Ancillary Task - Digipak Charley Photographs
As I do not need photographs of both of my actors together for the digipak ancillary task; it has become much easier to attain these photographs. I, therefore, today took the required photos with Charley - my main female actress - to then supplement them with Dave's when I can. A video of the photos can be found below, with the larger images provided:
Ancillary Task - Digipak design
In preparation for my new digipak design, I have created a flat plan of the main image that will feature on the front of the pack. The ovals are the characters holding polaroid images and these will alternate between the artist and his partner. I will alter the position of the actor so that the product looks more interesting and less repetitive.
Theory Application: Dyer's Star theory
"A star is a construct of the industry it pertains to, not a real person." - Richard Dyer
This is the idea first proposed by Richard Dyer, the English Specialist who proposed ideas about cinema, though his concepts apply incredibly well to the ideas of Music videos. The majority of successful music videos feature a subject performing the song the video is for. A further internal majority of these use a famous or well-known subject to complete this function or at least act in the video.
Essentially, people are complex. They are the perfect choice for the producer who wants to form an emotional connection between character and audience, but they are very difficult for the producer who is designing for the mass market. By selecting a well known actor to not act, but appear in the video, they achieve that cross-media convergence through synergy that mutually benefits both industries.
This is extremely general, however, as this isn't always the case. The producer of 'I Want Love' by Elton John, for instance, created the perfect balance as his choice of actor is impeccable, bettering the overall effect. The examples above are the more successful uses of stars, but often they are simply included to raise the reputation of the video. To work this way, I deeply considered involving the original artist of my music video, but the logistics were incredibly difficult. The opening scene - now another actor smoking and walking away form the function hall - was originally planned to be acted by the artist where I would contact him and ask for him to film it. Directing from so far away, however, would have been difficult and the result would not have been my own.
The theory further, predominantly applies to the exploitation of people to create images for the audience to enjoy or aspire to and ultimately dehumanises the subject. The main identifier for the occurrence of this is when artists become less-linked to their original medium. For example, Cheryl Cole started as a singer in a pop group and this was her identity. Quickly, however, she branched into other areas where she became a reality TV judge, product advertiser - needless to mention tabloid scandal. Her audience became more focused on her personal life and other exploits that music almost takes a side-line. This is, however, not at all to the detriment of her music career, but benefits her. Stars begin to profit from their status and audiences support their music not fir its quality, but their loyalty to them. This is so much more of a benefit to the industry as they have many stars to their disposal and can exploit them how they wish.
This is extremely general, however, as this isn't always the case. The producer of 'I Want Love' by Elton John, for instance, created the perfect balance as his choice of actor is impeccable, bettering the overall effect. The examples above are the more successful uses of stars, but often they are simply included to raise the reputation of the video. To work this way, I deeply considered involving the original artist of my music video, but the logistics were incredibly difficult. The opening scene - now another actor smoking and walking away form the function hall - was originally planned to be acted by the artist where I would contact him and ask for him to film it. Directing from so far away, however, would have been difficult and the result would not have been my own.
The theory further, predominantly applies to the exploitation of people to create images for the audience to enjoy or aspire to and ultimately dehumanises the subject. The main identifier for the occurrence of this is when artists become less-linked to their original medium. For example, Cheryl Cole started as a singer in a pop group and this was her identity. Quickly, however, she branched into other areas where she became a reality TV judge, product advertiser - needless to mention tabloid scandal. Her audience became more focused on her personal life and other exploits that music almost takes a side-line. This is, however, not at all to the detriment of her music career, but benefits her. Stars begin to profit from their status and audiences support their music not fir its quality, but their loyalty to them. This is so much more of a benefit to the industry as they have many stars to their disposal and can exploit them how they wish.Ancillary Task - Further Digipak research
The second product is the fully online Reflections album. The album artwork is available entirely online to download and print. It can further be folded and assembled without glue or scissors. This raw, resourceful product would be perfect for my needs as it fits the theme of my project. I made a good majority of my previous design choices to work alongside this raw, acoustic feel and I feel an addition such as this would work great so that is the template I shall be basing my ancillary on. Below is a video that Brett Domino released for the folding of the artwork which would be a nice further project to facilitate the production were it a profitable business.From Brett Dominos design, I have produced my own template to work from.
