Final narrative shoot

After school Michael and I (Daniel) stayed behind to plan the shoot and ensure everything is in tip-top shape beforehand so that we can begin the shoot early at 9:30am. We have written up a shot list to account for shots that aren't in the prologue and will be narrative during the track. We have organised the room in advance and even took a few final shots to test for composition, however lighting can only be tested when all the extras are there. All in all, we feel as ready as we can be (well, a lot more ready than before!) and we looking forward to a successful shoot!

The Album Cover

To create the album cover we used Adobe Photoshop CS5 picture editing software. During the production the plan for it changed. The plan for a plain white front and back cover was scrapped and we used a black and white beauty shot of Charley instead with a lens flair. The text overlay for the back cover was changed to white and is the same font as the front cover.

The front cover was changed to give a brush stoke effect with a city highrise building overlay. Links were added to the back cover for the band and record label Madhouse. On the inside cover the stage names of the DJs were added so they could be quickly identified. All the parts of the album were formated and put within the guidlines to be sent off for printing and production.

Our !NFLUX website

To create a website for our artist !NFLUX we used 'Wix', a free online website designer. Based on our previous research we feel it is necessary that we take the 360 degree marketing angle to appeal and reach our mainstream audience. The website should be easy to navigate and have aesthetics which you would easily relate to the band. We will include links to the home, !NFLUX, gallery, video, competition/events and shop.

Upon entering the site's URL, you will first go to a page of simply an image of the band in action and looking incredible with just a link saying "ENTER SITE" and links to !NFLUX's pages on social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter. We chose these sites since we know that the majority of the core target audience use the sites. Since 80% of 16-24 year olds both male and female use social networking sites, it is a very cheap method of advertising and creating a huge online hype about the band.

We feel that fan interactivity with the band and the site is vital in attracting new audiences and so not only will there be a link to Facebook and Twitter on every page, but there will be the opportuinty to download the album, images, wallpapers, videos and purchase other merchandise surrounding the artist. There will be free samples of some items, however the audience will have to pay for everything else via website.

A significant part of our audience interactivity is our competition. We researched that Pendulum held a competition when releasing their latest album 'Immersion' where they allowed the audience to download the individual components of a track for free and use there own editing software to mix the track together and submit their mix. The best track was released in the album. We are going to provide a competition of similar nature to our audience via the website because this music is contemporary and largely produced at home. By using Web 2.0 to our advantage, we could attract audiences through the user generated content produced and submitted and the overall interactivity between the band and the fanbase.

Narrative Video Storyboard

In preparation of our second narrative shoot this friday 18th, we shot a video storyboard to allow us to be more efficient with camera set ups on the day and to give us an overall feel of the practicalities and possibilities with shooting at this new location, the media classroom.

We feel it went successfully with much experimentation, however when looking through the footage at times it didn't look as professional as we'd hoped (i.e. when the teacher enters the class the walk to the desk is too long). So, to avoid this an alternative might be to have the teacher already in the class with a few students and just show a few students entering the classroom. From ehre the teacher could then simply stand up, tell the students to "be quiet" or some equivalent, and then sit down and allow the following events of the video to unfold.

Having said this, if we are not going to have a prologue then this won't be as noticeable and we can film on the day as initially planned.

This is a roughly edited version of our narrative video storyboard.

Added editing method

In editing, we've found it difficult to browse through each clip at the full length to find specific shots which may only last for less than one second in the performance during the very fast paced editing. So I thought that to allow us to be more efficient in searching for the required shots I created a new sequence in our project on CS5 Adobe Premier Pro in which I have cut out all the clips that could be used in the final video, so that we can simply drag and drop the shot into the edit of our music video.

I selected shots from `Freehand Takes 1-3` and `Freehand Focus Changes Take 1`.

I made a `Screenshots` folder in our group 1 folder on the edit suite hard drive and in our group 1 folder on topics.

Thoughts in Preparation of the Second Performance Shoot

As a group, we understand that it is of the utmost importance to turn up to the shoot with more preparation than a few ideas of shots kept in our head. We need to pay closer attention to detail in composition of the framing.

As well as including the list of shots mentioned in a previous post `Rough Edit Reflections`, I have also noticed that we will need more controlled vibrations of the camera to fit in with the chaotic madness of the chorus `drop` of the song. In particular, I feel that using this vibration technique in corporation with close ups, high angles and tilted frames should be appropriate for the pace and atmosphere.

When we shoot, I think we should have already noted down exactly which type of shot will be the key feature of that particulr take so aren't solely relying on spontaneous camerawork from the cameraman. This method of filming on the day will also allow myself (Daniel) and Adam to have an increased role in directing, since we are the DJs and so have less chance of utilising roles behind the camera.

e.g. Take 1 - CU Vibrating
       Take 2 - HA Tilted Angle

Reflections on First Narrative Shoot

The shoot took place on Saturday 4th July from 8am until 1pm. Using Lauren Good as our teacher character we shot the planned narrative but ran out of time to shoot the complete plan due to school time restrictions. Looking at the footage that we shot, we agreed as a group, with our teacher and technician that it was not the right look we were going for.

