Friday 26th November 2010

This lesson we started to edit the footage we captured in our video shoots so that we can put the clips in time with the music. We managed to get 26 seconds done, and were able to add some effects as we were editing.

Tuesday 23rd November 2010

Today we were working on our website design mainly, and we have made several changes to the layout. With comparing the new design to the old one, it appears more realistic and suits the purpose well. The use of pink within the old design made the web page look tacky, however with using an image that we took of our location and fading it, it allows the design develop an eerie mood. This is what we have done so far, and at the moment we're working on changing the font. We are also thinking of having petals that are healthy, and petals that are rotted, this effect is used to represent that her old soul has died, and a new soul is growing within her. Therefore it'll be good if we had the rotted petals on the floor and fresh petals on top to show that she has moved on. Or perhaps we could use the idea of using hearts (cut out in paper) and use the same technique.

Audience Feedback

At this stage of the editing process we decided to ask another group in the class to give us feedback on what we had complete so far. The feedback tat the other group gave us mainly consisted on good and excellent comments. The group gave us the following comments:

- Overall creativity was good
- Holding a shot steady, where appropriate was excellent
- Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate was excellent
- Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate was good
- Shooting material appropriate for a music video was excellent
- Mise-en-scene appropriate for a music video was excellent
- Editing making the meaning apparent to the viewer was excellent
- Varied shot transitions, captions and other effects that are appropriate was excellent
- Matching sound and images and editing to the music was good
- Overall the music video so far was excellent.

We are pleased with feedback we received from the group and will try to improve our work to meet the excellent category in every aspect of our video.

Here are some of the screen grabs that we have taken today in our lesson, to show our development in the Editing process :)

Filming - Wednesday 3rd November 2010

We began filming the narrative for our music video on the 3rd November 2010 (2weeks ago). We decided that it would have been better to do our narrative with the two characters inside the hall at Goosedale, and then take our outside videoing perhaps later on in the day or another day. However with most of our videoing being based around the inside area most of our day was taken up by the filming of the interior. However, fortunately, yesterday Wednesday 18th November 2010, we were able to do the rest our filming at Wollaton park which was for the exterior scenes. We also took some pictures which we will be using for our CD cover and perhaps for the website. Here are some pictures of us filming, soon there will also be some footage of behind the scenes provided!

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Website Design - 1

This is what we put together in our first construction lesson. We made a rough design of what we hoped the website to look like, we are very happy with the result.

We made the banner in Photoshop, by using the paint brush tools available to add glows and manipulate our designs. We experimented with different colours, in order to see what would be appropriate and suit the theme.

Evanescence Official Website Analysis

This is the official Evanescence website! Just like the Digipak analysed in previous posts, the colour scheme is black and yellow, which seems to be Evanescenece's recurring colour theme. These colours represent an old emo/gothic 'look' that corresponds well with the bands ambiance and mood. The websites colour scheme and design is appropriate for the target audience as it follows the typical conventions of emo/gothic bands and artists. 

The font used in the website is once again very old fashioned (Victorian/Georgian) which is a common font to associate with gothic themed texts as gothic styles were introduced in society in the Georgian era. However, our artists not only targets emo and goth social groups but also targets indie groups, which would not appreciate the full gothic style on Christina Perri's website as tey do with Evanescenece's website. Therefore, we need to mix goth/emo/indie together to make the media text appropriate for the target age group.

Digipack Design Template

This is the rough template design of the digipack we hope to use in our official CD design section of our coursework. We have created this design based on existing CD cover and digipacks we have analysed in previous posts.

The front/back cover and the inside sleeve of the CD cover will display Christina Perri kneeling down in a forest in a dirtied up wedding dress clutching a jar of hearts. This resembles the songs title 'Jar of Hearts.' We thought it would be a good idea to include this image of the jar of hearts in this image as we don't make references to hearts in jars within our music video. This image would be very appropriate for the CD cover as Christina Perri will be singing in woodland areas in our music video.

The actual CD will have an image of Christina Perri and the 'Prince Charming' figure on it dancing in the ballroom. This again reflects one scene within the music video where the characters are dancing together in the chorus.

