CD digipak planning

For our digipak we planned to have a set of four instead of six, for the left inside page we decided that we wanted to have our lead singers body as it follows our mysterious theme, from the video. During a day of filming Bijal took the pictures and gave them to me so I could edit them in Photoshop - these were some of the designs I came up with.

 After talking to the others we decided on which idea we liked best - this being the bottom right. After eliminating the two on the right, we were left with the two on the right. The top image looked good however we thought the squares made it look weird, this wasn't the look we wanted it to have. We chose the one on the bottom right as it had a unique look to it, the others didn't really follow the themes that we wanted.                                 

For the page where the CD is placed we decided that we wanted a peace sign to be used - mainly because it's featured in our music video and because it has a round design. Our initial ideas consisted of having a pink peace sign; however we realised it didn't follow the red theme. After thinking about it we decided to use a zebra printed peace sign as it connects to the video and follows the colour themes.

28th November - Audience Feedback

In today's lesson everybody showed their music videos so we could complete our audience feedback task. We talked a little about our videos before we played them, as Mr Sears asked a few questions, and then we showed them to the rest of the class - they then gave us some feedback. Our feedback was given in three separate categories: strengths, developments/improvements and how it is recognisable as a music video/conventions.

Our group was second to show our music video. The first category the class gave us feedback on was ‘strengths’ – we had a big range of features that people commented on. Our opening received a lot of good comments, as they liked the first few opening shots of the character, this was because it gave a big build up to the start of the song. The class liked the lips whistling to the music at the beginning as well, as they said it was unique and many of them hadn't seen this before.We were told that our settings were very good, especially the Covent Garden scenes - they liked that we had normal people walking around in the background, compared to actual cast; nevertheless everybody seemed to like the drama studio setting, as it had good lighting and created a fun atmosphere. Our casting received good comments, as they thought we picked it very well and that they all had a lot of enthusiasm whilst filming. Editing and framing was also a positive, Mr Sears said he really liked the group shots of the guitarist with all of the girls surrounding him, as it really went with the theme of the song - the pace of the shots was also good as we cut the images to the beat of the song.

Improvements are something that we really listened to, as we would like to improve our work as best as we can. One of the main improvements that kept coming up was lip syncing, this was because in certain places some of the actors weren't in time with the music. As a group we agreed with these comments, from lunch time and in Friday's lesson we added in the last final shots, which put a lot of the lip syncing out of place - after 5 hours of editing, we decided that it was time to go home and try and sort it out on Monday before showing the class. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to fix all of it, so some parts especially the sections with our lead female singer wasn't in sync - luckily after the audience feedback was finished, we made a few slight changes and got all of the lip syncing back in time. Although the class liked our introduction, some thought that it dragged on for a little to long and was silent for quite a long time - after thinking about it, we realised we could have maybe sped these clips up, but we still liked the original idea. One other point that was brought up from a member of the class was that they didn't understand the narrative - she went on to explain the bits she didn't understand. This was the scenes where 'Mick Jagger' is being chased and caught by the group of girls, this was our fault as we didn't plan this part carefully enough, as it should have been closer to the beginning.

Conventions were the last part to be given feedback on. The class all agreed that our music video followed most conventions, this includes having a performance and narrative, lip syncing and our editing - cutting the clips to the beat of the song.

Overall, the class seemed to like our video as it was comical and light hearted - our strenghts definatley outweighted our improvments which is a big positive. We took note on our improvments as we all want to make sure our work is at it's best.

For the rest of the lesson the class was separated into groups - we had to interview and film eachother, telling the other groups what we thought. As Bijal wasn't in, Louise went to film other groups to recieve feedback for our video whilst me and Evie went to be interviewed by other groups so we could give them feedback on their own videos. We then uploaded our footage onto the computer so we could edit it together, ready to be put onto our blog.

Weekly Log - 26th & 27th November

Over the weekend I started to make the magazine music advertisment for our ancillary task. In previous lessons we decided what we would like it to look like, so i followed this guideline to produce the final images. As it wasn't the photograph we originally planned to use for the background, I had to experiment with the picture we did have. These were some of the final designs - they all follow the same main idea, just have different effects added to them.


This image matches all of our other ancillary tasks, as it follows the 'red' theme. I like this design mainly because it does match, but some of the writing is clear. 



