Thursday, 24 December 2015

Tour Dates Poster

This is the poster we put together detailing the dates and locations of our band's tour. The list is all made up of real venues that we researched to make sure a band similar to ours would be performing in.

Sunday, 20 December 2015

Student Reflection

Filming - Our filming for our video started out really well. Filming our flashback footage, first at south end on sea and later on in London went very well and we were able to get all the shots that we had listed in our storyboard. The shots all came out well, were varied and all interesting and usable. Our performance shoot in primmer hall was less successful, could be considered a failure to some shoot as all the footage shot on that day didn't survive any further than the first draft and ended up being scrapped, not being used for anything besides the initial trailer. After putting together this draft however, we went back with a much better plan for filming, better lighting equipment and more hands to help out getting more shots that were more varied. Everyone did really well in filming, as for the performance we all had to be on camera.

Editing - Editing started out well, having the flashback footage to put together in a montage was actually quite easy to edit together. I managed to sort out the chronology of the clips that seemed to make sense and didn't clump to many of the same type of shot together so they looked more varied and spaced out as the video cut together. I did all the effects and filters on these clips as well as the flash transitions and I think they turned out well, being the only part of the first draft received well. Editing the footage from the first performance however was much less successful. Because the footage was so static, and badly light, the colours of the shots fluctuated all over the place, making the video look very inconsistent tonally, unless a lot of colour correction was added and by that point it was obvious to the viewer that there were colour correction filters over the clips. The lack of movement and variation in shots here also may the video incredibly monotonous and dull to watch, people after seeing just the first draft saying it was boring.
This was all changed however after we got our second bout of perfomance footage. Editing sped up very quickly after this shot and Marcus started helping out with putting the cuts in place and even did an animation for the opening of the shot.

Digipak - The digipack overall was very successful. It was put together mainly by Marcus however I did give him a lot of input as to how to do a lot of the techniques in Photoshop that he wanted to do to make the pack. I also did a lot of the editing of the base images and he then put them together in the main digipack. We were able to get a very cohesive digipack with a good colour scheme that matched across all the segments of it.

Website - Katie did most of the work on the website, putting it together on Wix. The website came out really well in the end, after we had the colour scheme established by our Digipack we were able to alter the website to match that and look like a product that related to the band along side the digipack. We were able to make a good amount of pages on our site like merchandise, tour dates and galleries of pictures from our photoshoots.

Thursday, 17 December 2015

Our Digipack, in comparison to other band's


After completing our digipak we've decided to compare our digipak to others from similar bands, this way we can see how potentially successful it would be in the real world. As you can see the similarities between the digipaks are they all have a consistent colour scheme throughout, they have albums lines, bar codes, album names, band names, artistic pictures that represent the name of the band and the album such as the mountain used in our digipak. There is one main difference which is our digipak uses much more colour, but we don't think this is a bad thing as it still looks very much like a indie band digipak, but it also adds an element of originality to our band because our colours stand out compared to many others.

Magazine Article


Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Feedback on final draft

After finishing the edit of our final draft, we showed it to others to get their feedback on what they liked so that we could see what the most successful elements of the video were. While the video is finished and wont be changed as a result of this feedback, it is good to know where we were successful to know what our strengths were in putting together a music video and perhaps where to improve when doing similar work in the future.
- Really liked the flashback edit

- Liked the concept of music video

- Thought the editing was good

- Didn't like the performance shots

- Some of the shots were too long

- The lighting was quite poor

Tuesday, 15 December 2015

Evaluation of other websites

C.Dot

Good homepage, like the moving background, colour scheme fits the digipak, like the countdown at the bottom, not much content, add more links to other things, tour dates, gallery etc. needs more information, bare minimum on each page.
5/10

ISO

colours are too dull, title looks too cartoony, shopping basket colour doesn't fit the colour scheme. the about page is too boring, not much content, like the news page, good information, all of social media linked. Merchandise is a bit limited, need more with different pictures.
5/10

Sweet nothing

Like the homepage, makes the band look really good, moving background takes the focus away from actual website, maybe change the opacity of the colour to take the attraction away, like the merchandise, good variety, like the animations used throughout the website, colour needs to match digipak more.
Really good website though.
8/10

No individual

Colour scheme is too boring, doesn't match video, not much content on the website as a whole, not a fan of the front page, doesn't attract me to look at the website, pictures are good.