Kelly Clarkson My December Digipak Analysis

 These are two alternative CD front covers for Kelly Clarkson's single 'My December.' I know this isn't the full digipak for the CD single, however, i believe that the images on these front covers are very important to analyse to give us ideas for our CD cover designs.

In the first CD cover image, Kelly Clarkson is kneeling down in a red dress looking rather sad and depressed. The red could perhaps symbolise love or passion, as Kelly Clarkson usually sings songs in the love/indie genre. The costume she is wearing resembles a wedding dress, but could be a ball gown of some description. Their is a staircase behind her, which again follows the theme of a ball room staircase or wedding venue. Seeing the costume, body language and location that this photo is revealing represents the idea that Kelly Clarkson has been jilted at the alter or has been stood up on a date of some description. This would explain her pose and costume. Using the idea of Kelly Clarkson being upset, kneeling down in her wedding dress after something sad has happened would be a good idea to use in our CD cover/Digipak as our music video is set in a ball room and the main character and singer 'Christina Perri' is also in a ball gown/wedding dress. If we were to recreate this image/mood in our own digipack we would be following the same conventions that Kelly Clarkson has followed in her media text, which would place our 'look' into an emo, gothic, indie genre that would be appropriate for the target audience.

Evanescence Greatest Hits Digipack Analysis

 This is Evanescene's digipack for their "Greatest Hits' album. The from cover displays Amy Lee looking towards the camera upset. Her face is rather pale with dark eyeshadow/eyeliner surrounding her eyes. This represents the genre the artist is aiming to fit into (emo, goth, indie).

The colour scheme used throughout the digi pack is a black dull colour around the edges of the documents and filled with a yellowish erroded parchment themed box in the middle. These colours and the style of them represent a dark, old, faded mood that is reflected within the look of the band, the songs they perform and the genre they are placed in.

The text used in this Digipack is very gothic and almost old fashioned, like a georgian or victorian style. This font is commonly used within gothic or emo themes throughout the media as it makes the documents seem older and more period, which is when gothic themes came into society.

Christina Perri (Laura) Test Shots/Character Design

This is Laura, the cast member we have selected to play Christina Perri in our music video. This document provides the information needed to apply Laura's costume and make up. We have decided that we should try and make Laura look like Christina Perri as much as possible by copying her hair style and make up. Laura's hair will be straight and layered like Christina Perri's hair style in her photographs. Laura's hair is red, which is different to Christina Perri's Black and Blonde hair, however we cannot change Laura's hair colour just to shoot some scenes for our music video. The red colour of Laura's hair could add a certain mood to the video however, as the colour red resembles love, passion and romance...

Laura's make up will have to be quite basic, with a pale white face and dark eyeshadow/eyeliner which is evident within Christina Perri's photos and Amy Lee (Evanescenece) music videos. This style of make up will follow the typical conventions of love, indie, emo music videos.

Laura will be wearing a white wedding dress/ball gown within the music video as her costume states in previous blog posts. This costume is also in-keeping with the typical conventions of music videos within this genre as Amy Lee, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Perri all wear 'pouffy' white dressed in their music videos.

Recee Sheet- In the woods

This is another recee sheet which is for the woods, and provides similar detailed information like the other. There are also images of the woods which allows the location to be understood.

   

Production Schedule

This is our production schedule, it includes all of the information of what we were doing for our planning folder, and when we met to complete work that needed to be done. It also involves information of our filming dates.

Recee Sheet- In the hall

This is our recee sheet of the hall (location 1), it includes all the required information: Drawing of the hall with the address, pictures of it and information about health and safety.

Test shot - The male character

This is a test shot of the Ryan, who will play the male role in our music video, it shows what we want our character to look like. It contains information regarding make up outfits etc. We want Ryan to develop a modern look, by dressing him in a suit and tie and shirt. We thought it would be best to keep one of the characters up to date and not follow the entire conventions of the Cinderella story.

Location - Goosedale.

We have finally found our location, of Goosedale, it is a hall based in Papplewick, this location is more ideal than our original idea of Wollaton Hall, as it is modern, and classy, which ties in within our theme.