Album Cover

this is our final idea for our album cover, it very sleek and simple with the use of the all caps lock and similar font link all the titles together. The dashes draw the eye instantly into the artisits name as it is at the start of the 'zed effect' as the eyes of the audience draw a 'z' shape on the image and by also adding the dashes either side it makes the audience look at it for longer.
The colouring of the image is very light and warm, the composition work well on the page, the audience can clearly see the narrative of how this artist is using the character on the image into his music. The balloons again represents the main logo of the artist, and again having the link between the print products and the music video making it a iconic image for this artist, the two balloons represent both her love and her partners love that is shown throughout the video. It looks as if the girl is looking out into the horizon which signifies she is reflecting and the fact the album title "the root of memories" is placed out into the different suggests she is looing onto these memories.
The colours on the image contrast against each other the light and warm colours of the scenery aginst the blues and the reds the character and the props are make each of the colours on the image stand out.

Rough Copy

this is the rough copy for our music video, this has been delayed due to weather problems and editing problems that have occurred through the course of this project. I believe that the narrative of the video and the sound and lyrics of the song fit perfectly with each other as both the video and the song are slow and represent a lonely and broken person.
The contrast in colours of the the black and white and colour video shots work well with each other, we have used the black and white for the beach scenes to emphasise the loneliness and isolation of the character that is playing in the music video. I think the strongest part of our music video is the coloured shots the effect of the colouring on the shots work well with the home videoing effect we wanted to perceive to the audience, and implies that these are past videos as they look old and again contrasting the happiness and brightness of these shots against the black and white highlight that this character is looking back on a relationship she once had and remembering how happy she was with this person compared to how she is now.
We have used alot of the typical conventions of indie pop music videos by using natural scenery and I think the beach location signifies to the audience the genre of music this is in and also has a unique feeling as this is not typically used in the research we have seen in this genre of music videos. The slow movements of the waves and the sailing boats add a calm atmosphere which the music presents as well.
In this rough copy some of the shots of the black and white with the red balloon 'leave colour' effect hasn't worked but with the help of James Corker he has used a more effective technique to show the redness of the balloon by making it more realistic.
I think the music works well with the clips, the part that works well is when the music pace is quicker (1.47-1.58) and the clips become more shorter and snappy, I like the part where we have split the part of the main character in the video running, as it fits well with the fast pace and the running emphases the song picking up. I also like the fact when the character jumps the music starts picking up, the shot beforehand is fun with the two characters playing around which suggests the fast pace nature of the song can present her looking at the fun memories as all the shots we have used are happy and the characters look like they are enjoying each others company which makes the music pick up as it is quite joyful and fun as well, making the audience see the relationship she once had with this boy and why she is so unhappy in the black and white clips.
The shots (0.11- 0.15) work well as it reminds the audience that she is alone and has left this relationship as before they see her walking hand in hand with her partner and then suddenly reality she is alone walking on the beach which represents the narrative of what we are trying to show the audience through the character.
The beginning of the clip works well, the few seconds of silence almost set the tone for the music video as the audience automatically see the black and white colouring of the scenery set the narrative of a sad song, again the natural and outdoor setting is typical in indie pop genre so the audience can tell this music song/video is going to be about love as during the research the songs in this genre were typically love songs.

When making our final project we need to make sure that there is a clear narrative and the audience understand that this character is looking back and that her partner that is shown in the music video has left her and this is why she is on the beach reminiscing into these memories. Also we need to add transitions making the cuts between each shot cleaner and add an effect that em phasing that she is looking back on the memories as at the moment we have simply used jump cuts.

poster

the main focus of the poster is the artist, the writing over the top of the image makes both the title and image stand out. The dark surroundings contrast with the white font which again makes it eye catching as both the surroundings and what the artist is wearing are dark and dull colours. The 'Ben Howard' name is bold and is similar to the artist album making all the media products link together making it more of a brand for the album, artist and poster. Which I think we need to use within our products by making sure we use the same text to make it iconic for our artist and make the audience easily link the products together.

As we dont have an image of the artist that is singing our song we can't use an picture of the artist however because of the image we are using for our album cover it is eye catching and striking with the use of the beach scenery- which links with our music video, again we can use a similar image to make the easy links within the print products and the music video. This idea is shown in other artists posters like Ellie Goulding who uses similar images she has done in her digipak which is what we are doing within our product.

both of the poster use natural light especially the second poster, the first poster has used the same text and image for the album cover and poster which makes it an iconic image for this album 'lights' as well as the artist, which shows that we could use the same image as we have done for our album cover for our poster as well to make it an easy link and noticable image for audience to associate the artist with. The writing on the posters are very important, they all stand out on the page because of the contrast in typographycompared with the background, but still keeping within the font type of the album and digipak that will be used.