4/10

Soraya

colour scheme matches digipak, like the font and the links on front page, good variety of links. need more information on events, too bare, like the gallery, good website.


8/10

Article Draft


Digi Pack Version 2


This is the updated version of our Digipack that we have altered. We have completely redone two of our panels, the front cover now no longer having our green room shoot but instead takes a photoshopped image form our second photo shoot. The text on the bottom middle panel has also changed from white to black and the mountain in the background is now our own original image and not something we found online. We have also added spines along the side of our panels that use our new logo design and have completely done away with our old original logo design. On the top left panel we have also added the name of our band to the two doors as we felt that image seemed out of place without the text.

Music Video First Draft

Monday, 14 December 2015

Article Research


These are all articles on other bands that give a rough overview of the content that is found in articles that are written about bands. We also have a good sense of layout from these examples, clearly seeing that there isn't much colour in them, having a large bulk of text and not much aside from the band's logo and an image of them. The exception to this would be the adverts placed on the sides of these articles, however these are to advertise things other than the band and so don't focus on them but are still relevant to the genre of the article. 

Production Diary

21st September - Marcus, Max and I pitched our songs to each other and we discussed what we disliked and liked about them and talked about possible ideas if we were to use the song.

22nd September - We pitched the songs to the class to see what they thought about our song choices and our ideas for locations, lighting etc.. They gave us good positive feedback and feedback to help us make our decision.

23rd September - We started to put together our ideas for our song choice, we came up with a range of locations we could film in, what clothes we are going to wear and how the actual music video is going to be put together. We then made a start on our storyboard.

24th September - I made a calendar on what days we could do filming and where we are gong, we agreed on Thursday 1st October to go to Southend and Saturday 10th October to go to London, we talked about props and needed a projector so we went to the network managers and managed to get a working projector for our video.  Max and Marcus carried on with the storyboard.

25th September - We spent this lesson getting more of our storyboard done, we managed to complete 50 shots on it.

28th September -  We came up with the name of our band which is Loud Summit, Marcus then created the logo for our band which is a mountain with L and S in it. We carried on with our storyboard.

29th September - I did the website research and looked at similar artists/bands, I looked at artic monkeys, kings of Leon, imagine dragons and the kooks. Marcus looked at similar bands digipaks to get some ideas on how to make our digipaks looks. Max did research into similar bands to look our looks and their videos. We also did our risk assessment for filming on Thursday.

1st October - We went to Southend for out first bit of filming for our flashbacks. We filmed shots on the beach, in the lift, and in the arcade. We used a variety of different camera shots and at different angles so when it comes to editing we can merge loads of shots together.

2nd October - We had Pete Fraser come in and help us with our music video planning, he gave us some tips on how to make our blogs and videos good. Jake told us about his experience in the media/music industry and how he worked his way up to be a professional editor of many famous songs such as let me entertain you by Robbie Williams. In the afternoon we did performances mimicking this song, we had face paint on and used actual instruments, this allowed us to get a feel of what performing is really like.

5th October - Max put the footage onto the computer ready for editing, which will be edited once we've done the London shots. We also had to change our date for filming in London to the 15th October because Saturday was no longer available for all of us. I carried on doing website research and setting up the layout of our website. Marcus chased up the theatre to see if it was available to use.

6th October - We had to carry on with our storyboard to get it finished for our filming.

8th October - We done our risk assessment for London filming. We then did our practice lip syncing videos of our song.

9th October -  We spent this lesson editing our Robbie Williams footage together and blogging about Pete Fraser. this allowed us to get more experience into editing music videos together.

