performance_roughcut1

So its a week after the shoot day, and I have been already working intensely on the music video. I will post a more in depth blog post on the editing process, but for now I wanted to discuss the rough cut for our performance.
The editing process we are taught for the editing the music videos is to begin with a performance cut. This means that if all else fails we can produce the performance cut for our final piece and that would be considered a music video as that would be the base element of our three elements.
Anyways so here is the performance cut, its only a rough cut so don't get over excited. But anyways I hope you enjoy. [WARNING: its quite slow to begin with.]

behind the scenes.

Here is a behind the scenes video I made of our shoot day.

evaluation of the shoot day.

The day before the shoot day was probably more stressful than the actual shoot day. We had to make sure everything was prepared from costume to the set. We began the day going to the theatre department studios, where Elizabeth, who is in charge of costume for the theatre productions had left the hospital gowns. The first thing I noticed with the gowns were that they where one too big and two too plain, not exactly like the image I had sent Elizabeth. While it would be a shame that this small detail was not met as it better sells the overall look, but I knew I would just have to let it go and move on, as one of the biggest things I learn’t from my shoot last year is that you have to work with what you got, if you haven’t planned and prepared 150% you will never get the final vision you had, and this is one of the biggest lessons I believe I learn’t in this course accepting what you have and moving onto more important things. Everyday there is a music video shoot being done in the studios from the beginning of half term till the end of November. Therefore to make sure everything was set for my shoot the next day I created a check list of all the necessary set design elements and went through with the set designers and light

guy what we had previously discussed. When I went through the checklist with set designer she appeared in an uncertain way to have everything about but it was just a matter of collecting it all for tomorrow. When I spoke to the lighting guy, it become apparent that the rectangle of lights behind the band would just not be very intriguing. So I came up with having three pixel lights vertical pointing towards the camera behind the drummer, creating the dramatic silhouette we wanted but also giving us more control, so therefore for the drop we can turn on more pixelights as well I said I wanted flood lights either side, of the three vertical pixelights. A bit less confident as I thought I would be I got all my gear prepared for tomorrows shoot.

I woke up, picked my gear for the behind the scene and went to school. I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be, a wanted to maintain calm and collective throughout the day because for me personally I find it the most unprofessional when someone looses it. Once I found my group members we gathered all the band members as Georgia and I went round finding the last elements for our band performance. The bass they had laying about looked horrendous, it had these fire stripes on it, like something you would see on a kids toy truck not a modern indie rock band. Georgia and I

went on the search, we went to the music department where a student lent us his white bass that looked just beautiful. Once we got back to the studio we began setting everything up as the band members began to get the make up done and Hugo went over the lyrics. We began by bring in all the instruments drums, bass, piano and the microphone. I went t
hrough and made everything was symmetrical and well composed. Once we where done with that we did a quick rehearsal and then wetted the floor with a mop. Due to the room being black except the red pixelights, they would reflect off the floor making a cereal futuristic effect. Well this was super last minute it still relates back to our initial design elements for the band performance but now it was more intriguing. The red lighting made everything appear very sexy.

(the main girls make up developments throughout the shoot)

I was directing, but also helped Georgia with camera as she wasn’t very confident so I was happy to help. Directing is something I love but find difficult as you need to translate a concept you have in your mind into actionable language. Especially with actors you don’t want to make an actor feel insecure therefore something I have noticed is that you have to be very gentle when giving them feedback. However, this is the first time I properly enjoyed this role and I feel I communicated

