Ancillary Task Edit Decisions

Much like with my Music Video, I decided it was necessary to produce an edit decisions document for my ancillary tasks. The following document shows these decisions:

Ancillary Task: Website Final

Click the image to view the site

Here is my finished website. The production was a very long, drawn out process that was constantly a work in progress, so the drafting process was very much ongoing as opposed to one draft and a final product. The flat plan in a previous post, I would consider a draft as it is very detailed and contains some elements such as individual parallax scrolling images that I omitted.

Unfortunately, due to the complex elements involved, the site is not compatible with all older browsers and would require an updated browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari or a newer version of Internet Explorer.

Most people have an updated browser, anyway, so this is not much of an issue.

Ancillary Task: Digipak Draft and Final

To successfully produce my Digipak, I felt it necessary to produce a draft of the digipak which leaves room for improvement. There is, however, very little difference to the final article as I wanted to gain feedback from colleagues and to reflect on it myself. Below is the draft for my digipak:

The digipak, I felt needed a few extra elements, which are listed below with the final copy:

• Removal of logo on the front cover and placing it on the back
• Inclusion of a QR code on the back
• Addition of a train ticket on the back cover to connote memories and someone moving away
• Artist name/signature included on the fold over flaps

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.

Ancillary Task - Further Digipak research

Upon further research into digipaks, I found a very interesting band who are incredibly innovative in their artwork production. The Brett Domino Trio are very well known around the internet, where they began on You Tube. Unsigned, self-funder artists find it difficult to produce music as it is an incredibly costly process. Brett Domino have used this to their advantage, however, as they have produced two products that revolutionises physical media, bonding a connection with the digital distribution service. Their first product was the 'Songs off You Tube' digipak which literally was just the digipak itself with a blank printed disc. The buyer would then burn the album onto the disc which saved money for both them and Brett Domino. By producing the product this way, Brett Domino cut out the middle man of CD production and created a querky, never before seen product.

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.

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.

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:

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:

www.JakeBugg.com

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:

www.Spotify.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:

www.TomMilsom.com

The example to the left is of Joshua Radin's site, which overuses dates and is of a blog style. I want to avoid both of these to produce a smart, original site. The dates make the site very bloated and clunky which is unattractive. The blog form is also very unoriginal and so wouldn't be impressive at all.

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:

• 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.

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.

Camera Difficulty

Not only for this project, but to have my own high quality, professional device for filming future projects and taking still images, I decided to upgrade my camera. I previously had the Canon EOS 1100D which was used for my AS Level Media film, but does not provide the same film quality as the more advanced models. As a replacement, I decided to purchase the Canon EOS 650D, which is the cheapest model which offers 1080p video recording, but still has a similar ISO range. 

Unfortunately, however, the company I 'purchased' the camera from was illegitimate and there were hidden costs which I was not notified of before purchasing. Cancelling this order, I then had to work extremely hard to retrieve my money as a refund, resorting finally to claiming through PayPal due to the difficulty the company posed. 

Once the money came through from PayPal, I decided to find a reputable, high street company to purchase the camera from which posed another problem. Most stockists do not offer the 650D, though they do offer other models. I, therefore, began to look at the 60D which is a fair few models up from the 650D, let alone the 1100D and provides a much higher quality of video and stills. It also supports a greater range of features which are well worth the extra price. I, therefore, knowing should I order this I would never need another camera, opted for the 60D.

Now that I have the camera, I can begin filming which has kept me behind slightly.

Equipment Choice

To achieve the greatest quality of production, I have realised that production equipment can not be skimped on and the better the quality of these, the more professional my project will be overall. As the purchase of a camera will eventually help for my work in University and will be useful for recreational activities, I decided to upgrade. Selling my Canon EOS 1100D which is Canon's beginners camera, I initially decided on a 650D which is a couple of models up, but essentially the same with 1080p video recording. As I found it on offer, however, and it essentially means I will never need to buy another upgrade, I opted for the Canon EOS 60D which supports 1080p video and also sports a much wider range of ISO and array of features unavailable on other cameras. 


Alongside this, I am using the tripod I used for my AS Production which is very lightweight, but sturdy so can be used for stable shots, but is portable enough for stabilised, handy cam shots. 

On top of these two, essential pieces of equipment, there are a number of specialist implements I plan to use which will embellish and accentuate my project perfectly, adding that desired professional feel. These include the Camera Crane I have already featured a post on and a soft box of my own design and build. Below are a few pictures of the process and explanation of it's components.
Soft Box

The soft box consists of:

• Clamp light
• White sheet
• Cardboard box
• Tinfoil
• Stand

Forming a small, lidless box out of larger sheets of cardboard, I began the softbox. I then measured the circumference of the clamp light so that it could be mounted in the box' back. 

Firstly, I placed the white sheet over the cardboard at this time, but the light did not reflect enough around the box and was too central (left). To remedy this, I decided to line the box with tinfoil which works by bouncing the light around the box and then through the dampening sheet. 

With this lining, the light spreads much better and it can even be used without the sheet as a powerful 'flood' light should my setting be dark enough for it. This is a very cheap, but effective way of achieving a well lit scene and it should help a lot for production. As the light bulb is a tungsten, indoor bulb I may have to alter the white balance on my camera for the scenes I involve this in - especially if it will be the main source of light for the shots.

Action Plans

To ensure I make my project efficiently, I made an action plan for research. Some tasks I want to produce simultaneously so I have produced the plan in layers. Below, I have produced the same for my actual production work, which will help me stick to deadlines.

Research

Video Production

Ancillary Production