Digipack Preparation

The deadline for our Digipack is Friday 27th November 2009, giving us 4 days to finish all our final products. We've decided our shooting will take place on Wednesday 21st November. We have two strong ideas for our digipack, fortunately they're both at the same location so the shooting can be faster and beneficial. Our first idea is to stand the band against the advertisement board outside the junction. The wall highlights all the major upcoming music events in Cambridge, this would be more than appropriate to our music video because the theme of publicity and commercial success is present. The band are trying to be sold by showing their lifestyle in the music video and now it shows their devotion to the industry and friendly relationships through one part of the digipack.

After capturing test pictures in class today we found that for this particular shot, a camera with a fish eye lens would be better. It can capture more of the advertisement board without changing the frame of the artists and shows that the band are the centre of attention in this album cover. The band stand out better and immediately grab the attention of a viewer. The picture below shows the difference a fish eye lens can have.

This shoot will take place between 10:30 and 12:20 on Wednesday 25th November.

We feel this shot would work better as the DVD Album Cover part of our ancillary task.

Furthermore, our second idea was described in the blog 'Digipack Development', it would work better as the magazine advert part of our ancillary and would show the band walking. The final image will try and give a celebrity effect and a paparazzi feel and will try and boost the celebrity status and reputation of the band. In todays lesson we took test images to try and decide on the correct positioning of the camera and artists. These are our results:

This first picture was positioned around five meters away from the band as they gradually walked towards the camera.

We felt it gives the right impression and does show the paparazzi feeling we're after.

We also felt the band didn't incorporate enough of the image.Next we tried the same layout but the image was taken when the band (excluding the drummer) were closer to the camera and the overall distance between the lens and the artists was smaller.

We felt this achieved the aim of capturing celebrity status and this time the band fill the frame better.

We also felt the were too close to the camera, and that had this been a paparazzi camera the artists would try and keep their distance.

These last two images fill the brief a lot better. The distance has been kept but the artists still fill the frame. By giving a slight zoom the angle of view has been altered and give the pictures shown above. This setup has been noted and will be used on the day of our shooting. The camera we'll use won't be a fish eye. We're waiting to hear back from the manager of the location for final permission to shoot this shot so the location has not been finalized as a posed to the DVD album cover. Finally, we need to bring an extra person to the location so we can capture the pictures while all the band members are in shot.

Digipack Example

This album cover for The Kooks could be used as a template for our digipack. The genre is the alternative rock/indie rock which is the same as our music video, therefore we could use this album cover as a stimulus for our DVD pack.

In our digipack we're aiming for commercial success and maximum recognition for the band members. The digipack also needs to be a brief summary of our music video so they viewer can have a 'sneak peek' of the product. This alone will also sell the artists because much of our video incorporates an insight into the lifestyle of the artists.

After group discussions we have several possibilities for an album cover. These include a group logo/the junction idea/a screen grab from the music video. However, theres more to an album cover than the front image. This could be a barcode from the shop, a track list, the logo of the record label. Theres so much variety to chose from when selecting ideas for our album cover, such as font/positioning of title/ratings/the front image itself etc. These are some ideas for possible fonts.

The Loveable Rascals present 'Pacific Ocean Blue'

Digipack Development

Now that our music video has been completed and submitted, we have until Thursday 26th November 2009 to create our digipack. This consists of the album cover for the music video and the magazine advertisement. To have an effective digipack there needs to be a running theme through them both, this gives a signature to the artists and viewers can relate the magazine advert to the album cover or vice versa.

Our initial ideas for the album cover included ideas around positioning of the band and possible finishing effects. However, there wasn't much thought about location or themes. After a small discussion in class and some previous research we decided to request permission to capture our shots at 'The Junction' in Cambridge. This would be suitable because its an entertainments facility that includes several performance spaces and often holds large music events. The rear exit of the venue is a stereotypical backstage space, there's often a large touring bus and large stage doors as well as a metal fence surrounding the area. This is appropriate because our band would be familiar with these areas as they're a touring alternative rock band and using this location will show this to the viewers. There is a picture of this below.
Using the junction as our location would highlight the celebrity status of our band and could be used as a theme for our magazine advert. We brain stormed ideas that included having people posing as paparazzi and the band wearing sun glasses to suggest the reputation and fame of the band.

A brilliant place to start was to look through women's lifestyle magazines to find a picture that was similar to our idea. These were the pictures we found:

This picture is from LOOK magazine and shows a long shot of two celebrities. This is the kind of shot we were looking for as it shows the whole body and is taken from afar.