This design is very bright, as the brightness and contrast was altered. I like how the colours burst out, but the writing is hard to read in some parts - especially the 'Moves Like Jagger'



This is design is very basic as not many effects has been added, I do like it, however it wouldn't stand out against other magazine adverts. One advantage of this is that all of the writing can be read easily.



This is one of my favourite designs as the colours aren't to vibrant, yet they will still stand out compared to other advertisments. I would prefer it if the guitar wasn't so big, and there was more of the body shown, however this was the only picture I had to work with. The only negative is that the writing can't be read properly.

   In class as a group, we will decide the final images that will be used for our ancillary task.

Weekly Log - 25th November

Today was the last chance for us to finish editing and making our ancillary tasks before having to show them on Monday for some audience feedback. We decided to go in at lunch time because we thought we could do with the extra time, so we went to upload and edit some more footage. Louise started editing, so me, Bijal and Evie went to take a few pictures with our main character and some of our backdrops for our ancillary tasks. We still needed to film a few shots of brightly coloured lips for our opening, but this was very easy to do. As we only had red and pink lipstick we went to our art department and borrowed some powder paint as we needed colours such as green, orange and blue. We used powder paint because we could get them as vibrant as we wanted - they also wouldn't course any hard as it was just powder and water. We were using Bijal's lips so I went to make the colours whilst Bijal set up the camera. Once it was all set, I filmed a few of the shots and Louise later came and joined so she filmed a couple too. After all of this was finished we had to wait for it to be converted to iMovie HD - once done Louise and Bijal started editing, whilst me and Evie focused on the ancillary tasks. We drew out a plan of what we wanted for the magazine advert, so once I got home I would have a guideline to follow. As our main character didn't have his guitar, it was hard to visualise what we orininally saw for the advert - we decided to take some more pictures over the weekend so I could edit them before Mondays lesson.

Filming - 24th November

This was our last week of filming so we had to get as much done as possible, the final scenes we needed were our Covent Garden clips. As we didn't have enough time to do all of the Southbank scenes we cut them out and did more in Covent Garnden. Evie wasn't able to attend due to other commitments, but we managed to get it planned and finished. After walking around for a while we found a good setting -we started filming parts ina side alley way, Louise was filming and me and Bijal were apart of the video. We had a few more characters in our video as well as the main two, so we kept the styling the same so the consistancy flowed through our video. In our previous lesson, Louise planned out exactly what we needed to shoot, for every line so we knew exactly what we needed to do without wasting any time. After all of the alley way shots we're finished we moved into the main centre square of Covent Garden so we could film the final pieces. Thanks to Louise writing it all down, we managed to do this very quickly and efficently, with time to spare before it started to get dark outside - this being a worry of ours.

25/11/11

Today was the last day for us to finish editing our music video and finish our ancillary task as by Monday we need to show our class the video and get feedback in order to complete our evaluation tasks. 
However we still had a few shots to film of the brightly coloured lips this was fairly easy to quickly shoot. We simply went to our drama room and borrowed some powder paints. The reason for using paints is because we only have red and pink lipstick and we needed colours such as blue, green and orange and we also needed them to be vibrant - the use of powder paints would allow us to do this and it's only powder and water so it shouldn't cause any harm. I was the person that was being used as the lips while Stephanie made the paint colours and Louise and Stephanie then took turns to film it. While this was going on the clips that we shot on Thursday were being converted into iMovie HD so we could edit them when we got back.
Now we have all our clips that we need for the music, Louise and I are editing, while Stephanie and Evie focus on the ancillary task. 
I also took more pictures of our main character today in order for Stephanie to edit them and use them for our ancillary task, for the magazine advert, and possibly for our CD Digipak. However our main character didn't have his guitar so we used the backdrops that we made, but this still wasn't the image that we had in our minds for our magazine advert. Hopefully over the weekend we can take the pictures we want and edit them at home in time for monday's lesson to make sure all our coursework is complete to the deadline.

Weekly Log - 25/11/11

This was our last week of filming and editing and we still had a long way to go. We needed to re film the start of the music video due to the fact that the footage was lost. We also needed to re film part of the lipsyncing as it wasn't in time with the music so we needed to go back in to the drama room and also we needed to film the Covent Garden scenes. We decided to cut out the Southbank scene as we didnt have enough time to film this part, also we could include these shots in the Covent Garden scene.

