'guitarist' and 'singer' as both can be generically mimed. For the drummer however, I found that it was very noticeable when someone could or could not play the drums, especially when synced to the sound of drums. I did however already have a friend that not only had the right age and look but could also play the drums very well. I took portrait photos of all three of the students I was hoping to use.
Week 5:
For a large sequence in the music video, a lot of experimental editing with psychedelic effects would take place. I therefore decided to film some test footage. After speaking with my teacher, I realised that the second setting that I was hoping to use in the school might be too small to film a band in. I therefore decided that it might be best to use a genuine music studio. I found one in the music department, which, after asking one of the members of staff, found was free to use every tuesday and thursday. That thursday I filmed my singer with my home-made shoulder rig in a close-up. With the footage in hand I transferred it to a computer for editing. After looking at a few tutorials to find how to make the look I wanted to achieve withing Adobe After Effets (VFX software), I edited the test footage ready to put on my blog.
Week 6:
On Thursday 22nd January, I filmed the performance shoot of my music video. Everything seemed to run smoothly as everyone attended on time. The previous week, I had asked someone to help with the shoot as I knew that using two cameras would allow the shoot to run twice as fast. The helper was a girl called Suhayla from another group who agreed to help me for free.
The following day, I transferred all the footage to a computer ready for editing.
For the montage sequence towards the end, I decided I would use my little sister and shoot the following weekend.
Week 7
After shooting various shots of my sister runnning in a circle, walking and running past the camera, and other actions which I wanted to experiment with, I started the edit the following morning. To piece together my music video I used adobe premiere pro. For the footage with added effects I used after effects, and then exported it to adobe premiere pro with the rest of the edit.
After completing a rough cut which consisted of 2/3 of a complete music video, I recieved feedback telling me that the setting was
face.
Similarly to the original shoot, the reshoot also ran very smoothly. I was aware that there where some areas in the background which where a distraction, I therefore angled the cameras so that the distractions where not in the frame.
The next day, I transferred all the footage onto Premiere Pro ready for editing. As I had already editied 2/3 of a rough cut, I already had a sense for where to cut the clips and in which order. For the final 1/3, I took inspiration from Bergen Kramer's 'Groza' music video.
Some of the effects such as the RGB split I expected I would have to do in After Effects, however I did find away to do this in Adobe Premiere Pro. However, effects such as maskuing can not be done in Premiere Pro therefore I needed to export the video from Premiere into After Effects for a final edit where I added various effects to make the music video capture the theme I wanted it to.
For instance, the opening sequence needed a grainy, lo-fi look which I could only achieve in AE.
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29 January
This edit was cut from my first shoot. I ended up using the editing style in my final edit. For instance, the cuts on the beat and guitar chords where very effective and had good feedback from my audience.
At this point I had not added any significant effects to suggest it was a psychedelic rock video.
This test footage was a chance for me to experiment with psychedelic effects that I would add to my final music video. I simply shot a singer singing before bringing the footage into After Effects. To make the first effect I duplicated the layer 3 times. I applied an effect called 'Set Channel'. I then set each layer to a specific colour; Red, Green and Blue (RGB). I then set the blending style of each layer to screen before shifting each layer either a couple of pixels to the left or right. It ended up producing this type of psychedelic effect.
9 January
Rough Cut
Test Footage
Final Cut 1
14 February
While this cut seemed much more psychedelic due to the number of effects added, the effect gave people a headache when you watched it for too long. While it was a good effect, I felt that I had used too much of it.
18 February
While this version was deffinteley a step in the right direction, there where still too many distractions in the background. I tried to limit these in my next edit by increasing the contrast, cropping certain shots and masking.
Final Cut 2
3 March
While this cut was very close to the final product, I felt that there where still parts that had significant room for improvement such as lighting and saturation in the final scene to signify the transition from a psychedelic journey to normal life. I also wanted to add another effect in premiere pro; the strobe effect which would help me achieve the old film quality I was looking for in my opening sequence.