Next is a snapshot from MORE and shows two celebrities, this time from a closer angle. We can compare and contrast the images so far and decide on the angle most suitable for our digipack.

Finally we have a picture from a HEAT magazine. This also follows the conventions from the pictures above and is exactly the type of picture we're aiming for.

We can see already that the lighting will be naturalistic and the frame will include all of the artists and all of their body. Further testing at the location will decide camera positioning and blocking for the artists and other actors. Overall we will give out professional reputation and an underlying theme of fame and publicity could run through our digipack. These are only our beginning ideas and further research and decisions still need to be made such as possible finishing techniques. A brief idea we had was to put a camera filter over the picture giving it the impression its been taken from a camera and shows the naturalism in the shot, whereas without this filter it could suggest an insight into the band leaving the venue. This could be like the filter used in Lady Gaga's Paparazzi music video.

Feedback from Target Audience

In revising our pitch on the target audience, we could chose an appropriate viewer to judge and comment on our progress so far. In our pitch we specified that our market would be to "Teens and 20+". Therefore, we picked to suitable viewers and asked for some input and feedback on our rough cut video.

Our first was Gareth Hyde.

Profile of Target Audience

These give us a better understanding of what needs to accomplished in our final days of filming and editing. Once we've collected all our footage we will show our work to an expert for professional feedback.

Location Angle Shot Settings

We had to decide on the angles of shots at the location. To take full advantage of the lighting system we had at our discretion at Sawston Village College, we took ideas from previous music videos that used a stage performance or concert (as shown in the Moodboard post) and produced a professional looking shot. From the drawing of the location below it shows the eclipse we made between the colour scrolling light, the artist and the camera.

To give the right effect, the light (pictured above) had to be kept at

a dimmer setting so that camera could detect the artist.
This gives a silloette impression of the artists and shows the performance side of the music video. The area covered by the colour scrolling light is shown in the drawing. The picture below is cut from our rough cut and it shows the effect given.

Location Settings

The following drawing shows the space we were provided with at Sawston Village College, it shows both the stage and the auditorium in the hall. The four artists have been marked with a single black dot and the camera symbols represent the direction and position of the camera when we captured our footage. The shaddowed sections reveal the area the camera can see. Most of the shots drawn on this plan map the shot movements, we decided on these before arriving at the location because we knew these would be the trickiest to capture. Camera movements are mapped by two crosses joined with a straight line, there also some rough measurements between objects and the camera. The blocking was simple when it came to artists positioning on the stage. The famous conventional layout of an alternative rock concert is prominant in every stage music performance due to the musical requirements on a stage, this means keeping the drumkit upstage so that the vibrations can resonate with the space above the stage and doesn't drown out the sounds of the other instruments. An example of this layout is used in the final performance of 'The School of Rock' as pictured below.



The lead singer is at the front, leading the piece and the two guitarist are kept slightly upstage, either side of the singer.

Firstly, we can see the camera movements we aim to create of the lead singer.

The lead singer is positioned in the centre of the drawing above (croppped from the overal layour drawing). The two main shots we aim to create are the circular movement around the rear of the singer, which will expose the lights directed at him and the linar movement. The movement is just over 180degrees giving a chance to show the artists face whilest singing. On the day of the filming, the camera was positioned roughly 1.5metres from the artist. In order to settle with this distance we had to use time in class to judge several distances to see which was best.

The movement required two cameramen, one controlled the direction of the camera by moving the pivot so that the singer was kept in shot at all times, the other dictated the movement of the dolly; making sure the distance from the artist was constant. Overall, it gave a smooth effect and a moment of the shot is pictured below.This moment of the shot is taken from when the camera was in the position marked in the drawing. The drawing also shows several other stages of the shot to give an impression of how the face of the camera movement throughout the shot so that JJ was kept in frame.

Next, we captured the other shot shown in the drawing. It is the linear movement the moves across the front of the artist and captured the other artists performing in the background. The movement was roughly two metres long and again the face of the camera had to be altered to keep the frame correct. There is no need for direction indicators on these drawings because we captured footage by doing each shot using different directions and then judged these shots when we had uploaded our footage to the computers. We can evaluate this shot by looking at the still from the music video thats pictured below.