wanted we wanted very accurately and the actors responded to feedback instantaneously. At most points I would have to take over the camera work for Georgia as she would struggle a bit, therefore I found multitasking quite difficult but it was super helpful to actually capture what I was directing as I could see how it was being portrayed on camera. We began by doing wides and then we would shoot mids and then closeups of each band member. After the first play through we realised that the song actually uses a guitar as well as synths, therefore we reshot the wide and gave Rory a guitar to have round his neck for the rest of the shoot. The band performance ran really smoothly however set us back on our schedule as there are so many different elements which we should of taken into account. Jess had been rehearsing the dance all morning with Cara, which Jess had been hiding from me as she didn’t wont me to be harsh on Cara. This was a big mistake and probably my biggest mistake of the day, not rehearsing the dance days in advance as this is a big element of our piece. The lighting didn’t looked as good as I thought it would the bars we had didn’t really appear well and weren't far enough apart.
After being very disappointed with the dance, we had lunch and then it was time for the narrative element. It took the set designer and with our help two hours to set up the narrative piece, which the wallpaper was nothing like I wanted, making the set design into some weird cross cultured display. I had printed off the images of the Japanese women just days before but now it was somewhat irrelevant as the culture in which the set appeared did not really make sense, it appeared more like our original set design of being a country club. Time was disappearing and it was a Friday so are actors would soon be leaving. We had three teaches and one actress. The set design took an hour longer then we prepared for and the teachers had to all get substitutes to cover their lessons. We tried to shoot it as fast as possible, which will show in the final result as we hadn’t got enough shots of the old men.

Overall I believe the most successful part of the shoot day was the beginning as everything was on schedule and everything looked how we wanted, as time got tighter throughout the day the attention to detail began to slip. I really wish the dance was would have looked better, I think we may have to do a reshoot when we do our pickup as we forgot to have the dancer in the container. I was happy with the narrative, however we didn’t get enough it, however do to the lack of time I made sure that we shot all of the narrative in slow motion as this would mean it would give us double the footage, and do to the lack of time we would have more to work with. I really enjoyed managing the actors they were very responsive and all except one teacher tried their hardest. I am really excited to work with the narrative when it comes to the editing as I have the VFX shot to work on also I have it all in slow mo so I can get quite experimental. That might be how we save the dance by going super whacky artistic like an MTV promo kind of thing, like inverting the colours and have only blues or something like that. When it came to it the production group were really professional to work with only my media group seemed a bit uninterested at points which put off some actors and made them feel awkward. Other than that we worked well together and I am excited to see how the footage came out.

[album artwork] the groups digipak.

While I have been away editing the girls finished of the digipak. Here it is...

FRONT -

BACK - 

INSIDE -

This is a really nice start on the designs and considering the photographer bailed on the group the day before the deadline this is a pretty good result.

[album artwork] track list.

The music video we have made is only for one song from the album, so therefore there would be other songs. This list of songs are known as the track list. So for our album we have come up with a bunch of songs that we think fit the genre conventions. Here are two back covers of albums from our genre of indie rock.

from the research we came up with our own names for the songs and produced our own tracklist of songs for the album, which we think would also fit the star image of the band and as well connecting with our target audience.

[album artwork] claudia's research into fonts.

I found some interesting font ideas that would work well with the photos on the album covers.


BAND:

I like this font as its clear, as well as being eye catching. I think that it works with the genre as it is subtly. However, I think that the font would need to be bolder as this title needs to stand out more than the bands name.

This font is cool. However, I think that it would work better if the genre of the band was Rock rather than Indie Rock. I like the way this title stands out, however. I also think that it would appeal more to our target audience than the other font as its clearer.


I think this font looks like a font that would more be used for a book title. This is due to it having a slanted and artistic like look to it. I think that we would want more of a block title that would represent the genre more.


I found that this title like the font before it was also a bit too artistic.



This font is my favourite out of all of them. This is due to the ease of it. The font is simple yet easy to read and works well for the genre.

ALBUM:


I thought this font was cool. I thought that it worked with the Indie part of the genre. I think that this font is unique. However, it reminds me of the Netflix writing. Therefore according to our target audience they would be likely to watch Netflix. Therefore, it takes away the originality effect.


I think this font would work really well with the bottom font of the Cigarettes After Sex, as the fonts aren't the same but work well together due to the look of them.

This font is original and cool. However, it does't work well with any of the other fonts.

[album artwork] final prototype

Group - discussion/design

After coming together with the each others designs we all agreed we love the Origami Swan and would want to keep this featured through out the artwork. We like the colour red as it is very eye capturing as is closely associated with female lips and genitals (nipples and vagina lips), subconsciously making it appealing to men.