Final Cut 3
November - December
Week 1:
For my first setting where I walk through the street in an urban environment I found a location close to home. Knowing it was a music studio I looked up "music studios next to Clapham Junction station" online. I found the owner's website and his contact infomation, I texted him asking him If I could use the location for a very short scene in a film/music video. I took photographs and filmed some test footage.
Week 2:
For my second setting I found a room in my school, not wanting it to look like it was part of a school, I considered the use of cloth to cover up any windows which show any natural or artificial light. The room would also be cleared for the purpose of the performance. I took photographs to put on my blog for future reference. After having texted him several times over the last couple of weeks, the owner responded by saying he was not interested in partaking in the project.
For my music video I realised that my plan requires to me to use a handheld camera. I therefore collaborated with a member of another group in my class to help me make a home-made shoulder rig. This idea came after finding an instructional video on how to make one online.
We decided to both by half the materials to eventually come together the following week to build.
Week 3:
After realising that I would not be able to use the first setting that I looked at I decided to look for a new setting in South Bank. Knowing I needed to find an urban setting I knew this area could be a potential location to use. After looking around for a while I found a small door connected to BFI SouthBank, I went inside and found that it was mostly empty and open for the public. I went inside to talk to a member of staff about having permission to use the location. I was then given an email adress to contact about getting permsission. While I was there I decided to take photos of the location that I would hopefully use. After writing the email and sending it the owner/manager replied by asking what days I would like to use the room. I responded by saying the following week. He then responded by saying that I was free to use the room that week.
Me and the member of the other group chose a a time and day to meet to build the shoulder rig, we met and finished the build. We then tested it shortly around the house and found that it worked well.
December - January
Week 4:
After speaking with a friend to help me shoot, we went down to SouthBank to shoot the short sequence with the camera and shoulder rig. My friend was the cameraman while I performed. The overall shoot lasted roughly 30 minutes. We sometimes found it difficult to film as people would get in the way of the camera or start looking into the camera which I knew would disrupt aesthetic that I wanted to achieve.
For performers in my music video I already had some people in mind. With regards to talent and actually being able to play the instruments that they where filmed playing, I felt this would not be a problem for the
distracting, for instance, as the setting was a music recording studio in a school, you could often see posters in the background. Furthermore, it was felt that a reshoot of my singer was needed as it felt obvious that he wasn't actually singing, but just miming the words.
After this feedback, I noted that a reshoot of a close-up of my singer and a long-shot of the band, as well as perhaps a mid-shot of the guitarist was needed. On the day, I will have black fabric prepared as well as scissors to either temporarily cover or remove the posters from the background.
Week 8
On the day of the reshoot, I used the help of the band members to help me put up the black fabric to cover the background. As I did not have the help of Suhayla for filming, I instead used tripods to help me film a static shot while I used a shoulder rig to film other shots such as the electric guitar, acoustic guitar and the singer's
Third Draft
While keeping with many of the elements of the Second Draft, I decided to change the background of the back cover in the third draft. This was because I felt that it did not represent the psychedelic style that I wanted. I therefore decided to use a snaphsot from a short film that a friend had created of various ink blots being dropped onto water. This was partially influenced by the use of liquid light shows used by the Joshua Light Show.
Upon audience feedback I found that a complete change of image was needed as it 'felt too busy'. Therefore, in an effort to link the poster directly with my album, I used the album cover as my poster with a slight change to the format of the band name. I also made sure that 'debut album' and the music store logos where aligned for a better aesthetic.
I also decided to put the band logo in the corner so that audiences would associate the logo with the band.
Transferring my design into photoshop meant I had to use colour. Originally I inteded to use black but instead I decided to use the jumper texture to link the poster with the overall style of the album.
I also recognised the convention of the front cover of the digipack
Poster Third Draft
For my third draft I decided based on audience feedback that the jumper texture as a background was far too busy. I therefore decided to use a lens blur effect so that the texture would not be such a distraction.
Also from a distance looking at my second draft I noticed that it was difficult to see the name of the album, 'enter this way'. I therefore increased the size and moved it to the top of the poster.