Call Sheet

Time to Meet	9:20 am.
Location to meet	Sixth Form Common Room
Location	Framwellgate
Description of Location	We are going to be using a long field, so we can highlight the depth of the freedom the couple had whilst being in a relationship. The field is isolated away, and is very basic which is all we wanted for these scenes.
Group	Ellie Snowdon, Sarah Hewitt, Kelly Senior and Catherine Kirk.
Characters	Catherine Kirk, playing the female in the music video and Ryan Hawkins playing the male lover.
Props	We dont need any probs for these scenes of footage.
Special instructions	Come prepeared even though the weather is supposed to be a little sunny, bring warm clothes just in case the actors have to stand around for a while. Toilets are nearby.

Album Cover Ideas

 

these are some other ideas of what we are thinking of using for our album cover, because the image is high quality we dont want to divert the attention from the image as it basically sums up our whole music video and song as an image.

By having the titles in the top left hand corner the audience instantly looks at it as the eye automatically is drawn to this specific place, the black writing stands out against the lightness of the sky. I think the title name of the album is too far down from the "Elliot Guy" and almosts looks disconnected with each other so maybe in the final outcome of the album cover we need to make the titles of the album link more together.

 

 

this is similar to the previous one however we have moved the titles to the middle of the cover, the title of the artist is bigger font and bolder than the album title to make it obvious to the audience of who it is. However the title of the album is in the wrong place in covers up the image of the album and diverts the sharpness and quailty of the image but i like the idea of having the artists name bigger than the album name.

filming

today we finally managed to shoot our footage of the relationship of the character for her reflecting back to her memories. The shot went well we managed to get a range of different shots which we needed to do as in our previous shots of the beach there wasn't much of a range in different camera movements and angles so we used our idea of making it a handheld camera more obvious by using the tripod less to create this effect and make a clear different from each type of setting. We changed the location of this shoot, we originally wanted to do it in Newton Hall in some woods to create a natural and enclosed place which was shown in the research of our genres videos, but because of the shoot being delayed constantly we decided to do it on our school grounds still keeping within the natural and nature setting but keeping the buildings of the school off the shots. We made the characters do various things making the run around, give each other piggy backs, hugging etc. to portray to the audience this ideal relationship this girl once had. 

idea for album cover

this is another idea for our album cover- carrying on with the theme that has been shown throughout our whole project we thought by having the beach location and also the balloons within this image it becomes an iconic image for this artist.
It sums up the whole narrative of the video and the song we have used, with the girl on her own in this setting and the two balloons symbolising her love and his love together and the journey they have come to for her to let his love go at the end of the music video. It is a striking and eye catching which will make it stand out to the audience.




this is a rough idea of what the final idea would look like when putting the title of album and artists name over the picture....

the album title would be smaller than the artitst names, both of the titles contrast against each other making both of them stand out and by using the bold black colour of the font again makes them stand out against this particular image as the colours are soft and light. When doing the final outcome for the album cover we need to insecure that the title of the artists name is in a good place where it doesnt over take all the image of the photo as i think this image is eyecatching and maybe the name overlooks the image.

mumford and sons

last night we want to see the band we are using our cover for Mumford and Sons. It was amazing and gave us a real feel for how the band represents themselves on stage and as people themselves.
the feeling of the arena was festivally and carnival like, and because of the indie pop genre they are in they used the conventions of the genre in their stagecraft where they used outdoor lights and the background colours were earthy. This has allowed us to look more indepth into how we want our singer to be percieved as an artist with their costume and their stagecraft when performing. I think by using the type of setting and props they used within their performance within our album cover and digipak will help emphaise and make our artist more noticable as a indie pop artist, by using lights and earthy colours this implies the coventions of this genre of music as in the research it was typically seen that it was a very natural and outdoor setting for videos so by interpreting this into our album cover for the artist will enhance the audience knowledge just by looking at them that they are in this genre of music.
in these images it is clearly shown that light is an important aspect of their surroundings and I think it sets different moods and atmosphere for each image which we can interpret into our music video which we are showing with the effects of black and white and also how we use light and colour on our album cover and digipak photos.