12th October - We heard back from the theatre and it was to expensive for us to film in as it was 100 pound an hour so we had to think of an alternative, so we went and looked at our school hall to see if it was possible to use it. We spent time looking at the lighting in the hall.

13th October -  We did our photo-shoot in the green screen room just to get an idea on what image we are looking for, we also looked up similar band photos to get inspiration. Marcus also did the letter to the artist requesting permission to use their song.

15th October -  We spent the day in London filming more shots for our flashback montage, we went to embankment, convent garden, shard and canary wharf and got loads of different shots. 

16th October - we uploaded our footage and started editing it together as a group, max also did the steel o matic whilst me and Marcus went and got a massive piece of wood for our backboard for the flash back, we painted it white.

19th October-  Marcus did the annotated timeline of lyrics whilst me and Max blogged.

20th October -  Me and Marcus got a big piece of wood that we painted white for our background when filming our performance, Max finished editing the flashback footage for out performance.

22nd October -  the three of us spent the whole day filming our performance, we set up primmer hall with the drum kit and the microphones and guitars, we decided not to use the white board as it wasn't big enough so we used the curtains to project our flashback onto. we used 5 cameras in different angles, we filmed close ups of all of us using a rip stick skateboard to create smooth shots. We got a few people to come in a sit down so we could film it like a theatre watching out performance. We had to set up our lighting using the light board. We found this very useful cause we used different lighting effects to make each shot look different.

23rd October - We put our footage onto the computer and had a look what we had and then began to edit it.

26th October - Marcus started on the digipak and I started on the Website whilst Max did the steel O matic.

27th October - Me and Marcus played around with some of the images that we could use on the digipak and he came up with some other song names to put on it, Max carried on editing steel O matic and our video.

29th October - I decided we needed to do another photoshoot as we didn't have enough photos that i could use for the website so we decided to do that the following day, I carried on with the website and Marcus carried on with the digipak and Max carried on with editing.

30th October - We did our second photoshoot using locations outside to make them look more realistic.

2nd November- I used photoshop to edit some of these photos changing the colour, the saturation etc, so I could use them on the website. Max and Marcus carried on with digipak and editing.

3rd November - I wasn't here so Max and Marcus went to a local club and filmed the breakdown of Marcus in there.

4th November - I wasn't here again but I carried on with the website, and Max and Marcus carried on editing footage.

5th November - I set up a Facebook page and Marcus set up a twitter page.

6th November - We had to do our halfway presentations so I did an emaze powerpoint on what we had so far.

9th November - We then presented these to our class and we got feedback on what we could change about our website, digipak etc.

10th November - We took on board our feedback and our main criticism was colour so we matched the colour of the website and digipak together to make it flow with each other.

12th November - Max did a trailer for our video, me and Marcus did the website and digipak.

13th November - We Changed our logo because our other one looks to childish and cartoony so we made something more simple.

16th November - Marcus came up with an album name, 'amplify' and carried on with the digipak, Max edited and I did the website.

17th November -  Marcus made some merchandise using simple base designs from the internet, he made t-shirts, backpacks, hats, vinyls etc. I blogged and Max edited.

19th November -  Me and Marcus worked on the logo and Marcus came up with the idea that we could make it into a wave form video so he worked out how to do this on premiere. Max edited.

20th November - Me and Marcus took a few photos of guitars and him with a guitar to use on our digipak.

23rd November - I put the merchandise into our store on the website and carried on making the website, Max edited, Marcus did the digipak.

24th November - We decided our footage wasn't good enough for our music video so we decided to re film our performance on the Friday. So we stopped editing and planned our filming.

26th November - Me and Max filmed our storyboard so we could edit that, we also did our interview on radio one.

27th November - We filmed our performance again in Primmer using different lighting, different camera angles, and put more enthusiasm into so we looked more like performers.

30th November - I did some tour dates poster research and began making our own poster, Marcus started a magazine article and Max started editing our new performance in.

1st December - We watched the other groups videos and gave feedback on them.