All I Wanted Music Video - Draft
Below is the first draft of my music video. The draft is incomplete, but it is a basis to work by and to tweak as I complete the project. My next draft shall be complete and the upload after that will be my final product.
Shooting Plans
Unfortunately, I have had some issues contacting and organising dates with Rubix, my location, due to absences and a breakdown in communication. To resolve this, I decided the best tactic would be to visit the Manager during trade hours to ascertain a date that I could use the location for the remainder of my time. Upon visiting the Manager, it became clear he had agreed a date for me to use the location with a subordinate which hadn't been relayed yet, which meant there was little difficulty securing the date.
Concurrently, it was necessary to organise a second video shoot for the scenes that are not set in the night club, which was much easier to do as the location is my own home. This shoot will take place first, so that the final shoot will be in the night club and all of my footage will be complete.
Finally, I completed a shoot for the opening scene of my production the other day where I used my Dad, who featured in my AS production. After the shoot in Rubix, hopefully all of my raw footage should be available and I can complete the production.
Concurrently, it was necessary to organise a second video shoot for the scenes that are not set in the night club, which was much easier to do as the location is my own home. This shoot will take place first, so that the final shoot will be in the night club and all of my footage will be complete.
Finally, I completed a shoot for the opening scene of my production the other day where I used my Dad, who featured in my AS production. After the shoot in Rubix, hopefully all of my raw footage should be available and I can complete the production.
Paper Elements
The next stage of ancillary design was compiling textures to use in them. To do this, I made my own so that the textures were exactly how I wanted them and, to another vein, free. I placed the paper on a purple background so that the background could be more easily removed to reveal the alpha channel.
When keying out the background, it is extremely important to keep a uniform colour across the frame so that the tolerance needs to be a low as possible. To achieve a better result, I used extra lighting other than my flash to cover the page. The piece at the top of the page is for the navigation bar at the header of the website, where the central piece is a love heart that, when scrolled, will align as one piece and then scroll away from each other as the user moves on. The other pieces are select tears that I wish to use throughout the site or on the digipak. The final sheet with a single piece is for the About section on my website where it will serve as the background.
When keying out the background, it is extremely important to keep a uniform colour across the frame so that the tolerance needs to be a low as possible. To achieve a better result, I used extra lighting other than my flash to cover the page. The piece at the top of the page is for the navigation bar at the header of the website, where the central piece is a love heart that, when scrolled, will align as one piece and then scroll away from each other as the user moves on. The other pieces are select tears that I wish to use throughout the site or on the digipak. The final sheet with a single piece is for the About section on my website where it will serve as the background.
Artist Logo
An important element of my ancillary tasks - and my main task should I choose to include it - is the artist logo. This reveals the identity of the artist and, in most cases, becomes the one image a fan or even anyone can look at and immediately know the artist.
Logos vary immensely; I carried out a small amount of research before beginning the task, but only to grasp an idea of what has been done as it is important that they remain original. I then began mocking designs, playing with the artists name, Daniel Lewandowski, to find a structure for his name:
After this, I worked on my first draft. This design involved a crumpled piece of paper - in-keeping with my website - that the text was formed to. To achieve this result, I used a displacement map in photoshop. This involved altering the contrast and brightness of the background image to make the contours much more obvious. The map is then applied to the text which then forms itself to the paper and appears to be written on it. This process created:
The second design involved the inclusion of a Polaroid picture background with a signature caption for a bit more personality as the first design wasn't overly complex or revealing of the artist/brand. The font I used was Jellyka Saint Andrews Queen as it caught my eye as a very detailed, personal font that could be mistaken as true handwriting, which is rare. Utilising the way the font alters characters to drawn images, I added some extra characters for decoration:
I really like this logo as it feels like it contains all of the elements I wanted and serves as a memorable brand identity. Finally, I put the logos up for a vote amongst my peers to ascertain which was the best when my audience was concerned. Luckily, the final logo reined as champion and I agreed with my demographic. This design, therefore, will be the logo I will use in my tasks.