idea for album back cover

this is an idea for our album back cover, we have continued the theme of the beach which is within our music video making it become an almost iconic image for our particular artist. We want to use a similar image to this as we think it show the natural and outdoor conventions seen in this genre making it visible to be in this specific genre of music. It has a very isolated and peaceful feel to the album cover which is again similar to what was conveyed in our music video- having that continous linking of all the print projects and video together.
I think the title of the album works really well against this particular background as it instantly draws the audiences eye to us as the black writitng stands out from the light blue sky. By having the other titles of the song against the light blue background also makes it stand out even though it isnt as bold and as big as the cover title. I like the idea of  having the main image at the bottom of the cover, as it makes the audience look at the whole cover and not just the album songs as the picture is so detailed to look at.

artist name

as a group we decided on the name "Elliot Guy" we thought this name rolled of the tongue when saying and also when researching we found that artists name were the actual names of the singers so we thought this was appropriate to do to fit within the music genre.

Elliot Guy

this writing is similar to the album cover name we want to use, we thought this would look sleek and smart by having all the typograhy the same to make it all link together, however we thought as shown in our research on most album covers the name of the artist and name of the album are different to make each title stand out.

 Elliot Guy
this again is very simplistic and bold, even though it is a different style and font it still has the same idea and similarlity to the cover name of the artist, so again we want to make both title stand out against one another.

Elliot Guy

this font is the similar to what we would like to use, it completley different to what we used with our typography for our album cover. Against one another they will both stand out as the fonts and not merge into the background as the background scenery for our album cover is quite striking. The font will be in black keeping it the same making it fit within the album covers theme. Also this type of writing is similar to the typography on the research into other artists covers.



digi-pak ideas

these are some ideas for images we want to include within our music album digi-pak, these pictures were taken on location of our shoot and fit within the theme and setting we have carried through our music video and also the idea we want to use for our album cover photo.
The pictures are natural and outside scenery have the typical conventions the indie pop genre that we have seen within our research. The images are romantic and the scenery is pretty and tranquel that the song we have used for our music video reflecting the theme we are conveying through of an isolated and distant feeling for the song.
The other photos that we will be using within our digi-pak will be similar to this but including pictures of the character in the music video and of the balloon to continue the ideology and linking throughout all the project.

 

 

 

this image was used for the album cover title we thought "root of memories" was a good way to sum up all the album and the message in our music video as the character is reminising her memories. The image could imply that the hands on the image are the band holding up the image, again linking the artist and theme of our project together.

clouds problem

in our music video we wanted to include a shot of the clouds and fast forward the shots to imply that time is movie on or going past emphasising the idea of the character reminising into the past.
We set up at a camera outside our classroom with the lense pointing up to the sky, it wasnt a very windy day so the clouds didnt move as fast naturally to see the different when looking back onto the clip. We filmed this for half an hour and thought we had enough footage to use the effect we want to use on the video. Unfortunatley when looking back on the footage on the movie maker programme the video kept moving in and out due to the focus- as there wasnt anything to focusing on as it was just clouds the camera kept moving in and out to try find an object to focus on. When doing this next we need to take the focus off the camera so it doesnt automatically try and find an object to look onto, and also finding a windy day to make sure the clouds move enough so their is enough to fast forward and create the effect we are looking for the outcome.

album title font

From the song we have chosen and the naritive of the video we have used the title 'The Root of Memories' links the whole project together as our narative of the video is the character reminising into the past and the memories she has of her past relationship, evidently the title refelcts our objective of the narative of the video.

 

The Root of

Memories

this writing is very bold and simply, it standout from the different sizes and positions taking up alot of room and make it instantly viewed to the audiences eye. The 'Memories' is what that stands out instantly to the audience as it is the bigger and is seen automatically as it is bold. The simplitsic font make it simple and not over complicated and too busy on the page.

The Root of Memories

this writing is very old fashion, and sophisicated. It looks like a news heading on a newspaper front cover, which draws the audience in as it is like main news and the background we are wanting to use is very romantic and simplistic of the sunset and beach and this bold heading will standout and make it eye catching. Agin we have continued with the simplistic approach by using plain black writing to make it stand out and not blend into the background.

 

The Root of Memories

this is different from our other options as we wanted to see what else could work and what wouldnt. I think this is very busy and over complicated for a title of the album and is hard to read for the audience. I think this type of wrting would work well for the title of the artist as contrating to bold and simplic font to this both of the texts would stand out against each other. However we still want to use the simplic black colour of the front so the writing doesnt fade into the background.

 

editing problems

when editing we found problems when using the 'leave colour' effect as because of the different brightnesses on the screen some of the balloon light reflected onto the characters face and because of the similarity in colour when wanting to leave colour it changed the colour of the face as well because the brightness is similar and the light reflecting on different objects in the shot. To work around this we will have to use a different effect/programme to get around this problem and to use the orginal idea of the red colour balloon and to use it as effectively as we can.