3rd December - We looked at the other groups websites and digipaks and gave feedback on them, I then carried on with the website, making improvements, Marcus made a wave animation, Max edited.

4th December - I carried on with the website, Max edited and Marcus did the digipak.

7th December - I got feedback from Miss Brookes for my website and made improvements based on the feedback, Marcus finished the magazine article and Max edited.

8th December - I blogged, Marcus blogged and Max edited.

10th December - We all got together and looked at the video and gave our input, Max and Marcus edited. I finished the website.

11th December - Max finished the video, Me and Marcus blogged and finished the digipak.

14th December - We blogged. 

Magazine Cover

To help promote our band we created a magazine cover in the style of the NME music magazine. We took photos of ourselves individually in our green room from the same angle and then in photoshop, removed the background so that it was just us on the cover, as we had seen done on other covers of this magazine. From our research we also found subheadings from the magazine that we put up onto our cover.

Tuesday, 8 December 2015

Website Feedback

Loud Summit:
I like the fact they've got updates on the side of their website, keeping everyone updated all the time.
I like their gallery on the home page but its not very necessary because they've already got an extra tab
with gallery pictures. Their merchandise needs more purple as that's their set colour.
no title saying Loud Summit?
I don't like the white background..
Also on the merchandise page, need to change the white font because you can't read anything. Also you can't select a size on merch

Loud Summit 5
Their website is coming along well, I like the layout and the social media posts on the right hand side. I think the way that the colours of the website correspond with the colours on the digipak. The layout is good and i like the contact page it looks really professional. The photos look good on the front page but maybe you could change it so that if you click them the large one on the front page changes to it or they get bigger or something so that the user can actually view them. The genre is quite clear and you can tell it is a rock band. It looks really professional as all of the social networking links work and you can follow the twitter in one click. The website is good but looks a little plain as the background is so white this makes it look a little incomplete in contrast to the main body of the website. Tours page has header image others don't which makes it look a little odd.

Loud Summit
I like the image which appears at the top of the page on the ‘Tours’ page. On the other pages when there is just blank space it looks too plain. Maybe on the home page you could put your band name here in really big lettering. I like the layout and the font when you scroll down on the home page. Reminds me of Arctic Monkeys which is good because this is your genre. I like the consistent colour theme.

Loud Summit
I like the image which appears at the top of the page on the ‘Tours’ page. On the other pages when there is just blank space it looks too plain. Maybe on the home page you could put your band name here in really big lettering. I like the layout and the font when you scroll down on the home page. Reminds me of Arctic Monkeys which is good because this is your genre. I like the consistent colour theme.

Loud summit - 6/7
There is a large gap at the top of the website could that be reduced? Very good detailed information on the front page. I dont like the background tho and i dont see how it links with the genre. The gallery is good. I like the tour poster page and the store. It can be improved by the background.

Loud Summit
    My first impression of the website by Loud Summit was good because there are numerous photographs which show the band therefore immediately creating a band image. The use of the purple filter on the main photo is strange as it is really bright and also feels irrelevant. The website front page gives information of the band and how they have been breaking through the music industry. The website is clever how the links to buy the tickets take you to the Ticketmaster website and this makes the website look professional. The contact us page is clever and provides information about how to contact the band. much like the ISO website the merchandise page is also good providing good products at realistic prices.
Loud summit - I feel the home page of this website is very effective and they have included many different factors such as latest news, tour date information and album signing. They have also included a gallery page but on the home page they have a nice picture navigation which shows a good use of technology skills. They have made good use of the margins on the home page which i found keep me interested in the page rather than if it was left blank. The video page is done well but is not finished yet as there is a section which still has default text. I feel the most effective part on there navigation bar is the merchandise section, they have included their bands name on some of the clothing which is effective and unique. They also have included the use of links to their facebook, twitter and youtube pages. Lastly I liked the fact they linked their tour date page to ticket master through the 'Buy now' button. I would give them a level 3 for their website. An area they could improve with is to make sure all sections are finished.