Our next task was to film the movement shot of the lead guitarist. Again, the artist is marked with a bold back dot, but in this shot the movement is coming towards to the artist and also being taken from a low angle (off-stage). The vertical line in the image below shows the end of the stage and the camera is on a lower level than the artist, this meant that as the camera came towards the artist, the camera operator that was controlling the direction of the lense had to alter the direction on a horizontal axis in order to keep he lead guitarists face in shot. In professional music videos a dolly might be mounted to a track, almost like a train on its line. This gives a perfectly smooth tracking shot, despite the texture of the ground. However, the dolly we used seemed to do the job as it has given a sucessful shot thats now in our rough cut. The image below shows the moment in the shot when the camera is in the position marked in the drawing.

Extended Overnight Filming

Before we can complete the editing of our music video, we need to acquire all our footage. This includes capturing more close-ups of the artists and further footage that can amplify the relationship between lyrics and visuals. Firstly we had to arrange another date to film at either Sawston Village College or The Lock Up, our two filming locations. Due to the timely process of gaining further access to the SVC site, we decided it would be easier to film at The Lock Up. Finding a day that all group members could attend when the Lock Up was also available was fine. We settled with Monday 9th November 2009. This will last 2 hours.

Our aims in this will be to film a vast amount of close-ups on each artist in turn. We can then synchronize the various close-ups with our soundtrack and create a professional perfected music video. Our causes for concern are to make sure we wear the correct costume to continue the idea of continuity. Also, we need to make sure the instruments we use are the same and that the location is replicated as best possible.

Furthermore, in listening to oral feedback from several viewers, we found that the structure of our music video needs close attention. The shot lengths appears to be correct but we've been advised to include more band footage, not necessarily through a performance, but highlighting the band and their daily lifestyle. If we wish to get a professional thematic edit we need to introduce the band and bring the dancing footage in a little later than we already have. Ideas of alternative footage can be acumliated through the music video to 'Falling In Love' by Mcfly which is displayed below.

In order to confirm this overnight filming session we will need to book the camera, a tripod, a light, a still camera and hopefully the dolly.

Evaluating our Rough Cut

Goodwins Points
We felt that our music video complimented the genre characteristics of Alternative Rock. The amalgamation of performance footage and the collage of dance routines gives an effective use of genre characteristics. At this stage of the editing process, the majority of our footage is lip synced with the music from our lead singer.Other relationships between music and lyrics include the drummer playing through the line "Its okay to beat the living shit from the drum kit". We aim to improve the relationship by filming the footage we were unable to on our third day of our filming and therefore incorporate it in our music video. Currently, our relationship between music and visuals is quite strong. The lip syncing and synchronized instruments give an effective relationship, however most of the footage is not edited to the beat, this is because we're only at the rough cut stage of our editing. Our music video definitely sells the artist. There is a large amount of voyeurism as all the artists address the camera during the performance and this gives an impression that they are looking at the viewer. Finally, our intertextuality is from Blink 182 but we feel that we avoided the conventions of this music video when we filmed ours. We focused more on the performance aspect of the music video.

Very Very Rough Cut

Obviously we have a lot of work to do, as we had to just put in some footage at the end as we didnt have enough time in lesson to complete it. We also need to capture more footage to have a wider shot variety, and more close ups of the vocalist to try and sekk the artist. We really just need more close ups all together.

Ideas For Editing

Our music video is being produced using thematic editing techniques. A rapid montage of disconnected footage collects to communicate feelings rather than a narrative. The fast paced nature of the video should maintain the attention of a viewer, rather than allowing uninteresting footage to progressively lose the focus of a viewer. The image below shows part of the editing process, in which we are gradually arranging the footage we've approved to fit the criteria of thematic editing.

Filming: Day Three

In todays filming we managed to accomplish all the necessary shots to form a collage of performance footage with the clips we've got from other days of filming. The dolly proved itself useful and we captured some great movements which really promote the artists and give a professional edge to the music video. However, there were some major problems with todays filming. Firstly, the tripod didn't fit the dolly! This made capturing the movement shots particularly difficult and required two cameramen as a posed to one. Unfortunately this wasted valuable time from the recording process and overall less was achieved in todays filming. Another problem we faced today was that the battery for the camera was empty when we came to film. We were expecting to do some additional shots besides the filming at Sawston Village College. We had arrived at a river an hour before we were expected at Sawston and we were going to film Scott and George jumping into a river which was going to be our final shot. However when we got there the battery on the camera was out of battery and we couldnt film anything. As well as this the equipment available to us at Sawston was a lot less than we had hoped for for example there were no microphones, no guitars and we had to find drum sticks and symbols for the drums. It would have been helpful for us to know a bit more information before we had gone for the shooting day, as it could have looked a lot more proffessional.
Our next shooting is of the band. It will take place on the Long Road Sixth Form College site and we will use the pictures obtained to produce our digipack. We need to arrange a day and time for this shoot.