Leave Colour

For the effect of the balloon of having it only object in colour compared with the black and white background we used the effects of the programme. We were hoping to use the programme Matte but due to the wind that was on the beach we couldnt use it as the programme Matte only worked effectively on still objects so for the balloon this couldnt work as the wind was blowing it around. We used the effect leave colour where we had to play around with the tolerance and brightness of balloon to make it more effective and stand out to the audience. When using this there are a few issues as sometimes there is a white light from the sun shinng on the balloon, we couldnt change the colour of this as it wasnt the same red we clicked on when leaving the colour, however this error isnt noticable unless looked at closely and also the balloon blowing in the wind makes it harder to notice.

I am really pleased with the effectiveness of the red balloon against the black and white, it is eyecatching and pops out from the screen making our video stand out to the audience viewing it. It is how i pictured the outcome of this effect when we were planning and I believe this is the strongest element to our music video as it is unique and isnt typically seen in other indie videos.

behind the scenes

Overview

During the past couple of months our group have researching daily in the conventions of indie pop video, we have looked widely through a range of this specific genre of music video and looked at the way they use the camera to present different shots they are representing for their video and also the way in which the artist follows the conventions of indie pop through their other material to promote albums/singles to their target audience and how similarly or different they link together as one product to make it recognisable and iconic for that particular artist. I think because of the heavy research we have carried through we have a better knowledge of how we need to portray that are music is an indie video not just by the type of artist but the shots and movements we use with the camera, this also includes the location, props and costumes involved within the music video. I believe this is shown through our blog and especially within our presentation of our ideas for our music video as it showed a clear understanding of what we wanted to do in our project and also the links we would make with other promoting material with our digi-pack and magazine for the band. 

After a few complications involving weather we have already managed to shoot part of our music video involving the beach location shown on our storyboard, everything ran smoothly we thought that we would run out of sunlight due to the early dark nights however by following the storyboard and being more organised we finished with plenty of time which allowed us to shoot some extra footage in case some of the shots we did shoot weren't good enough for editing. When looking back through the shots that we did we were pleased with the outcomes and had plenty of shots to choose from giving us more variety in what we will be able to use in our editing of the music video. 
Currently we are waiting to shoot the second part of footage which is shown in the storyboard of the couple sequence, hopefully this will be shot next week, this will allow us to concentrate fully on the editing process as we will be able to mix around the shots that we are wanting to portray as flashbacks and ones of her currently allowing us to see which works better where and seeing  the effect it brings to the music video and whether the idea we originally had plans through successfully. 

From the last project I did I think i am more prepared and organised with planning, I can visually see the outcome more clearly of our final video and I think this is due to the detail in planning and high amount of research we have carried out to look further into the way an indie artist and music video works and how we can use these conventions within our own music video. 

Filming

On Sunday 11th November we were able to film our shots for the music video, the weather was perfect however quite windy which made some of the shots difficult to shoot as the balloon was blowing in the wind. We followed the storybaoard which we brang with us, and we manage to get all the shots we thought was nessacary to get plus extra ones which we thought up when we found objects on the beach. All the equipment was good until the second camera that we brought rang out of battery, luckly we were prepared and had another camera but on the other camera we still manage to get some behind the scenes shots and also some scenery shots with Kelly and Sarah got before the camera rang out. We also brang two balloons which Ellie got the previous day with us making sure that if one balloon popped or blew away we had a back up to make sure we had the balloon for filming.

Throughout the day we took pictures and behind the scene shots to capture how the day went which we will be uploading onto the blog. We took extra shots of the same scene we were doing getting different angles and camera movement to see what would look best when we looked back on editing.

When looking back through the shots we have done, we found that we werent very advenrturous with the types of shots we could of used as we have just used the basic such as pans, close ups, long shots, and following shots. To make our music video more eyecatching and to achieve a higher mark when filming the second lot of clips with the couple we need to make sure we widen our variety of shots and camera movements that we use to make it more interesting and not simply having the same shots and movements over and over again.

Delayed Filming

Unfortunately again we have has to delay our filming, as one of the actors Ryan has fallen ill and is unable to film and always we thought it wouldn’t be appropriate conditions for Ryan to be filmed in the cold and make him more ill. However this won’t really affect our filming as we still need to film for our beach location which will be shooting on Sunday, so any time after that day and when Ryan is feeling better we will be able to film.