Logos vary immensely; I carried out a small amount of research before beginning the task, but only to grasp an idea of what has been done as it is important that they remain original. I then began mocking designs, playing with the artists name, Daniel Lewandowski, to find a structure for his name:
Once I had done this initial planning, I moved on to experimenting in Photoshop. I had already formed the idea of what I wanted to create so it was up to following my plans from here. The most important element of all of my designs was the specific way in which I designed the lettering so the first port of call was to create that. My favourite, san-serif font is Helvetica and the slightest version of this is Helvetica Neue Ultralight so that was the end choice. The font needed a fair bit of editing, however, so I converted the letters to paths in photoshop and reshaped them until they resembled what I wanted. The image to the left is the original font where the right image is the final result:
After this, I worked on my first draft. This design involved a crumpled piece of paper - in-keeping with my website - that the text was formed to. To achieve this result, I used a displacement map in photoshop. This involved altering the contrast and brightness of the background image to make the contours much more obvious. The map is then applied to the text which then forms itself to the paper and appears to be written on it. This process created:
Logo 1
The second design involved the inclusion of a Polaroid picture background with a signature caption for a bit more personality as the first design wasn't overly complex or revealing of the artist/brand. The font I used was Jellyka Saint Andrews Queen as it caught my eye as a very detailed, personal font that could be mistaken as true handwriting, which is rare. Utilising the way the font alters characters to drawn images, I added some extra characters for decoration:
Logo 2
The design didn't look quite right to me and I even asked for feedback too, which a final idea flourished. I offered up the idea of a background image that was slightly blurred so as not to take away from the logo, but add colour and more of a persona. The logo then became:
Logo 3
I really like this logo as it feels like it contains all of the elements I wanted and serves as a memorable brand identity. Finally, I put the logos up for a vote amongst my peers to ascertain which was the best when my audience was concerned. Luckily, the final logo reined as champion and I agreed with my demographic. This design, therefore, will be the logo I will use in my tasks.Website Plan
Due to the complexity of my ideas, it was important to have a fully fledged website plan before I began work on compiling it. This needed to be drawn by hand as it offers the most versatility when considering ideas and trying out options. The finished design is below and I shall be working closely to it in the final site:
Ancillary Task Research - Website Home Page
Concurrent with my Digipak research, I am carrying out research into Artist websites so that I can create a website conventional to these. After a little research, however, I wasn't incredibly impressed with a great number of the designs so I am also carrying out research into other websites to take inspiration from and form ideas to merge with the band's website. A feature I really liked, however, from Jake Bugg's website is the rolling video background which includes all of his music videos and some promotional films. This means the user can navigate his site while experiencing his content, creating an incredibly effective promotional site. I will most probably be using the HTML5 code here for this feature:
As there isn't much content on the first page, though, I plan to merge this idea with the current structure of the Spotify website where images and backgrounds scroll and differing speeds which heightens interactivity and makes information transfer more efficient:
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| www.JakeBugg.com |
After some further research, I found that the effect seen above is known as the Parallax Scrolling effect and can be achieved a number of different ways. As this is definitely my favoured idea, I have looked into certain source code and tutorials for creation; one of which, I found at www.GitHub.com and offers all of the code needed for including videos, backgrounds, sprites and text which covers everything I would need. This idea allows for a great deal of band promotion as images feature very heavily. I can take a number of photographs on our shoots to satisfy this.
Another artist site that I think looks appealing is Tom Milsom's. The main feature that makes similar web pages lose appeal seems to be the over saturation of tour dates and the lack of organisation with these. Milsom's page isn't like this, but Like Bugg's has little content so any inspiration taken would have to be combined with others. The photography is very nice, however, so I can draw from this:
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www.TomMilsom.com In addition, I want to create a raw theme by including elements such as ripped paper backgrounds to lay titles over which I would create myself as quality stock photos of this are rare:  |
Ancillary Task Research - Digipak
As part of my end project, I am to create an accompanying Digipak and Webpage as ancillary tasks. The first I shall be working on is the Digipak, though before designing a concept for my own, I would like to look into preexisting Digipaks to replicate the conventions and to create a successful design that looks professional and legitimate. Below, therefore, I will be including a number of album artworks and Digipaks with analysis:
I really like the Tom Odell - Long Way Down album as it's simple and incorporates the widely used, but little perfected white on a light photograph, while still visible. The image is the entire album cover, however, which would be illfitted for the project due to the lack of skill showcasing. The depth of field is particularly effective with the focus purely on the model which looks very nice. This, I could incorporate in my final product as it's very minimalist, but technical.