MONDAY
On Monday, we carried on with the ancillary tasks and the editing of the drama studio the first time -this worked well as we split in to two groups so we can use our time more effectively.
However, we also worked out that during the week due to other filming commitments we wouldnt be able to re film the start of the music video so we had to film it that day. We rang up Redbridge drama centre and found that we could only use it till 1 o clock so at 11:30 we rushed down there and got the filming done. This worked well however we were quite rushed so it didnt work out as good as it had previously. At lunch time me and Bijal uploaded the footage however we were unable to start editing due to the fact that converting the file to iMovie HD would take 30 minutes and there was another class waiting to come in.

TUESDAY
On Tuesday, at lunch time me and Louise started to edit and we cut down the shots and put them in place, this was quick to do as it was only a few shots and even though that all the shots got moved down slightly we remembered where they were placed.
On Tuesday after school, Me, Louise and Bijal filmed the lipsyncing in the drama room and also the Christina Aguilera shots, we had a few people helping us out which was good, however the main people we needed was Mick Jagger and Christina Aguilera. We re-filmed the shots that went a bit dodgy the first time round so that they would be more effective in the video. I starred in the film however I also filmed shots and decided the angle they would be placed at; this worked well however it was very stressful.

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, me and Louise came in to upload the footage previously shot, again this took a while to convert so we were unable to get much editing done. However, Bijal and Stephanie were coming in in the afternoon to carry on editing.

THURSDAY
On Thursday, as Bijal, Stephanie and Louise all had a free day the plan for them was to go filming in Covent Garden, I however couldn't attend as I had work commitments that I was unable to get out off. However, this was the only day that most of us could do so they had to go without me.

FRIDAY
On Friday, we came in at lunch to upload the footage and also take more pictures for the ancillary task. Louise carried on with the editing as she had a plan of where everything was meant to go, while the three of us took pictures. During period 3 we waited for the rest of the footage to convert so that we could continue editing. In total, we edited for 5 hours that day and then finally we had finished the music video!

PICTURES FROM THE WEEK:

 This is where we were waiting for the project to export so we could start to edit in iMovie HD.

This is the paper copies of some of our ideas for the digipaks. 

 This is our main character dressed in his costume

 This is a paper copy of the idea of the magazine advert that I drew up to get a rough idea of the information we wanted to include. 

Weekly Log - 24/11/11

Today we filmed the last shots we needed to complete our music video, these shots needed to be filmed in Covent Garden. Luckily the weather was good, and even though the time we got there was around 2pm the sun was still out and there were a lot of daylight hours left even though it is winter, this worked perfectly for us as that was the setting we needed for our shots. 
We started in a side alley way in Covent Garden as was part of the plot for our music video, Louise was filming and we needed more people therefore Stephanie and I participated in the video. We also had other characters to be in it, as well as our two main characters. We ensured they wore the same clothing and had the same hairstyles as it is necessary to have consistency throughout the video. 
Once again Louise planned out exactly what we needed to shoot and to what lines in the song they went with, this helped the filming process dramatically as it made it so much quicker and easier to film every shot. Once we had finished with the alley way shots we moved on the main centre square of Covent Garden to finish the final shots for our music video. The whole process was very quick and we finished with time to spare. 

Ancillary Task - Development

For our CD digipak, the main part is the front cover as it attracts the audience, as a group we all had different ideas as to how we wanted the cover to look. Eventually we choose the idea of our main character's face covered in lipstick kisses. During filming on the 22/11/11, I took the pictures we needed for our front cover and the inside left. These were pretty simple to take and didn't take up too much time, it was also a good spot to take the pictures as the drama studio has black walls and curtains which we needed for the background of the cover anyway. 
PICTURES: 

 

The images for the inside left turned out expected it to be, unfortunately, the images for the front cover didn't turn out as we hoped they would look. But Stephanie used photoshop to make several different variations of the image on the front cover. All her ideas were very good, and looked much better than the original idea we had, however they didn't really fit the genre of music that this band represents, therefore it was back to stage one to plan different ideas for our front cover.

