Photoshoot

Last night we attempted to complete a photoshoot for our advert and digipack. However because of the lighting going down too quick, many of our photos didn't work. This was also made worse by lack of focus on pictures. However we feel we still have a few shots that could work on the product. We will take more photos today to complete the set, then edit and place them in the digipack on Monday.

Video Completion

This week saw the completion of our final cut. After working hard to re film certain parts and editing repeatedly after school and in any free time last week, we finally got to see the end result. As a group we are happy with our final product. We felt that as the subject must be approached delicately, we captured the struggles of a teenage girl and her appearance in a subtle manner. This was extremely important to us, as the topic of anorexia is a subject has all affected us through our friends. Using just Sarah (the actress) and no other characters reflected the loneliness and personal side of the problem, which makes us think about what people are like behind appearances.

As the project has progressed we feel that the video has really made us think, and hopefully will make our audience feel what felt when making and watching it.

Film Equilibruim

As we decided on an appropriate ending, we looked at more music theorists. We decided that Todorovs theory does not really apply to our video, with us going against his five stage theory. As our video begins with the problem, the equilibrium is already broken and the problem needs to be restored at the end. However, because the song doesn't actually come to a conclusion, we didn't want the problem to be fully restored. We wanted to leave it up to the audience interpretation. This has led to our artist being used as some sort of 'hero' figure. From our rough cut, we found that the audience saw the performer in the end scene as perhaps a ghost/angel, helping the living with problem. However the audience won't find out what happens after the the performer is introduced in the narrative and offers some sort of help.

Diary Entry 34

Yesterday didn't turn out as expected, with us not staying back to complete editing. This was because the date coincided with parents evening as well as Abbie being ill. However we will use tonight as our time to place all other clips into the video timeline. This should leave us with enough time to edit everything else on Friday. On Friday we are also filming our end scene once and for all. This can easily be edited into place on Monday. Today we also planned some ideas for our Evaluation. As it approaches we want to be prepared with a range of ideas which will save us time in the long run.

Diary Entry 33

Today we continued editing, however we are staying back tonight to edit the bulk of the footage. This will help in hopefully completing most of the video by Friday. We plan to film on Sunday, which although leaves us with a very limited time, it is the only time our actress can film and should be achievable as long as we complete all other editing by Friday. Charlotte S and Matthew have continued planning for the digi-pack and advert, giving us a range of ideas for the final draft of them. 

Diary Entry 32

Today we basically just carried on from yesterday, with editing our video footage and planning the photo-shoot. We also Have been considering a new logo of just one letter, the first letter of her name 'S' would be appropriate, much like Rihannas 'R'. We hope to achieve this by finding and downloading more fonts which could also be an appropriate logo.

Diary Entry 31

Today was spent with Charlotte J editing and Charlotte S designing and planning the photo shoot. Matthew has also been helping with photo shoot planning. This meant creating an almost animatic style drawing for the shoot, with ideas for all categories under mise en scene. We decided that we would stay back tonight to complete more editing so that we could potentially finish on Friday. This will give us over the weekend to think of any extra touches that might make our final cut better. We also realised that we have the camera booked for Wednesday and Thursday which gives us just enough time to complete an end scene for the video as well as any extra clips we want to try out. 

Album Tracks

For our album tracks, we came up with a long list by coming up with any relatable random words a or phrase we thought could connote sadness, nostalgia or emotion in general.

• Antidote
• Me & You
• Time
• Medicine
• Do Wah Do
• Euphoria
• Balancing Heartbeat
• Glass Jars
• Jamie
• Fire Burning
• Crash
• Reunite
• I Am
• Blank Canvas
• Sun & Moon
• Back Home

From this list we will vote for our top 12 tracks which will relate to our artist brand image. 

Filming Last Night

Last night, we successfully filmed all of our remaining narrative. This has taken a lot of the pressure off, as now all we have to do is edit and finish the advert & digi-pack. We filmed at Charlotte J's house, a new location for us, however we planned all the props and room scenes that we would need. This was done particularly better then our rough cut as we have learnt that planning and carrying through mise en scene in the shot is highly important. Our second location was the Broadway road, using rule of thirds and camera movement to make the shots more interesting. It was also another night running scene adding the anorexia and over-exertion we want to come across with the character. 

DigiPack and Advert Development

After more research, we were inspired by Rihannas digi-pack for her album 'Loud' as well as Lana Del Rey photo-shoots  As our artist, Sienna Rose, has a flower in her name, we decided it would be a good idea, although cliched, to have our motif as a a rose. We decided that it would be a good idea to incorporate roses into our photo-shoot, we liked the look of this in Lana's photo-shoots against a plain background, however we will probably try out some close up shots with a hint of the roses in the shot. 

Album Title

To decide a album title we came together as a group, and decided that synonyms of medicine as well as extra words that could have some related meaning to the song, would work well as a title. We researched a host of words and then voted on our favorite. The list below is what we came up with, narrowing it down further to 'Antidote' and 'Sovereign'. Our final choice was 'Antidote' as we thought it had more relevance to the song. 

• Antidote
• Redemption
• Freedom
• Cure 
• Medicine
• Remedy
• Elixir
• Sovereign

Logo & Font

Our first logo and font, seen in the logo development post, has been changed. We decided it would be easier to download a font rather the transferring the original and changing it's colour. After consideration we found 'Brain Flower' on dafont.com. We thought the simple, sans serif font, represented a indie genre.This will be used on our advert and digipack. 