When we where discussing names for the band Georgia came up with the name cigarettes after sex which we all believe has a really nice ring to it that would fit well with an indie rock band. After deciding the name we agreed on the album to be called Origami, which fits the overall bands star image of being creative thoughtful, and gentle like origami, as well identifying with our target audience.

Origami - is the Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures.

Therefore our album cover would be a red origami swan. With the font lightly embossed with the title origami underneath the Swan. The band name would be in the left corner in a larger font, this is what I find constantly in my research into similar products and the text would be black to make it stand out even more.

The back design would be the band surrounded round and watching the TV screen with the Origami figure on the TV like in our music video. We all agreed we like the element of my first design front cover but with this new design of the band staring at the TV, also giving space for the text of song names making it less messy and more clean. I think its important to have the band members featured somewhere on the album design, and I we all agree from the research into similar products the band members would not be featured on the front cover, making it more about the music rather than the image. However this little square gives the consumer a little glimpse into their image without it being in your face.

For the CD cover Claudia had designed folds, following the paper design which we all thought was really cool, so we all agreed we would go with that. Finally for the inside cover, as we where discussing designs I thought what could be quite cool would be to have instructions on how to make an origami swan, which I think would be quite nice. Due to CD sales being lower than ever compared to streaming, only a few people would purchase the CD and only a few people would get to see all of the artwork, including the origami instructions. Therefore this touch makes it more personal, following the star image of creativity, but also making it seem as if the band is your friend as they want to teach you something even before you have had a change to listen to their music. As well this could start an origami trend that would get the name of the band out their, so therefore this simple piece of design could create free social media marketing.

We had a majority vote on having the origami swan front on, I think symmetrically this is more pleasing, and in a way a bit confrontational as it is directly looking at the customer, which could create a mesmerising effect. When looking at this album cover I believe that the ideology of our band is somewhat apparent as the Origami Swan, illustrates something that is while small and fragile but appears powerful, like a lot of their songs, also caring on the idea of them being creatives rather than just a pop band selling their image, this is done by the fact that they are apparent on the front cover as well creating intrigue for the customer.

To create the final design we are going to have to organise a photoshoot with the band, and re-using the props from the set e.g. the tv and the origami swan. We are going to need to get another red origami swan and photograph that for the front cover. We are going to have to research instructions on how to make an origami swan for our own instructions. The final design should look very clean, therefore we will finesse the images in photoshop and add the final bits of text in photoshop.

[album artwork] coming up with designs.

My first album design I knocked up came from an image I saw on Instagram. Its an independent London rapper and in the image the blacks are covered with loads of film grain/artefacts creating a really nice border.

Here is a screenshot.

So What I would want for the front of the album is the black boarders with the artefacts, then in the middle the TV which is featured in our music video, on the TV screen I would want all the bands faces to make up one face cut up into four squares. On the back of the album I would want there to be the back of the tv and wires coming down, it would feature all the songs names and all that on the top of the back cover. The CD I would want wires coming out from the centre and the names of tracks round the sides.

While in my research to similar products I found no images of the band on the front cover, I think it is a necessity to have the band somewhere on the album and I have kept this in mind through ought my designs. It is important that the band is an integral part of the design, as it allows the audiences to begin to recognise the brand, and therefore begin to build the bands brand.

The boarders would be black to show the emptiness, while the TV would be in colour like in the music video. The colours for this album design would be very mono but the colours for the TV would be over saturated, this would be used as a trigger to grab the audiences attention. I think our target audience would like this album as the artefacts add a grungy element to the design, which they would identify with, also the TV would pull them in as it does in reality.

I really like an album like this as it gives the band the star image of being creative and artist rather than just trying to sell themselves, however I don’t think it is a good idea to to have the main elements of the album design to be focused on the main elements within the music video, for examples the TVs. This is because its a cover for the whole album which consists of many songs rather than a single, therefore there would be likely to be at least two other videos that would be most likely different from the one we have done for our project.

