

These are the three different edits I did, by using Pixlr.

I like this one, as it is vibrant and bright, but I thought it might make it look more youthful, also it is more significant of a dance pop genre than an indie pop genre.

I also liked this once, as it is girly, and has a subtle mixed tone, however, as it is a pink, blue and slightly purple, I thought this would look too much like Ellie Goulding's as she uses similar colours.

I chose to use this one, as it is quite bright, it doesn't hide any of my features. It is something that people will remember.

Filming 15/1/14

We attempted to correct some of our mistakes in our video. We wanted to make sure our videos were more stable, as this was a criticism given to us by other members of the class. Therefore, we got a tripod, we spent time trying to make sure it was straight and not at an angle. We were able to practice with the tripod and see what we could use, a d learned how to assemble it ourselves, which is a good thing. We enjoyed learning how to use new equipment, and we understand how this will make our video look much better.

Digipak image

In today's photoshoot I was able to get the image I wanted for my digipak.
I like this as I am using direct gaze. In media studies and our research, when looking at audience theory, you want your artist to connect with their audience, by staring at them directly it acts as though you are creating a personal relationship and attracting them to buy your product. This is what I want to come across within my digipak. I like it being on the bed, as I think our album will be called, 'Wake me up' and in the 'Everytime you go' video it is based in a bedroom. Therefore I felt this would be the most appropriate setting for my picture.

Digipak Photoshoot

Digipak Photo's

To link our digipaks and websites together, we used the same outfit, to show that it is all connected and will be associated with the artist at this period of time. We wanted to link our digipak image to the title of our album and the music video. Therefore, we used the bed, and used me laying down, as it is called 'Wake Me Up' and most of our scenes in Every Time You Go is set in the bedroom.

Website photoshoot

Website photoshoot

Here are the images that we took that we will use for our websites. At the moment, we're not entirely sure on which one each of us wants for our background. However, we made sure we had a variety to chose from opposed to all of them looking the same. From our research we learned that most websites do use their artist as the background, but they always look dressed up and posed. This is something we paid attention to, as in our video our outfits are everyday and normal, so we used a dress and emphasised hair and makeup to make it all look professional.

Website ideas

Here is a prezi of some of our ideas on what we want to include on our website. These are just generalised as although we are working together, we will have our own interpretations of it.  By putting together collective ideas, it benefits our final pieces, as it means our ancillary tasks and music video will link. We may also decided to make each of our websites look like they each link with one another like they are part of a set.

 

Website - Getting used to the software

We found a photo on the mac that we was using to help us get some ideas before our photo-shoot for our website, this has influenced some of the ideas we want. By doing this we have got used to the software, as we know how to move, edit and add things onto it. This will benefit us in creating our final website, as it means we understand what tools do what, how to add pages and give us an idea of what we want our final piece to look like

Website planning

In todays lesson, we was learning about websites. We looked at the website Wix, this is what we will use to create out website. As our websites are individually judged, as a group we decided that we will have a running theme throughout them all. We will have similarities so they look like they are a part of a set. 

 

We was looking at different templates, to see which ones we feel are more suited to our genre and what will be the most effective. This will benefit us, as by looking at different templates it will generate more ideas.

This was our favourite template, as we feel it will suit our ideas best. I believe that this will suit the genre best and is well fitted around the ideas I have.










We began playing around with the website, and getting used to the software. I'm glad we got to practice, as it will help us when we are doing it.

Photoshoot Planning

Here is a Pixton comic of what sort of shots we aim to get in our photoshoot. We will try and get a range, however, medium/ medium close up is the shot type we mainly feel will be the best for our websites. By having a plan, it will benefit us ensuring the photos are taken efficently and reflect the ideas that we have in our minds. By using pixton, we can invisage what images we want for our digipaks and wesbite.

Digipak ideas

Here is a first draft on the ideas I have for my digipak.
By drafting my ideas it has helped me because it gave me a basic outline of what I want to do. This means when it comes to making it, I will not be confused and waste time, as I have an idea to follow.

As I now have a template, I may need to rethink some of my ideas to make sure they can all fit. For example, I might use the collage on the CD disk page, or leave the tracklist off the back page. I will continue to do more research. Also I think once I have all my raw materials and put them onto photoshop my ideas might alter, and I can visually see what works and what doesn't.

First Draft of Music Video

Here is our first draft of our music video. We feel it has come along together nicely and are proud of what we have, however, we know there is still more to improve on and more footage that needs to filmed.

Editing process

When editing our music video, we went through clips and looked at different effects that will make our video look better. In some of the scenes the main effect is called 'Romance', this makes certain parts of the video look as though it is in a blurry daze, which is to reflect the 'love'. In one scene we turned it from day to night, as it was meant to look like a night time scene. In others we used darker effects to show the arguments, and black and white to show its in the past. We have learned how to do this by playing around with the different buttons on the macbook, we think it will benefit our work if we manipulate some of the clips with visual effects. We have learned that post-production is important as it is a way of putting together all the raw materials to make a decent video.

Personal Preparation

In order for me to make sure my lip syncing is correct with the song, I often have it on repeat to make sure I've learned the words. It also helps me figure out what sort of emotion and expressions I need when filming, as I want it to be realistic. 

More changes

We hit a problem when me and Charlie broke up before we got the filming finished. However, we found a replacement, Cameron. Luckily he is a performing arts student, and is not shy in front of the camera, therefore we can create a convincing performance that we are the two people involved in the narrative. We are happy with the footage we have so far with him, as it all links well with the idea we have in mind of how our video should look.

Digipak research

For my research, I decided to find some CD's and look through their digipaks, this was to give me some ideas. I was able to look at similar genre's, as I wasn't sure about what to put into digipak's, it gave me a general view on what is usually expected. For example, most have lyric pages and images throughout. This benefits me, as I know the codes and conventions that I will need when doing mine.

The process

We spent an entire day on filming and editing. We began by looking at what we had and rectifying certain errors, after we had done this and added more into it, we was able to see what was missing. This was the day we had Cameron round to help us with the narrative part of the video. We filmed scenes in different locations of the house and outside. After we put these onto the mac and added them into what we feel are appropriate places. We then found we needed more footage, therefore we filmed some more. By doing it like this, we were able to get our ideas to develop properly, and visualise what our video should look like. This benefitted our video a lot, as from our earlier attempt it has become more snappy, consider and looks more like a real media music video. However, there is still more that needs improving and more than needs to be filmed. We learned a lot from this, as it shows how much work that needs to be put into when making a music video look professional. By using this routine we were able to improve our video a lot.

About the filming

As we've gone on and filmed more, we've realised some of our older footage doesn't fit in with our current ideas. Main examples are, in the earlier stages of filming I looked awkward and shy, but I have managed to overcome that in our recent filming sessions. Also footage with Charlie cannot be used now, as we didn't have enough to finish the video, so by doing filming in different parts we have benefitted, as our ideas become stronger. Due to this, we have realised that nothing is straight forward, so we have learned that we need to constantly plan and try and avoid problems. However, we become closer as a group, as we decide what we can do to fix our problems

Filming snapshots 2/1/14

Here we have pictures that our camera takes whilst filming, we like to keep these as they're natural and show the ideas we've tried to put in our video. Also some of them may be useful for our digipak and website.