Diary Entry 30

Last night we successfully finished our performance which we will edit tomorrow onward. Today Matthew is editing audience feedback, while Charlotte S is researching more ideas for our photo shoot. Although last night we did take a range of photographs for our advert and digipack, they might not be suitable as not all were in focus, good positions etc. Charlotte S is in charge of the photoshoot as we decided she is probably most skilled in the area after last years project. We have also been concentrating on our digipack, as far as we can go without photos. Charlotte J came up with idea of covering the CD with the name 'Sienna Rose'. This was done in the same font as our advert to keep the artists identity.

Advert Plans

After researching more adverts we decided Jessie J's 'Who You Are' album advertising was simplistic and effective, leading us to taking inspiration from the layout. The simple white on black text and three-tone colour scheme was something that we like as it wasn't overly dramatic and commercialized. Similarly we also did this, yet we had a simpler font that seemed to represent our indie artist more then a pop icon.

Our next step was to research a relevant record label and magazine to feature in. We decided upon NME, which hosts a range of music genres, and Atlantic Records, which signs the likes of Ed Sheeran. Their logos were then placed on the advert to make it more professional and realistic.

Diary Entry 29

We are filming tonight our re-shoot for performance. This will be at our first location in a friends house, yet this time we are moving furniture around to fit into our video rather then the other way round. We will also be doing a photo shoot for our digipack in the same location. After researching a range of different positions and poses for our photo shoot we are going to try a few and see what looks best.  

Today's lesson was dedicated to our advert, which will be completed with our photoshoot tonight and the completion of our digipack.

Diary Entry 28

Today we carried on planning our advert as we have no new footage to edit. At first we were worried that we wouldn't have enough time to edit our footage, but after planning when and how long we would edit we realised we should be on target as long as we put in the extra work. 

After looking at more music videos to analyse performance, we considered a second location for our singer, however after discussing what it would look like, we decided that it would be best to restrict it to one location. This gives us more opportunity to perfect our shots and make it as classy as possible. The second location could have worked if we had more time to plan and would give more variation for such a slow song. However, it would have been easier to make this fit into our video if we planned it in our rough cut, rather then our final cut.

Micheal Shore

Micheal Shore concludes that music videos often use stereotypical views, and overload a video with information. For example, to appeal to a male audience, producers often use attractive girls and fast cars. Despite this, we do not want our video to be too obvious and brash. We do use the stereotypical image, of teenage girls being unhappy and under pressure to look a certain way, however this isn't overworked in the video. We decided to concentrate more on the girls' personal problems, and her isolation in them, rather then a general pressure for all teenage girls. 

Diary Entry 27

Today was dedicated to creating a draft for our advert. After talking together as a group and with the teacher, we decided that our new performance footage, despite being more thought about, was not as good as our first shoots. This has lead to us deciding that we will re-shoot in the first location but change the position of furniture, mainly the piano. This will be moved into the center of the room, which will imitate  previous music videos we have looked at. 

When developing our advert, we have went back and looked at more from established artists to gain a better knowledge on  what would work for us. We decided that it would we should download a particular font to create the image we want, as well as making sure the advert is not too cluttered with information. 

Sven E Carlsson

When looking at Sven E Carlssons theory of performance vs conceptual categories for  a music video, we felt that ours fell into the conceptual side. This was because when viewing our rough cut, our audience had different interpretations of certain scenes, in particular the ending. Our concept is simply a girl who felt the pressure of a certain appearance, suffering from  and eating disorder. However her illness isn't specified and is subtly implied. Our performance, is loosely connected to our narrative, depending on how the audience interprets the video. I think as a group, we enjoy making a conceptual video more then we would a performance, as we feel more emotional attachment and involvement to the idea.

Diary Entry 26

Today we are editing our performance in Premiere and editing logo development feedback. This feedback will eventually lead us to our digipack and advert. As for editing our performance, we have found that we may have to film some more shots again, mas we tried to do some handheld scenes which worked well for some shots but not all. As well as that we didn't quite get as much footage as we wanted as we only had a limited time with the camera that night. 

Targets and Plans

We came up with a plan for everything we need to do to complete our project and a time frame for each action. This will be useful to keep us on track and complete everything we need to for a successful project.

•           Go through rough cut and decide what is and isn’t being kept for the final cut        (2 lessons)
•           Edit new performance footage and put it in the video                                     (2 lessons)
•           Convert new narrative footage and edit in Premier                                         (every lesson after it has been shot)
•           Work on the digi pack and advert                                                                       (every lesson)
•           Get feedback on all new parts of the project from our target audience                  (every few days, or once a week)

Diary Entry 25

Today we created a 20 day plan, to organise our remaining time on the project. This consisted of taking new footage, creating a professional digipack and advert. This lesson we are going through our video to decide what is and isn't being used in our final cut. We need to plan for our narrative filming as we have got our performance out of the way we have less to concentrate on. Now we have a plan for the next few days which will help us make better use our time. 

Diary Entry 24

Over the holidays, our filming did not go to plan. This was mainly due to not organizing our actors for the planned days. We need to think about our narrative more and develop specific scenes that do not seem right within the video. From our audience feedback watching our rough cut, particular scenes such as getting chocolate out of the fridge didn't look very professional, something we realised as a group and were also not happy with. Another aspect that we need to develop is the ending. This raised much debate as to what it represented, however we decided it would be better to let the audience see what they wanted to see. Despite this we need to reshoot the end, to improve lighting and to stop it from looking like a a advert from counselling. 

We decided that the best plan of action to get a suitable ending, is to do a few i find from our audience which is the best.