My second design has the what was on the screen on the TV in the previous designed but cropped in as a square. So all the four band members would be seen on the front cover. It would have a white background as this would allow the images to breath, rather than the images being overwhelming and flooding the design space. The back of the cover would have the same square but with the back of their heads instead, I am keeping this theme quite consistent in my designs, the front of the album shows the front and the back shows the back, for me it makes it seem complete in sandwich like format. The CD would have the band members lips with the track names underneath.

As I mentioned above in the research I didn’t find any band covers with the band on them, however this bands where already quite established when the albums came out so therefore the wouldn’t need to build a brand however, I assume, our band is still becoming a established and this would be their debut album, therefore it would be a necessity for the band to establish their band image, to allow audiences to connect/identify with them.

This album cover is a very organic approach as it just shows them as who they are and nothing else. It shows the whole band as one face as they all are coming together to make one sound. It’s a very simplistic album cover, which I think an indie band would be interested in using for their first album as it clearly and simply shows who they are, as one. I feel our target audience would be very attracted to this as it isn’t overly flashy and it is what is, just the band and the main focus of it being about the music, which I think our target audience would appreciate.

Ok now we are onto my third design I went for a bit of a more creative approach. The image of would be of a face on black background to emphasis the loneliness, the face on the head would be cut out. And what would appear to be within its mind would be the TV from the music video. The album would be called treasure lake as that’s something empty and obscure an indie band would use. I got inspiration from a tutorial by spoon graphics.

Here is the inspiration.

Well I say inspiration I am pretty much completely ripping off the idea. The back of the cover would have the back of the head with the titles of the track. On the inside cover the there would be an image of a red origami swan, because as we discussed in our group we would like this to by a symbol of the band, like a logo. The CD would have lines/dots on it and as it span it would show the songs on the album (as I write this I am thinking about how stupid and impossible that idea is, always good to be ambitious though).

The overall design is somewhat mysterious. Why is there this empty head? Why is there a red swan? It keeps the audience questioning, what the star is. This will make the consumer by in to more of their products to fulfil that need to understand that star. I believe this design fits the target audience as their image is rather hipster and I believe this design would be something a hipster would be interested in pinning up on the wall above their toilet. The artwork is quite obscure but also very metaphorical, as it suggest our thoughts are just regurgitation of what we have watched.

My fourth album variation comes from my original album design done for the photoshop crash course at the beginning of the year (featured below). The idea of weird creepy hands grabbing a crown. So I have integrated that idea with the TV. The album would be called projected reality, as again mentioned above our reality is just a projection of what we have seen and experienced, especially from films therefore projected, like a film projector. In the design it appears as if the hand is placing the TV down, as if god is giving you an insight. On the flip side it has the image of the band performance from the music video. On the CD I placed the origami piece which should feature in our whole designs, keeping it consisted will keep audiences questioning. And then the back cover would be the back of the TV with the titles.

 (my album design from photoshop crash course)

This quite an obscure album cover, which shows the TV to minute and therefore what ever is holding it must have a lot of power, making audiences think. If you get a passer by to at least think thats the first step to get them to buy the product as that will be playing through their mind subconsciously, and the more they think about the more familiar they will become with it, once you are familiar with something the more likely you are to buy into it. Therefore I believe this album cover to be very capturing but also intriguing out target audience as it is quite unusual, but also simplistic.

Overall I like this design however I believe the band should be featured in less unnatural setting, for example being part of the art rather then being a completely different piece of art. However other than that I believe it follows the other designs very closely and therefore from all these design variations I believe we could come together as a group and come up with a very solid album design.

[album artwork] research into similar products.

So I have spoked in more detail in my conventions post about the conventions of indie rock, but in this blog post I am going to be speaking about similar products to Glass Animals Toes for album artwork. 

The artwork of any album should tell a very important message about what is contained in that album while capturing the audiences instantly, as the album cover is in theory the first impression. The bands album artwork I am going to talk about is Alt J, Radiohead, The Smiths and The Vampire Weekend. All completely different types of indie rock. However, with all very similar elements in album design.