Here are the reasons why:

• The footage had little varience in terms of types of shots.
• The dancing was too provocative and sexual where we wanted more of a loss of control and freestyle dance.
• There was little interaction with the classroom setting and with the lighting there was too much of a studio feel taking our character too far away from reality.
• Too similar to performance.
• Not right for the style of music

We therefore decided that we will need to reshoot, deciding on a different actor as our teacher, changing it to our lead singer Charley due to the fact that she was very professional and would help to further promote a debute album. The initial narrative idea has been tweeked slightly also. Instead of using a biology classroom which gave us many restrains we will use a media classroom as a detention room and have a 20 second prologue of the teacher entering the room and speaking to the detainese. She will then listen to the video with headphones and at the drop of the song a cheaky child will remove the headphone plug from the laptop causing the music to play out load causing the class to start dancing and the teacher gradually joins in with this comotion the DJs would come in and take her away.

Rough Edit Reflections

I created a rough edit using Adobe Premier Pro editing software with the footage we captured from the performance shoot and have found it very helpful in pinpointing the details we need to improve in our next shoot(s).

When editing it felt like certain shots were "missing". In our next performance shoot we need to film:

• more angles, shot distances (particularly CUs) and with more emphasis on the DJs,
• more LAs of Charley,
• tighter CUs of Charley and the DJs,
• ECUs of Charley and the DJs, particularly their eyes,
• more free hand shots.

It is also clear that in the build-up to each chorus (drop) requires a much more increased pace in cuts between shots and to the beat of the song.

Promo Shoot

Today, we conducted a promo shoot for our artist, !NFLUX, in order to promote our artist image and create images for the fanbase on our website and album cover.

We varied the depth, lighting and mood of the shot to entice the audience into divulging further into our campaign.

At first, we used the same costumes we wore when shooting the performance for the music video (Charley: sophisticated black dress with a dropped shoulder strap, DJs: Black suits, shirts and shoes, along with our iconic masks and headphones.)

We then changed the costume for added interest and variety.

Finally, we had another costume change so that the DJs were wearing casual clothing, with particular emphasis on wearing a hooded jumper, since this type of clothing is commonly associated with the clothing that is worn by the target audience. With this added grunge look, we can look to reach further into our target audience because it allows the audience to relate to the band, and this interactivity that is contemporary and very popular with the audience.

Production Meeting with Miss Blackborow

After having 2 production shoots and capturing the footage (for the first shoot) we have realised there is still much to do in the way of constructing a believable and relevant narrative. Chris was with us in the shoot on Saturday 5th and we received feedback from him saying "the dancing felt inappropriate and didn't convey the ideas we wanted."

Today Daniel had a meeting with Miss Blackborow and discussed the issues to do with the teacher suddenly blaring music during the test in class and creating a narrative which is appropriate and works well with the performance and the artist.

We have decided to cast Charley as the teacher due to difficulties in getting Lauren to the school and ensuring time is used efficiently and we feel this way there is a stronger connection betweent he narrative and the performance. Effectively, we are going back to an initial idea by the group where the narrative merges into the performance.

I used the rough timeline Michael and I created at lunch to take notes. We are going to include a 20 second prologue in which there is the introduction to the class room environment (teacher entering classroom with test papers). The song starts as the ideas below take hold.

We have two possible ideas to be used for the entrance to begin the dancing:

1. After giving out the test papers and telling the class to begin, the teacher sits down, plugs in her headphones and starts listenign to music quietly whilst marking work - this is when the song will begin. A naughty student leans over the teachers desk allowing the music to blare loudly. This leads to many hysteric reaction from the class as well as the teacher and everyone starts dancing to the music.
2. Again, the teacher sits down after giving out the test and she opens an email with the !NFLUX music video in the email window. Suddenly, there is an error message and from hear the song would start. The image on screen begins to break away leaving behind the music video in full screen, with the music blaring and everyone dancing.

Currently we are more inclined to do the first option due to the practicalities involved in creating this email.

From the second verse, the DJs begin to get involved with the narrative. We will create much build up other their entrance through many slo mo shots of them approaching the classroom and with the reactions of the students and the teacher when they first see them. During the bridge, the DJs set up their equipment (decks and keyboard) on the teacher's desk and gradually students melt away from the classroom to leave just the band (now including Charley). At the drop following the bridge, there will be a BCU of Charley addressing the camera, with her jumping backwards (and perhaps a focus pull) to act as a transition between Charley as a teacher and Charley as a member of the band.

To bring the music video full circle, the final few shots will be of Charley leaving the classroom with the test papers.

Inspiration

Here are some videos we have taken inspiration from and that we feel are visually interesting for different reasons.

Designing Masks

For our DJ's, obviously we want them to have masks to cover their faces, but rather than buying a generic mask, we decided to design our own, just as our DJ's would do if they were real.

We purchased plain white plastic hockey masks to use as our base, as well as a selection of paint colours, brushes and sponges, masking tape and spray paint.

We began by covering our masks in masking tape, so that the spray paint would dry on the surface.
Adam then proceded to paint the bottom half of his mask with dark blue paint, and used the black spray paint to cover the top half, as well as create a dripping paint effect. He finished the mask with silver paint across the eyes in jagged lines.

I made mask through a different process. I spray painted my entire mask black once I had covered in masking tape. I gave it a couple of coats, and once dry, I used the masking tape to create the arrow shapes. I left these on the mask, then used a red spray paint to go over the rest of the mask. Once the red had dried, I peeled off the masking tape, leaving the black arrows on a red mask.

The two masks are extremely different, and we hope that they create a unique persona for each of the DJ's, whilst making an interesting band image.

As well as the masks, the DJ's will be dressed in entirely black suits, and Charley our lead singer, will wear a black dress.

Schedule Week 3: October 31st - November 5th