The back cover is quite contrapuntal to the front; where the front has a soft focus depth of field, the back is more gritty though I like this. There is a synergy between the two covers with the second use of the model. Though his features aren't visible, his clothing is recognisable and forms a link between the two. The track list uses the same bold font, which is quite effective.
This is an alternative Tom Odell cover for an EP, but I feel it's very effective and shows a great deal of photographic skill and editing. The san serif, blocky typography seems quite conventional of this style of music so that could be something to think about. I like the fish eye lens use, but it would be very iconic of this album cover if I were to do the same.
The self-titled, Jake Bugg album is again very simple, but in my opinion it looks very nice. The raised contrast and desaturation shows a competence with graphic manipulation, but photography clearly shows the decision making process undergone. The model is arched forward, which leaves sufficient space for the title behind his head. The cropping also slightly takes the edge off of his hair line which is obviously intentional, it shows how the record challenges uniformity and polish.
Very much like the Tom Odell artwork, this cover reuses the model in the same clothing to create synergy. The perspective created by the street is very nice and connotes such things as journeying and moving on which seems to be the mantra of the album.
Edd Plant's Confidence Tricks skillfully shows how an image can be removed from the background and the backdrop can be manipulated. Having rendered clouds, the producer has introduced some interesting flourishes in red and black which connote playing cards and therefore back up the album's title. Card names such as the Ace of Hearts also feature which furthers this. The choice of props and clothing is also in keeping. The font, however, is quite common and therefore doesn't look as great as it could. I may take inspiration from this cover, but the font will be considered deeply and I will ensure to not use a famous, common one.
This album is particularly good because it showcases an extremely good set of editing skills. The photograph has been manipulated such that it now resembles a cartoon wth only two tones (for half of he image). The, then, introduction of a red pop art style gradient, really makes the art work pop out which would be the producer's intention. Logo wise, the incorporation of both names as one looks very nice and will clearly be memorable. The back cover continues the pop art style which I think looks really nice and achieves a great look while not overly difficult to reproduce. Again, the font is san serif and, in this case, entirely capitalised which is bold and iconic of the punky genre. The convention holds for more than punk, however, evidenced by the previous two album arts. The disc, which seems to be the same for most, merely continues the theme in terms of colour and logos or is fairly bare and quite minimalistic, such as the Jake Bugg disc.
Erase This by Alan Lastufka and Luke Conard is one of my favourite album covers. The abstract nature of the record really shines through with the paper design and title orientation. I am a real fan of the model being removed from their original background such as this and Confidence Tricks; I just need to be aware that making the image then look really nice will need some working. I also like the raw style overlay that has been used to merge the model with her background which is something I may attempt to use.
- The thematic design shows that digipaks must be a cohesive product where the designs of each face follow through the end result.
- The printing on the disk is similar to an image on another face which increases the cohesion.
- Minimalist design with a nicely framed, simple image of the artist, accompanied by typography.
- Information on the inside cover
I really like the Tom Odell - Long Way Down album as it's simple and incorporates the widely used, but little perfected white on a light photograph, while still visible. The image is the entire album cover, however, which would be illfitted for the project due to the lack of skill showcasing. The depth of field is particularly effective with the focus purely on the model which looks very nice. This, I could incorporate in my final product as it's very minimalist, but technical.
The back cover is quite contrapuntal to the front; where the front has a soft focus depth of field, the back is more gritty though I like this. There is a synergy between the two covers with the second use of the model. Though his features aren't visible, his clothing is recognisable and forms a link between the two. The track list uses the same bold font, which is quite effective.
Very much like the Tom Odell artwork, this cover reuses the model in the same clothing to create synergy. The perspective created by the street is very nice and connotes such things as journeying and moving on which seems to be the mantra of the album.