The first thing I thought of when I hear Glass Animals track Toes was Alt J. The two bands have a very similar style of music, with the quite soothing intros then the upbeat but mysterious choruses, that make the two songs commercially successful. This digipack is from Alt J’s album An Awesome Wave. The front cover in an unconventional manner, does not show the title of the album. This fits to the convention of indie rock, as indie rock tries to move away from the direction of convention. Due to the album cover not stating the name of the album, the album must remain rememberable on other levels, and I think this is accomplished well with the unique abstract streaks. The album shows a bunch of streaks which appears to be some sort of liquid coming together forming larger amounts of liquid. The album cover is dressed with texture and popping colour, that juxtaposes the dark backdrop. While it is a simple cover it is effective as it makes the audience think about it, making them try to piece together what it all means.




The CD is very simple, which I like. It is clean and clear, all it has is the names of the songs around the edges, one feature I feel it is lacking is the number at which the song is played, which makes the text on the
CD somewhat unhelpful. But again this adheres to the convention of indie rock trying to act misunderstood. The artwork juxtaposes that of the main cover. The abstract art of the main cover leaves the viewer intrigued and mesmerised but there is an element of overwhelmingness due to the intensity of blacks but also the balance of the colours which when used are overly vibrant.


The back cover like the CD shows track list in order. The theme is very similar to the CD juxtaposing the front, like everything its the release of the tension from the front cover. Like the CD there is some interesting decoration on every other line of text, making the plain clear white back cover appear to be a bit more funky. This follows the star theory idea of originality, due to the front being so abstract the back can contrast that and ground the artwork.

Radiohead the bends is the first album artwork I am going to discuss featuring a human like figure on the front cover. The image appears to be a CGI interpretation of a human sighing in release. The white CGI human is contrasted with the dark black background making its white pinkish pigment very apparent. On top of this unlike the Alt J album artwork, Radiohead is printed across the front of the album cover for the bends in white with a red rectangle wrapped round the text, with the name of the album underneath but considerably smaller in red text and lowercase. Red is a colour closely associated with danger therefore internationally it is very quickly recognised and therefore gages ones attention. The CGI has some weird appearing metal abnormalities on the front of its body which brings it back to the idea of the album cover adhering to the indie rock conventions of being controversial and to make one think. This follows the star theory of appearing to be original.


The CD is plain and simple, featuring a small image at the top and numbers at the bottom, the CD however does not have the track list on. The appearance of the CD juxtaposes both the front and back cover. The back cover is much more intense than the front, it explores the colour red even further, featuring dark and light reds with numbers place on the light and the dark as the background. The text is in white with a numbered track list. On the left it has the image that was on the CD and the scannable barcode. This follows the idea of what I mention above, tension and release, the front of the cover is the release the back is the tension, following the convention of the intensity and mystery of indie rock.

The smiths album has a face on the front cover, only half of ones face. The white face is heavily contrasted with a black background like the radiohead album making the face stand out. Like the type of music the font of the text is blue, with the name of the band again like radiohead in large text and the name of the album in smaller text but on this album, the text with the name of the album is wrapped with a blue rectangle. The man in the image is wearing a white vest making him appear young and vulnerable, also due to the lighting hiding a lot of his face. The mystery of this character follows the convention of mystery within indie rock, as well a sense of dismissal towards the audience, as if the band is doing what they want and you can like or not but they don’t really care, this dismissal is what will make loads of vulnerable listeners buy into their image.

The CD follows the colour theme of the font on the front of the album cover, with white text giving the track list on top. This makes the text easily identifiable and easier to read. On the CD it has the name of the band in big type again and the name of the album in smaller type. In even smaller type its got the track list details which is numbered. The back of the cover is simple and clean, featuring the majority of white and at the bottom the blue background then white text on tope similar to the CD giving of clean cool aesthetics. The white space makes the album feel clear and to the point, which works well to make the barcode look as if a decoration due to it fitting so well with its settings.

