Original Images

Once my planning was done i then needed images to use for the advert and digipak. As i am posing as the artist i took my digital fujifilm camera and did a photo-shoot at my house. I used a blank wall in my house to take the photos as it would make getting rid of the background on photoshop easier. I took the photos in a selfie style but i also asked my mum to take some with direction from me about angles etc.
I decided to to use flash on the majority however i did want a variety so i used natural lighting on some.

  Photos below made the cut list & 1 of these images will be the album cover:  

After i had a chance to go through the images i saw i had a good amount to chose from and was happy. After looking back on my research and my planning i decided that the album should feature an acoustic guitar in  the digipak. I thought this would be a good idea as in the majority of the songs the artist uses an acoustic guitar. I have a guitar so i took photos of the guitar in different locations in my house using different angles. In some photos i use macro for close up and other took flash and natural lighting photos so i could have a selection to chose from.

Digi Ideas - Planning

After doing the digipak & advert research, i had established the necessary features to include on both. I then set upon creating ideas/themes for my digipak, first I looked at different names for my digipak and then looked at background which would suit it. 

I don't need to create different ideas for my advert as it's evident from my research that the artist use of different mediums has synergy. This therefore means I will be using the same artist image/typography etc, theme and colour scheme within the poster.

Some of the album names I came up with are:

Teardrop/Raindrop 

As it's written 

Lipstick Stain 

Framed

Petal/Bloom

These are some of the backgrounds I chose in relation to the album title:

I intended to use these images as background for the front cover with an image of the artist as I'm not sure what image will look best so I intend to try most of them. 

Photoshop Tutorial

 

 

Digipak & Advert Research

The digipak promotes the artist and there are recognisable themes across there works for albums to there posters. The colour scheme and theme are normally simple and stay

the same with little to know change within the artist different works.

After looking at different albums i realised the cover had certain commonalities:
A medium close-up of the artist
Artist name & album title
On the back of the album i saw that the commonalities were:
Barcode
Some kind of image (relating to album or it's theme)
Tracklist 
Record Label
Legal Information 
On the poster the commonalities were:
Name of artist 
Name of Album
Hit singles within the album
Release date or out now
Image of artist (same image on album or from same photo-shoot)
Image of album 

  Looking At Artist Album Cover & Album Poster Advertisements  

Digipak Research

We looked at 4 different digipaks as a class and gave feedback as a group i annotated as the class gave there feedback on the album covers.

If Only Music Video

Editing Improvements

Once all the shots were positioned where I wanted them to I then needed to do transition and possibly filters. I used the additive dissolve transition as in my analysis this was a common transition used as it softer rather then just a sharp cut. As the song is slow this transition fitted with the song hence why I used it among normal cut to shots. I didn't use it on all shots as the sharp cut is also useful to the bridge of the song as it become quicker pace making those sharp cuts look better then it would with a additive dissolve transition.

In the image below I used an additive dissolve transition in between a single shot which I cut into two as I has a camera jolt. Once I placed the transition it looked really good and the camera jolt is no longer there. The lyric line that's in the duration of this particular shot is 'It was a hazy summer' and fits in perfectly with the lyrics. The shot has become more interesting because of the transition as the overlapping of the same clip  gives the shot a more hue glow as the sun overlap the same sun.

Another example of this would be during some of the performance shots where used the additive dissolve transition to transition from one performance to the other. I did this to make the music video more interesting but also to smooth out the cut between the shots. I thought it would be good to do this as you can see the artist performance fade into another and the go from close up to mid-shot. The transition fit well into the music in this particular bit as it's slow where the transition is but the tempo picks up and the last transition is a simple cut edit. This helped make that last shot stand out as the transition went from smooth to sharp.

I also used a black and white filter on one shot as I thought a contrast in those bleak colours were effective for the song however I didn't want the whole video to be black and white. For this reason I chose for one shot to be black and white and cut to shots of this within my music video. I think the contrast of the colour and black and white show future hope and past despair which goes with the lyric of the song.

I also used different filters to brighten shots as I though some were too dark and would make the lip-syncing less visible.