Edd Plant's Confidence Tricks skillfully shows how an image can be removed from the background and the backdrop can be manipulated. Having rendered clouds, the producer has introduced some interesting flourishes in red and black which connote playing cards and therefore back up the album's title. Card names such as the Ace of Hearts also feature which furthers this. The choice of props and clothing is also in keeping. The font, however, is quite common and therefore doesn't look as great as it could. I may take inspiration from this cover, but the font will be considered deeply and I will ensure to not use a famous, common one.
This album is particularly good because it showcases an extremely good set of editing skills. The photograph has been manipulated such that it now resembles a cartoon wth only two tones (for half of he image). The, then, introduction of a red pop art style gradient, really makes the art work pop out which would be the producer's intention. Logo wise, the incorporation of both names as one looks very nice and will clearly be memorable. The back cover continues the pop art style which I think looks really nice and achieves a great look while not overly difficult to reproduce. Again, the font is san serif and, in this case, entirely capitalised which is bold and iconic of the punky genre. The convention holds for more than punk, however, evidenced by the previous two album arts. The disc, which seems to be the same for most, merely continues the theme in terms of colour and logos or is fairly bare and quite minimalistic, such as the Jake Bugg disc.
Green Screening and Rotoscoping
As part of my initial first video shoot, I incorporated a green screened shot which meant I could securely film my action without the shake or risk of being in a moving car. To embellish the chromakeyed area, I rotoscoped masks over the window behind the actress - having to form a mask around her facial features.
Due to the complex movements she made, tweening the keyframes was not 100% effective so I manually altered it for every frame of the 6 second clip which amassed to over 150 separate frames. The end result does look professional and I'm very proud of the effect it produces. After changing my actors, however, and after receiving feedback from peers, I have decided not to use green screen for the refilming of the scene or for subsequent shots. The process if very time consuming and I do believe the achieved result may not be worth the time it will take away from the projects schedule.
Actor Change
I have lost a small amount of footage due to this change, but my time has been saved in the long term and I don't begrudge having changed.
Song Tutorial
As part of my production, I needed to learn the song to perform it in the music video on the guitar. As I was working with an unsigned artist, I asked them if they could write the chords down for me to work out the rest of the song. Not expecting much more than this, I was surprised when Daniel Lewandowski (the artist) sent me an email with the following YouTube videos attached. In the videos, Daniel aimed to teach me step by step the exact way he plays the song which ultimately lead to me having a greater understanding of the song than I could ever have had with the mere chords or tablature.
Scheduling Difficulty
As I am working with a venue which can only offer me restricted times to film and actors, some with full time work commitments, it has been incredibly difficult to organise when I can film scenes. The first film shoot was only possible when it was completed due to surplus time during pre-booked holidays which were not especially for production. I have now secured an appointment to discuss suitable days to film, though I have been informed that the least busy periods are Mondays and Wednesdays in the day. This could be a potential problem as my female actor works 9 till 5 every day where my male actor begins work at 5 o'clock, which leaves no time for filming their joint scenes. I will have to enquire about other times where the room may be available for a short amount of time where I can film the shots that involve both actors. Luckily, the actor I need for most of the production, is available most of the day. Permission for Venue
Concerning Café Con Leche, which I enquired about using as the venue for my Music Video, I have heard back from them and been granted permission to use the premises on a Monday or Wednesday afternoon; their least busy periods. I have also received permission from my teachers to use my lessons for filming in the venue, though I have decided that the best plan is to use my half term holidays; as my school operates a different system than most half terms so the venue will still be free and I will have the whole day to prepare and complete the filming without the need to go to school.
Audience Feedback on Initial Footage
After filming, I decided to ask some of my colleagues what they thought of the footage to receive some feedback on what I had done and what they felt I should do for future shots. Asking three colleagues and one of my teachers, I received a varied range of comments on my shots. Below are some of the screenshots I used in the initial footage recount with comments from them:
Shot 34
Colleague 3: "This shot works well and, having seen the edited footage already, it works really well, but I would advise you use green screen as little as possible from here on out because removing the undesired elements is a lot of work."
Teacher: "The movement is nice and smooth which utilises your dolly well."