Loud Summit
What went well:
Straight away I thoroughly enjoy the colour of the page, the purple images an the creamy background compensate each other extremely well, drawing my attention from the moment I go on the page. The font is very bold and easy to read so I like that very much. The bands image is portrayed clearly as the images of the band can be seen as soon as you open the website. Each part of the website is easy to find as the hyperlink buttons are clearly shown at the top of the website.
Even better if:
The trailer video has nothing written about it so it doesn't capture my attention and desire to see the video. The photo gallery needs more photos added to it as it only has 6 photos in it. I'm not sure why there is a video of cliffs? Level - 3, 7 marks

Loud Summit: 6/10
The layout is good but the filters on some of the pictures look odd.
The home page is very informative and has all the important bits on the front page which is good because it grabs your attention.
Links to social media could be bigger so that they're more visible.
Some of the text isn't completed to follow the pictures or videos.
Tour dates are nicely presented.
The variety of merchandise is good.

Loud Summit-6
I like the colour scheme and background pattern, I think it fits with your genre of band. However the front page of the website is too busy and messy to be able to see who the band are. You can’t see everything on one screen you have to left and right to be able to see everything which I don’t think should happen on a website, fans just want everything in one place.
The merchandise looks the most professional out of everything, I really like the logo that you include on it as well.
Posted by Katie Harragan at 02:49

Monday, 7 December 2015

Magazine Cover Research

For our magazine cover we decided to use NME magazines as our target audience are much more likely to read it due to the fact they often have indie rock bands on the cover and they quite often give media coverage to young, up and coming bands as well. The band being featured in the magazine are also photographed on the cover, taking up the majority of the cover itself. For indie bands like ours, this would be a lot of really good exposure to the public as star image is something that indie bands themselves promote much less than bands and artists in other genres, but having a third party, the magazine in this case, allows for at least some coverage of the band itself. The main design features that NME tend to have is the headlines going down the left of the page, More info about whats in the magazine down the bottom and the main headline at the top of the page. When creating a magazine cover you've got to make sure you have various key features such as a bar code, band logo etc. 

Friday, 4 December 2015

Effects: Eye Transition

In the video, we wanted to have on shot transition into another and make it appear as though the camera was moving through the character's eye. To do this I had to learn how to use keyframes and add a keyframe in every frame of the video and manually pan the next clip to move over the first shot and gradually fade it over the top of it while adjusting the fisheye filter I put on it to make it wrap around the shape of the eyeball.

Effects: Sound Inserts

For our video, at the start and end of the video to establish the narrative, I had to insert some sound to look as though it were digetic sound. The shots were mainly the sound of the projector whirring, the sound of it turning on and the sound of an olden film reel. These were added to make it appear as though what was happening on screen was actually happening to make the video seem more immersive than it otherwise would have. To do this in time with the rest of the video, I had to create several more audio tracks and line up the wave form with where it looks like it would play on screen.

Effects: Colour Correction

To make our music video we had to use colour correction filters on our footage. In doing this, we were able to make two shots that looks different, due to lighting appear as if they are all similar. One example of this was to make shots where the lighting made the shot look very blue, look more red and warm to fit in with the red of our video. This effect was done in adobe Premiere and the specific tool used was Fast Colour wheels. While not the most precise tool for colour correction, it was efficient as we had over 100 shots that all needed to be individually corrected to match each other.

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Band Tour Dates Posters

We did research on posters that other bands made to promote their tours and that show the dates of each of the gigs. We will be able to use this to work out how to format and structure our own poster, as well as the things that will be essential to include on it.

Digipack Feedback

After making a draft for our digipack, we showed people so that we could get feed back from them and find out what they liked in the pack and what they didn't. Based on the feedback we got, we will be able to change the elements that were less successful and replace them, hopefully improving on the digipack as a whole. To get the feedback we created a survey and after showing the digipack to people, got them to respond to the survey, answering the questions we came up with.