 

Weekly Log 21st & 23rd November

On Monday's lesson, we split into two groups again as we thought this could help save some time. Louise carried on editing the footage we had left, whilst me, Bijal and Evie started to plan our Digipak CD Cover. We did this on paper as we thought it would be easier to brainstorm our ideas rather than going straight into it on the computer.

Once we had our designs sorted, I started to work on the back cover as this was one of the easiest bits to do and also because we didn't have the images we needed for the front and inside. Making the back wasn't to much of a challenge as I was used to using Photoshop.

As the opening scenes to our music video had been lost on the schools computer Evie, Louise and Bijal went back to the location we originally filmed at, whilst I stayed in school and finished the back page.

On Wednesday me and Bijal went back to the media suite after school to carry on editing our video - as we couldn't find our new footage we then had to re-upload it all and convert it. This took quite a long time so we lost a lot of editing time, which we didn't need to be wasting. Whilst this was happening I finished off the last bits on the back page of our DigiPak.

Bijal took the pictures we needed for the inside and front cover of our digipak, so she sent them to me so I could start editing them at home. The idea we originally planned didn't look as good as we thought it would so I started to experiment with different techniques. When editing one of them I quite liked the white writing and then discovered that i also liked the red, so sfter trying different things I was left with 6 final designs.

I sent them to the other three to see

what they thought of them. Bijal said that she liked them however the layout and style didn’t fit our song genre. Louise’s favourite is the red one to the left with white writing, as she said she liked the circle, however she said it may look better if the faces have all different expressions. Evie quoted 'I really liked this unique idea that Stephanie thought of, as it is very effective and looks professional. It is something that I would expect to see in a store, the one I like the most is the red one as it stands out and red is the main theme for our music video as it relates to The Rolling Stones.' Personally, my favourites are the two red ones to the left mainly because it follows

the colours we have been using, and although it doesn’t fit the ‘pop’ genre for the particular song we chose, it does fit the genre of the band.

After taking all of there comments into account we are going to try a few more ideas before we pick a final one.

Weekly Log - 22/11/11

This week has been very hectic as it was our last week to film ad edit all our music video, in order for it to be complete for Monday's lesson, so we can all receive audience feedback and start our evaluation tasks. 
The previous lesson as a group we realised the deadline we faced and with all our lost footage had to make quick arrangements so that we could complete all the coursework on time. Monday's lesson we split into two groups, editing and ancillary task. By doing this it made better use of our time as a group and allowed us to reach the deadline as a quicker pace.  
The footage for the opening of our music video was unfortunately lost due to the computers errors that occurred at school, however the location we filmed at were kind enough to allow us to quickly run over there and re-film our opening sections. This was done and uploaded by Monday, and we then made a strict plan to follow to film and edit all our footage needed for the week.


PLAN:
Monday: 
Bijal, Evie, Louise - film opening and upload opening
Stephanie - ancillary task


Tuesday:
Bijal, Evie, Louise - film lip syncing and extra close ups
Bijal - ancillary task
Wednesday:
Louise, Evie - upload footage
Bijal, Stephanie - edit footage shot


Thursday:
Stephanie, Bijal, Louise - film final outdoor scenes needed


Friday:
Evie, Louise - finish all editing on video
Bijal, Stephanie - finish and complete ancillary task


By sticking to this strict schedule it should allow the group as a whole to make the best of our time and meet our deadline.
Today we filmed the lip syncing and close ups, we did this once again in our school's drama studio, they were more than happy to help us out and Louise made a plan for us to follow which made the whole process much simpler and easier. We got through everything we needed to do in very little time and this was mainly down to the fact that we had a plan to follow. Overall it was a very productive filming session and hopefully we can stick to our plans in order to complete our music video effectively and on time.

Planning for Extra Filming

After editing the first bit of filming we had we realised that we didn't have enough lip syncing shots of the main character, so I planned every lip syncing shot we needed so the music video could have a variety of shots.

i recorded every space in the video that needed filling and and added in a valuable piece of filming to add to the continuity.

This strategy worked really well for us. we hired out our schools drama studio again and filmed the extra bits we needed. I also planned the whole christina section so each shot, type of shot, length of shot etc was all planned out so it was quick to run through and simple for all the cast to follow as they had guidelines to follow. It also helped the filming crew as we had a structure to follow, so unlike last time we got a lot of the filming done in a short space of time and all the shots were useful to our film. Because this process worked so well for us this time, I am going to plan out every shot for the covent garden sequence so when we film there we will have set shots to get so we wont waste time and camera battery getting useless shots.