The Vampire Weekend album Contra similarly to Radiohead’s and The Smiths album has a picture of a person on the front. This time its a girl and she appears somewhat surprised, the image has a quite natural and unplanned aesthetic to it. This allows the audience to by into the idea that they are not so different to them, making the audience not only identify but buy into there indie rock convention of not being perfect. This follows the star image of somewhat rebellion due to this. The image has white text on the front, the name of the band and the album in the same font.

The CD is a bit more interesting to the others, it has a completely different design too the front, some sort of web that sucks the viewer in. The CD has the track list numbered around the edges, name of the band in small and the name of the album bigger, so they fit in the same box. This contrast with the front picture because out of know where they have graphic design, where the front cover shows naturalism, the CD image shows more of a control and thought put into the design. This design is somewhat similar to the back design which features the track list with interesting weird sudoku appearing boxes to separate up the

text and adding that graphic design element.

All the albums mentioned above all have one feature in common, that the front cover juxtaposes both the CD and the back cover, interestingly enough the CD is more similar to the back to the front cover. Three out of the four albums had a person picture on the front of the album be it human or CGI and then text on the front. All the albums with text on the front cover had the band names the biggest and the title of the album the smallest. This as well I believe is contributed to the fact that all these artists are organic therefore there brand is very important for customers to get familiar with their names. Most of the photography or artwork on the front covers where abstract, they didn’t say much which followed the convention within indie rock of mystery but also making one question what they are viewing which is not common. The back covers all had the same principle of showing off the track list. However the CD’s all fluctuated between track list and numbed track list.

Overall, I really like the artwork on all these albums, I believe it really shows of the idea of independency and breaking away from the mainstream due to the unsettling abstract image that don’t give you the whole story. It is interesting that non of these covers feature any of the band members, but instead either abstract art or an abstract person, in a natural but mysterious pose. All this albums create intrigue and all have an impact in there individual ways due to the contrast and the heavy text.

on the day filming roles.

In a week we are going to be filming our music videos, so it is about time that we assign the roles for who will be doing what on the day of the shoot. We will need to assign the role of a director, producer, cameraman and art director.

So what is meant by these roles.

Director
Lets start with the most important, while in my eyes anyways, directing. Directors probably get the most credit in for creating a film. So what do they actually do. Directors direct the making of a film or creative piece while usually controlling the artistic and dramatic aspect, while helping to translate and visualise the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfilment of their vision. Or in Quentin Words directors…


On the day the directors role will be very similar to what was just described. It will be important for the director to translate what we want to the actors and make sure everyone is doing what best fits the overall vision, for example working closely with the director of photography.

DOP
So what is a director of photography or DOP for short, also known as a cinematographer, is the person known for being in charge of the crew who capture the overall final image. A DOP make artistic and technical decisions related to the image. In other wards for our music video the role of the DOP would be known as the cameraman.

Producer
Producing is generally a very important role throughout the process of making of film, ranging from either just introducing two very important people to each other or by making the production happen. The producer can fill a variety of roles and coordinate various aspects of film production, such as selecting script, coordinating writing, directing and editing, and arranging financing. The producer is usually seen as the entrepreneur and the business man of the production, better described by the notoriously best film school…


On the day of the shoot the producer will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of the shoot, organising the other three members of the production team and ensuring the smooth running of the shoot results in effective execution of the objectives.

Art Director
The art director is that creative guy. They are the ones who are able to give the film/piece its unique identity through their design of location, props, costume and make up.

One set the art director will be responsible for location, props, costume, make up, inc. continuity.

A final role that needs to be also filled but I haven’t really mentioned as a main role is sound playback and lighting desk, which I think would go perfectly hand in hand with the art director or producer, when it comes to our shoot day.

Ok now you know all the roles, this is how we have broken it down in our group. I have been put as director which I am excited about as I will be translating the idea to our cast and crew, but I will also work closely wither our camerawomen who will be Georgia. Our producer will be Claudia and Art director Jess.

I am very excited for my role as this doesn’t just give me the chance to experience what it is like to direct but also learn the skill of communication, but also allows me to have the most control over the creative vision of the final piece, especially as I will be working so closely with Georgia as she is less experience with the camera then my self.