Poster Fourth / Final Draft
Poster Second Draft
Poster flat plan - First Draft
For the flat plan of my poster I was very much inspired by 60s fonts and album covers because of the way they fit text into shapes such as I have done here to fit the band name 'The Birds and Wings'.
Once I had successfully established an album name which links to the theme of the album of 'taking my audience on a journey' I placed 'enter this way' in a smaller font at the bottom of the poster.
I was not initially sure of the colour I should use however I did think that the colour black for the background would help link the poster to the front cover of the album.
Sixth Draft / Final Draft
I later found that as I was doing this project on my own compared to others who where in groups, I only had to create 4 panels rather than 6. I therefore decided to combine some of the imagery I had used. However, this forced me to remove the jumper texture as I could not find a way to use it which looked good. I therefore decided to use some of the imagery of my band for my back cover. Instead of just using threshold, I decided to use different layers of threshold combined to give the effect of shadows and highlights.
For my band I decided not to use the same cream colour I had been using as I felt there had been too much of it used. I therefore decided to simply use shades of grey.
some of the footage of the band. I then used the threshold effect on the photo after cutting th figure of the lead singer out and surrounding him with the band name. When shown to an audience, they noted it was a very striking image which fit well with the theme of the band.
texture as theatre curtains for the fronty cover. I hoped that this would also link to the use of a performance in the music video.
Fourth Draft
After some audience feedback, I felt very strongly that much of the aesthetic and style needed a change. While expressing that they still very much liked the front cover, the rest of the album did not have a consistent style. Therefore in an attempt to tie the digipack together in a consistent style I linked the design to some of the elements used in the music video. For example, some if my audience had expressed to what extent they liked the jumper that my younger sister was wearing in the music video. I therefore used the jumper texture in the background of 3 of the panels, while also using the
Second Draft
This was my first attempt at transferring the ideas and images represented in my original plan into photoshop.
I felt at the time that the font signified the genre of hard rock; a sub-genre of rock which is very different to hard-rock due to its very folk rock roots.
Digipack / Poster
Flat plan/FIrst Draft of Digipack design
Within my artist profile
I identified both a theme for the band; Birds (based on band name) and a theme for the actual album: going through a door on a journey/trip.
I therefore I decided that my album should cover these to aspects. I would use a bird as a symbol
like an identifyer for the band. I will also use a door for my front cover with strange psychedelic inspired colours on the other side to signify a journey.
I wanted to have a running theme and style throughout my album, therefore I decided to use the colours used behind the door elsewhere on the other bird symbols across the digipack.
I also noticed that a convention of a lot of folk rock albums is that the back cover of the album will have a reference to the recording of the music. I tried to represent this throught the use of a mic at the back of the image with concentric circles coming off to signify sound.
For my digipak I completely reinvented the look from the original flat-plan that I produced. Apart from the front cover for which I got positive feedback from my audience feedback, I decided that the other 5 panels needed to be changed. One particular addition was the use of the red and blue striped jumper texture which I used as a background for 3 of my panels, this was so that I would have a link between my music video and the digipak.
For the poster, I based it on my digipack by applying the same background of the jumper, this would allow a consistent theme through the presentation of the album. Inspired by the Bee Gees '1st' Album and a similar style of the 1960s of making psychedelic/60s inspired font fit inside specific shapes. I decided to use the silhouette of a bird to fit the text into. However, I did later make significant changes to both my digipack and my poster. Eventually I decided to not even use the jumper as a background.
Below I detail how I arrived at each stage of the poster and digipack.
on the poster so that customers would know what to buy.
I decided to use a cream colour for the font as it was the same colour I used in my digipack.
Fifth Draft
For my fifth draft I got rid of the curtains as when asking my focus group, they said that the use of curtains gave the wrong impression. They said it reminded them of the classical music genre. I also inverted the use of the background as people thought that the use of a lighter jumper texture in the fourth draft looked like purple and pink rather than a lighter red and blue.
I decided to change the CD logo to that I was using in the poster as I felt that it was a strong symbol that I would be able to use to identify my band.
For the inside cover panel, rather than just use birds I decided to link it with the band by finding a snapshot/photo from