CD Digipak Planning stages

We started to plan our CD digipak on paper, as this was an easier way to plan our ideas and brainstorm. We started with the inside right covers  - this is where the CD gets placed, once the CD is removed then behind will be an image of a bright pink peace sign - this relates to our music video, as we have a flag with this image on it.

The spine was the next thing we planned, as this was the next easiest thing to plan. It was pretty simple, all that needed to be on it was writing, stating the title of the song, the artist name and the logo of the record company.

Then we did the back cover - this required a track list, we decided to use a black background, and simply place the rolling stones symbol on the right hand side, this also relates to our video as we have a flag with this image on it. At the bottom there are the typical conventions of a CD digipak - there is a bar code, the record company information, the record company logo, and a promotional advert saying how 'outstanding' the CD is.

The inside left was next to plan, usually there is a booklet in the inside of the cover, however we are not making a booklet but decided to use the space as if we were, and the image on the inside cover would be what the booklet would have if it was there. It is going to be a simple image of the main character of our music video form his neck to his hips, wearing the t-shirt that he is wearing in the background, it is extremely simple but relates to our video.
Lastly we started deciding on what we wanted our front cover to be, this took the most time as it was difficult to come to a joint decision that we were all happy and content with. As our artist is a pop band and follows a pop genre this had to reflect on the cover of the CD digipak, it has to attract our target audience at the same time. We all had different ideas, from using one simple image, to using a mosaic of images all on the front. We googled different CD covers, and saw that artists such as MIKA used a computer to make a completely cartoonised cover, it was full of bright colours and attracted the eye, this was something we wanted our cover to do, however we thought that a picture should be used also, and found Eliza Dolittle's album cover which used both photography and computer elements, and thought this was maybe something we wanted to do.

Eventually we came to the joint decision that we would use an image of our main character, however only from the neck up, his face covered in different coloured lipsticks, this is not only slightly cheeky which represents the song and bands image but also represents our video as part of the video we have a flash of extreme close ups where the audience can see multi coloured lips. 


PLANNING OF CD DIGIPAK:

18th November

During the lesson on the 18th November i did the rest of the editing that was needed for the footage we had uploaded onto Imovie, this helped me figure out what extra shots we needed especially the lip syncing shots. we still need to film the covent garden scenes which will be the closing of the music video, we also need to re film the corridor scene at the beginning as we lost this footage due to technical fault. so far we are very happy with the footage we have we are just abit behind on time and need to film the rest of the video quickly so we have more time for editing.

Monday 14th November

Our lesson on Monday the 14th of November we started looking into digipaks and magazine adverts. we looked at various examples from other artists and how they advertised their new albums and themselves through digipaks and magazine adverts. I looked at conventional and unconventional digipaks and compared the two. These examples helped us plan the type of digipak and magazine advert we want to create to promote our music video.

How Moves Like Jagger was Promoted

One of the main ways Moves Like Jagger was through the use of their website, www.maroon5.com
At the top of their homepage there is a variety of links of ways to view the album and song, for example through Spotify, Twitter, iTunes and Facebook.

Moves Like Jagger premiered live on the American show The Voice, June 21st 2011, which later reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in September 2011. Then Maroon 5 went on promoting the song Moves Like Jagger through various performances:

• America's Got Talent - 4th August
• Today Show - 5th August

Then the world premiere for the music video was released on the 6th August 2011. In addition to this Adam Levine had an exclusive personal interview with E! News on the 8th August to talk about the new video. The first television premiere of the music video was shown on E! News on the 8th also.

Another exclusive interview was shown on CBS on the show 'The Insider', on the 9th August, however this time it was featuring Christina Aguilera which showed background footage from the video. 

The single was released in the UK on the 14th August 2011.

Internet not only had a big influence through the Maroon 5 website, but also through the help of internet celebrities, Perez Hilton an internet blogger and Keenan Cahill an internet sensation - did a mimed performance of Moves Like Jagger. Keenan Cahill is known for miming various artist's songs and usually has very famous artists and celebrities in the videos. By doing this it promoted the song to all of Keenan's fans who may not of been Maroon 5 fans. Maroon 5 did not ask for this form of promotion, but it is helpful towards selling the single nonetheless.