Alternative Idea

If all goes to fail and the location we are wanting to use is still unable to use due to problems like the weather which previously effected our filming days. Instead we will be using the same location that we will be using as our second location of the shoot, the nature reserve. This location will fit within the conventions of an indie music video, as it is surrounded by nature and is in the outdoors. We will still use the ideas we have with what we were going to include in the beach location, using the balloon and the different types of shots we were wanting to include in it however just changing it to fit within the location.

When filming we need to make sure that we made a significant different into the shots we use as we will be filming in similar locations and because they are so similar they may mix into each other and lose the whole plot line of the music video as the beach location was such a eye-catching and unique surrounding it would stand out against the natural feel of the fields and trees which we would be filming, so using the effects of the black and white against the colour will be the most important thing within our music video if we use the alternative location as it will make a clear contrast and signify that the character is reminiscing into the past.

Call Sheet

This is the callsheet we will be using for our shots focusing on the couple and the relationship they had. It shows us what are intentions are going to be for that day and what equipement, props and clothing we will need to make the shoot work and be achievable.

Time to Meet	After Sixth Form 3:20 on Thursday 8th November.
Location to meet	Newton Hall
Location	Newton Hall Woods/Fields
Description of Location	isolated and rural landscape, surrounded by trees, and greenery.
Cast	Kelly, Sarah, Ellie, Ryan and Catherine
Characters	Catherine will be the main girl in the video and is the focus throughout the song. Ryan will play the boy in the music video playing Catherine's past relationship she is reflecting on within the shots.
Props	no props are needed within these types of shots as it is purely focused on the couple.
Special Instruction	Extra clothing to keep warm because it will be very cold and money to get food and drink.

Filming Delay Callsheet

This is the second callsheet after we have delayed our filming.

Time to Meet	We are planning on meeting on the 10th November at around 10-10.30.
Location to meet	Durham Train Station
Location	South Shields Beach
Description of Location	The beach is near the light house which we are wanting take shots of for our video and is near lots of good places which we we are thinking about including in our video. Its near toilets and cafes which we need for spending all day there.
Cast	Kelly, Sarah, Ellie and Catherine
Characters	Catherine will be the main girl in the video and is the focus throughout the song.
Props	A bag of red balloon so we can fill it with helium and some string to attach to the balloon.
Special Instruction	Extra clothing to keep warm because it will be very cold and money to get food and drink. A towel because of the certain shots we might want to include, this will be necessary.

Filming Delay

Unfortunatley due to the weather we were unable to shoot our filming as the conditions when we went down south shields were rainy and dark and would of interfed with the shots we wanted and the quality of our music video and the shots we wanted to achieve. As this as happened we are checking the weather forcast reguarly and checking what days are suitable for shooting, and because we are using the sea within our shots.
We have decided to film on Saturday 10th November, this means we need to ensure we inform all the people we are wanting to include with our music videos: camera operators and actors.


this screenshot shows our research into how our filming is going to plan out, hopefully the weather will be what it says on the local weather website and we will be able to get our filming done.

Story Board

 

 

the storyboard gives us a clear idea of what we want to include in our music video, as the story board shows us there are clear indications that the video will have two stories within one, and the different colours and effect of style of videoing will make this a clear opposite from one another. We have used mostly close ups and extreme close ups to show the relationship between the two character and how they interact with each other to make it more personal for the audience giving a secret insight into the relationship. The red balloon is significant throughout the whole video as it is the main iconic image that stands outs in the video as it is out of place and eye catching compared to the scenery behind the character.

 

The cloud that we are wanting to use will be rewind implying she is going back to the past (reminiscing) about her past relationship, I think this is an effective image to use as it is a clear indication that the character is looking back in time.

Location Photos

 

these photos are from the location we will be shooting our beach scenes within the music video, these shots convey very naturalistic and realistic imagery to the audience which they could picture themseleves in and therefore relating to the character as they may have been in the situation and in this "norm" surrounding. When these were photographed it was around 4pm, the light is very vibrant and warm showing us that the light when shooting is the most important part of the video, as even though it is going to be edited in black and white, the light from the sun still reflects on scene and can bring more emphaises or highlighting different moods that the character is feeling.

These pictures give us a open mind of where we can shoot as this is a large location and give us variety in what shots and movements we can direct within our music video. I think the location creates a isolated yet romantic feel to the shots, there is noone around bringing the isolated and depressed feeling towards the audience, but yet the beach looks perfect and untouched bringing a peaceful and pretty scenery to the audience, and wanting them to come to this place.

If we want to suggest this mood towards the audience we will need to make sure we pick a day that is similar to the day shot in the picture as the message wont be percieved to the audience.