Before arriving on site, all group members had to be 'briefed' with the sites Health and Safety Procedure, which is pictured below. Also, the hier had to sign and date the lettings agreement which show my complience with the regulations and obligations within the college site.

Mood-board for Filming Day Three

The picture below is a collage of ideas for shots we can use at the third day of filming. They are taken from music videos such as "Falling In Love" by Mcfly and "Charlotte" by Air Traffic.

We also have the entire rig of lighting from the venue available so we can have sketched some ideas for lighting plots for our performance. They will help achieve the professional image from some of the pictures in the mood-board. We will use close-ups of the instruments and hopefully include some shadow effects from the lights to highlight the artists.
We also have to shoot the scene between two characters on a bench and the water reference in Mondays filming because these were not included on day one of filming.

Filming: Day Two

Thursday 15th October 2009

Todays filming took place at location three; The Lock Up. After much struggle of finding the location, we arrived at the rehearsal studios and began our filming. The lighting in the studios were difficult because the rooms were sealed and had no windows. We tried to reflect the lights we had off the white ceiling to gain as much synthetic light as possible. This created some interesting shadows on the artists. There were a couple of problems we faced in todays filming which we can act on before the next day of filming. Firstly, being the artists in the band, we found we hadn't put enough preparation into learning the song. When we came to play together, we couldn't get the timing correct. This could make the lip syncing difficult because the other instruments won't be synchronized with the track. We will have to use the editing process to try and change these problems. Our next day of filming is on Monday 19th October at Sawston Village College. We were posted confirmation of this filming and a copy of the terms and conditions were sent too. These are as follow;

These terms and conditions outline the regulations we must obay when using the site for our filming. It covers information about the facilities through to the responsibilities that fall within the hier. The majority of the terms and conditions apply to large events that take place in the hall, and therefore didn't apply to our recording session.

Filming: Day One

Wednesday 14th October 2009

Todays filming took place at location two; in and around the city centre. Our target was to collect a montage of simple dance steps from members of the public that could later be mixed into our music video along with other footage. The speed of this footage may later be altered depending on the speed of the dance, so that the overall footage will match the tempo and be fitted to the beat. Some successful footage was obtained in todays filming, however we were quite disappointed with the attitude and unwillingness to dance from some of the public. However we did manage to find some of our friends who did agree to be in our video so we did manage to get some dancing footage. The success of todays filming lies with the editing process of our music video. We managed to use some abstract shots and some small movements so that we have a variety of camerawork but the footage and music video will only look professional depending on the editing of the video. We are currently researching using our editing software Final Cut Express, to find possible editing techniques and colour schemes/patterns to make todays filming effective.

Our next step is to concentrate on Day Two of the filming process. This takes place o Thursday 14th October 2009 at The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms in Chesterton. The camera and tripod have been booked for this day but we will also need our musical instruments and a form sound projection so that we can hear the track as well as play along to it. The traveling to this location will be by car and the address is as follows:

The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms

Unit 9

Cave Industrial Estate

Fen Road

Cambridge

CB4 1UN
When we arrived we proceded to film the whole song in a static position which did look quite good however when it came to trying to walk around with the camera we had no one to film for us because we were all playing however we did manage to get around this by just filming one or two of us at a time but making it look like we're all playing.

Call Sheet

After changing our initial ideas for locations, we now have to change the information provided on the call sheet. Theses changes are as follow.

Obvious changes show that we're no longer filming in Saffron Walden. This is because the venue is always very busy and it would be difficult to gain permission to film on the grounds. This hasn't caused many problems because we have several other locations to film at, so we wouldn't be short of footage. Also, we have changed the Histon filming to The Lock Up Rehearsal Rooms, this is because we couldn't find a time suitable for the host of the Histon location that matched the availability of all the group. Instead, JJ seeked permission to use The Lock Up. This venue has a much more professional layout and would be better suited for our music video because it would portray the band as successful and professional. However, at this venue the lighting is very limited, therefore we have also booked some lighting that we can take to the venue for better image quality and lighting effects.