Shot 34.5
Colleague 2: "Like Colleague 3 said, the green screen does still look good, but it is obviously a lot of work which could be avoided. If you were planning again, it may have been better to film with an actual background though steadiness is compromised."
Shot 37
Colleague 1: "I really like this shot, though the focus could be slightly sharper; the emotion really shines through."
Teacher: "The closeness to the character and his sheer emotion is almost eery - I feel your choice of actor was well done as they have really committed themselves to the performance."
Shot 49
Teacher: "Using steadicam, you have followed the character well which was your intention - the turn could be longer though due to that the shot doesn't last too long."
Shot 25
Colleague 1: "I think you did the right thing, by swapping characters; the driver storming off and throwing the keys to indicate she wants to leave seems more believable than the one who is not driving leaving and having to wait for the driver anyway."
Colleague 2: "The framing works well, and you did well to re-imagine it after the initial frame didn't work.
Shot 26
Teacher: "The focus on the keys is very nice and it is clear you did this before starting the scene."
Shot 34
Colleague 3: "This shot works well and, having seen the edited footage already, it works really well, but I would advise you use green screen as little as possible from here on out because removing the undesired elements is a lot of work."
Teacher: "The movement is nice and smooth which utilises your dolly well."
Shot 34.5
Colleague 2: "Like Colleague 3 said, the green screen does still look good, but it is obviously a lot of work which could be avoided. If you were planning again, it may have been better to film with an actual background though steadiness is compromised."
Shot 37
Colleague 1: "I really like this shot, though the focus could be slightly sharper; the emotion really shines through."
Teacher: "The closeness to the character and his sheer emotion is almost eery - I feel your choice of actor was well done as they have really committed themselves to the performance."
Shot 49
Teacher: "Using steadicam, you have followed the character well which was your intention - the turn could be longer though due to that the shot doesn't last too long."
Recount of First Video Shoot
The first video shoot was to complete all of the external and non-venue location scenes so that the main focus is to secure the venue shots when I have received confirmation of a location. As the filming involved only a few scenes and was my first shoot, I want to evaluate the work shot by shot below, detailing changes I made in production and how they will benefit me in the long run. Unfortunately, due to the sheer mass of shots that will be filmed on location, I won't be able to be as detailed with every shot, but will ensure all changes are noted for exposition on either my blog or overall evaluation. Shot 35 and 39 were omitted in filming as I decided they were unneeded.
The above is evidence of the most adventurous shot of the day; I will delve further in evaluating it when I reach it below, but it required the use of a green screen, two actors and a camera dolly. This will then be post-produced to give the effect that the car is moving.
Shot 25
This shot needed to be precisely framed, though once it was it looked very nice. When I conceptualised the shot, I did not anticipate how the reflections would work, but the overall idea was clear. I also decided that the scene would flow easier if I swapped the two characters around which was decided on the shoot.
Shot 26
This shot worked as expected, I focused the lens with the keys in shot to begin with to perfect it, before removing them to begin filming. I am glad the keys weren't entirely central as the shot then looks less set up.
Shot 27
As it was a tracking shot, this took a few takes, but worked as expected so didn't take any longer than needed. I like the framing and focus of the shot - offering a close mid shot which reveals the emotion of the actor.
Shot 34
Having begun the chroma key aspect of this shot, editing out the green and background of the car, the shot is proving very effective. The process does, however take a very long time requiring rotoscoping and keying. Any remaining green edges are also removed when I desaturate the video in post production.
Shot 34.5
This shot also was difficult to rotoscope as there are green reflections on the actors hair, though after rotoscoping and post production it looks realistic and serves it's purpose.
Shot 36
Again, taking a couple takes to ensure the shot was correct, I like the final shot and an unplanned element which is the shake of the camera as the door slams is really effective, i feel.Shot 37 & 38
Directing the actor slightly differently from the storyboard, I chose not to have the actor leaning forward which effects the timing of the following shot which will now be a slightly zoomed version of the same footage.
Shot 49 & 50
The content of this shot is slightly different though the effect is the same; rather than a barge of the shoulder I have the male character calling after the female who turns and then walks on as if to 'snub' him. The next shot is a reverse shot to show the male characters reaction and I feel this shows well. I would, however, like to lower the lighting in post production so it is not so glaring.
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