I changed the speed of some shots making them faster or slower. I did this to make shots shorter so they weren't too long but also slowed shots down to make the audience focus on certain shots more. Some example of this are below:

Editing Update - Re-filming

I tried to get to film with the artist again however every time we had a day to film she would cancel and say something came up. The deadline was come up soon so I had to get someone to film the song who knew it but who was also reliable and wouldn't cancel on me. I decided to use Emily Dina however she tried but it was noticeable that she didn't know the lyrics well enough. With time running out I decided that I would act as the artist as after editing the music video I knew the song extremely well.

It was hard filming by myself but once I got the camera steadied, I then turned the cameras screen around so I could see how I looked. Once this was set up I then set the docking station next to the camera and played the track and then got into place. For the other outside shots I enlisted my friend Rebecca who lives near me to help. She helped me in the field and church location as it would be too difficult for me to do alone as I wanted to have panning shots. I got all the performance shots done over the weekend and have until Friday to edit all necessary shots into the music video.

Editing the clips wasn't to difficult to begin with as I replaced Kaity Rae's clip with my new once however i did change certain aspects as I had more performance footage to choice from along the way. An example of this would be the that I made my clips closely edited to the beat in particular areas to follow the dynamics of the song where as before this was not the case. I used the same narrative shots and nature shots as before making minor tweaks to placement but as you can see from the images below I used the same editing technique as mentioned in the post before. I found for me that this way of editing means that rendering is quicker and more effective when you want to change shots.

 BEFORE 

 AFTER 

I didn't encounter any problems with the lip-syncing and most of my editing consisted of replace old performance clips with new one. All that's left to do it's transitions and possibly filtering clips if needed.

Editing Update - Post-filming

After filming i knew i didn't have enough footage and wanted to book another day to film with the artist again. The lip-syncing looked perfect and was fine however it took me awhile to get used to editing styles. I started by putting all the clips on and lip-synced them but i found that this meant when i cut the clips  it would take really long to render. I decided to do it clip but clip and lip-sync them accordingly, i found this method more effective as rendering was loads quicker.

I also made some clips slower than they originally were. This was mainly for the narrative shots and I felt that having some of the shot in slow motion would be effective for this type of song. It would also get the audience to focus on the narrative as the shots would be at a different pace to the performance shots. 

Risk Assessment & Booking

When filming it's important to take into consideration the risks which could occur. Different risks could have different outcomes therefore they would vary in there severity. 

  Equipment  

Using outside - When using camera and tripod outside i must be wary of the forecast as i shouldn't film when it rains as the equipment would get damaged.

Misuse - I must be cautious when using equipment as it should be handled with care and use for only filming. This is so the equipment doesn't break, smash or dent and is  protected.

Stolen - To make sure this doesn't occur i must make sure to be with the equipment at all times and never leave it unattended.

  Artist & Actors  

Locations - I have visited and am very familiar will all locations therefore am able to make sure they will be safe and aren't put in harms way. 

  Booking Equipment out with the school:  

Lip-syncing Tutorial

Performance Storyboard

These are the shots i intend to do when filming however i may not use all of them when editing. I have done my shots via location as it will be easier to sort out my shooting order and can number them accordingly. As well as an image i have written my intents for the necessary shots. I took pictures of my storyboard (without the writing) on Post-it with the intention of using it to create my Shot Sheets on it. Post-it is an app i found however after testing the software i didn't like the way in which it presented my work. I therefore took images on it and used them in a powerpoint format.

I decided to do a list on the other shots as it was not necessary for these shots to be planned out like the performance. For the narrative shots they will mainly be shot as mid-shots however there may be a need for long shots however i will only know this once i start to film. The extra shots will be spontaneous but on the areas below and will be shot as i see them. 

Initial Planning - Brain Storm & Locations

After i thought this through and spoke with the artist i decided to go with divorce as the recurring lyric line of "you weren't the one i was meant to hold" didn't fit for losing a loved one to death. I chose a more adult theme of divorce as teenage love is too cliche and the artist agreed. After choosing this i decided to begin planning as i wanted the music video to be mainly performance based (based on the research in my earlier post) however i wanted it to contain a small narrative it could switch too.

I then looked settings or locations i could use

I decided that these places are too far to travel to and i may not have the time but also these locations are busy and may find it hard/difficult to film in such locations. 
I then decided to look closer to home.

(image)