Learning the Song

To produce a music video with any realism in the performance, we had to spend some time understanding the song. This meant finding any material from the song that was available from the internet and briefly 'rehersing' the song so that the performance in the video would syncronise with the audio track we will later add during the editing process. Aside from JJs research into the guitar parts, we also had to figure the basic drum pattern that lies beneath the song and any independant motifs from the drums (ie recognisable cymbol crashes/any other drum patterns).

Along with the learning the musical parts of the song it was down to JJ to to lip sync to our track. To help him with this we found the lyrics and he learnt them. We did encounter some problems when lip syncing for example JJ sometimes forgot some words and also when we came to doing some close-ups at Sawston Village College we didn't have any microphones so JJ had to mime.

The below pictures show up practising the music.

Edit after performance:

In heinsite after filming our footage we found that it was very hard for us as un-experienced musicians to make it look like we were actually playing the correct notes. Especially for George on the drumkit. We have figured to help us get around this problem we are going to use clips that are quite small and don't have such a big focus on the miming of the instruments.

Location Report

Location Report: Cambridge City Centre




In revising the possible locations that would be suitable for our music video, the two most appropriate places were either The Grand Arcade, Cambridge or The Grafton Centre, Cambridge. Our final decision was based on several factors. Primarily, we wanted a location that was busier and friendlier. The way we judged these were by carry out small surveys at both locations. The following sheets show the results from these visits. These results were taken on the week begining Monday 5th October 2009 to Thursday 8th October 2009. In conclusion, we decided The Grand Arcade and surrounding area would be better suited for this section of our filming. The likelihood of co-operation within this area would be greater than at The Grafton Centre. Furthermore, the table from the location reports suggest we would be best visiting The Grand Arcade on a Wednesday of each week, therefore we have booked the camera and tripod for Wednesday 14th October at the correct time (10:50 to 14:40). Hopefully this survey will give successful results and reduce the duration of the filming at this location.

Location Permission

In order to have full rights to take pictures or capture footage in the performance area we had to seek permission from both Lesley Morgan; Arts Development Manager or Sawston and Linton and the local area, and also the School Manager.
After communicating with both, we obtained their consent to film in the performance space in Sawston VC and were allowed to evaluate the area to judge whether this space is suitable for performing our music video here.

Location Report

Location Report: Sawston Village College

After gathering ideas for possible locations it was our next task to select the most suitable places for our filming. For the stage performance we agreed either Sawston Village College or Hills Road Sixth Form College would be most suitable for our music video. Sawston VC would be easier to access, after insurance and legal issues, because me, Karl and Scott are all ex-pupils of the college and those who attended the college are favoured over people trying to access the site without a history within the college. After visiting both locations earlier in the production process, we compared the following checklists to see which would be best suited for our music video.
The image above is a copy of the location report we took to The Robinson Theatre. We judged various elements of the theatre space from the lighting in the theatre to the slots that were available which corresponded with the deadlines assigned to this task. Unfortunately, there was no time available for our recording of the music video before Monday 19th October 2009. This meant this performance space was not currently available for the recording of our music video.


Fortunately, the performance area at Sawston Village College was much better suited for our recording. This meant we were't struggling for an area to shoot the performance aspect of our video. The following picture shows a copy of the location report we took the 'Henry Morris Hall'.

In conclusion, for Location One, Sawston Village College is the most appropriate yet accessable location for shooting this section of our music video. The first stage in arranging the theatre for our music video was seeking permission from those incharge of the performance area. We started by emailing the admission office on site at Sawston VC who could steer us in the direction of the person in command of sanctioning our use of the stage, this was Lesley Morgan. We emailed Lesley Morgan asking for her approval in this matter. The email is shown in the following image:
In response, Lesley Morgan submitted our request to the School Manager and College Principal, who contacted us with their approval in the request. Next, we had to contact the theatres approved lighting technician that could supervise our recording and arrange the lighting plan appropriately to our video. Finally, we had to arrange a flexable time that was suitable for both Steve Williams (light technician) all members of Group 48, an on site caretaker for supervisional purposes and a time that didn't conflict with college activities. Overall, we settled with Thursday 15th October 2009 at 16:30. Then, we had to check if a college drumkit was availble for use on Thursday 15th October. This would make the transfering of musical instruments easier. Luckily, we obtained verbal permission from Janet Macleod, Head of Music Department at SVC, to use a college drumkit for our performance at the time and date specified above.

In light of all the communication with the college, we were allowed to obtain some still images of the area we had booked so we could plan, in further detail, the positioning and types of shots we were to use in the performance, and any other information we needed to make our recording problem-free. The images we took are shown below.