Another internet video that contributed towards the promotion of Moves Like Jagger, was a short paparazzi leak video, of the famous Actor Tom Cruise having a dance off to the song, even though the song wasn't the main focus of the music video it still promoted the video subconsciously. 

 More TV performances included:

• Ellen DeGeneres Show 21st September  2011                       
• American X-Factor 5th October 2011                
• Victoria Secret Fashion Show 11th October 2011
• Access Hollywood 19th October 2011
• American Music Awards 24th October 2011
• MTV World Stage - Shown globally between November 10th-13th 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Weekly Log 18th November

In todays lesson the group split up in two, we decided this would be more beneficial as we had already lost enough time. As some of the computers weren't working again Evie and Louise carried on with the editing, whilst me and Bijal carried on with the ancillary tasks. We started to edit our magazine advert on Photoshop, as we didn't have the background pictures that we needed we started adding the font; leaving us with the skeleton design.


As Stephanie explained, the group thought we should split the tasks to use our time more wisely. As Evie and Louise were editing we needed to get them the live clips of Mick Jagger that we wanted off of youtube. We also needed to get in contact with the local theatre so see when we could film there again. I decided to go and call them whilst Stephanie looked for some clips of Mick Jagger and converted them to be suitable to use on iMovie HD. 

The Style of Maroon 5

Maroon 5 have a very unique style of music of pop rock, this may be the reason why they are so popular as not many artists still play this genre of music. Maroon 5 are also known to have release 'She will be loved' in 2002, this is still pop/rock however it is not as recognisable as it is a slow song.


Artists over the years that have included this genre of rock/pop in their songs include
McFly



Avril Lavigne 



Pink




The Beatles 


The Conventions of a Pop/Rock Music Video

• Bright colours
• Fast paced editing 
• Busy environment 
• Storyline
• Include instruments 
• Colourful clothes 
• Eccentric ideas

Conventions of a Magazine Music Advert

There are a variety of conventions used on a magazine advert. These creators have to be careful as they want it to relate in some way to the album they are releasing. The conventions a magazine advert include:

• A photograph of the artist -  this should in some way be similar to the photograph on the front cover of the album, so this shows that this is the same album. They could be similar through the mise-en-scene aspects such as the setting, costume, props etc. 
• The name of the album -  so that if the audience would like to find out information on the album on the internet then they would know what album name to look up. 
• The name of the artist - this is so it is instantly recognisable to the audience so that they don't just have the picture of the artist as the audience may not recognise them in the picture. 
• Date of release - This is essential so that the target audience will know when to download it, if they didnt know when to download it then they may have problem trying to find the date, this will increase sales on the actual day which may influence the sales of the week when the album will chart. 
• Ratings - this is essential however, most magazine adverts have ratings from businesses such as Newspapers which will help sell the album. 
• Colour scheme to match album - This is very closely linked to the photograph idea of relating the album photo and magazine photo together, this is the same as the colour scheme, so again it is all closely related, it will also be a good idea to keep to one font for both the album and the magazine. 
• Record company name or logo - This is a good idea to have the company name or logo on the advertisement as this may influence the audience to go and look at other artists who come from this record company. 

Weekly Log - 14th November

On the 14th of November unfortunately, we were unable to use the computers as the server was down so we were unable to edit, so we focused on the ancillary tasks. We researched into music adverts within magazines and also CD digipaks, this gave us an insight in to the conventions involved that will help us within the process of making our very own magazine music advert and CD digipak. We each annotated one of each and put it on the blog. There was a few problems due to the computers being very temporary so when I annotated using Microsoft Word I was going to print screen the page and so I would be able to upload the image, however I was unable to do this as the computer wouldn't save the print screen so I ended up having to email it to Bijal so that she could upload the image on her computer as her computer was working fine. Once we overcame this problem we continued to research different magazine adverts, this really influenced me to start thinking creatively to what we could include in our magazine advert and CD Digipak

Weekly Log - November 11th

On friday, we had a dilemma as there was only me and Bijal in, the plan was that we were going to continue editing however due to the computers server not working we were unable to log on to our computer so we decided to start preparing for the ancillary tasks. Me and Bijal researched some examples of the music album adverts and then used Gwen Steffani's advert as a good example to follow and look at the conventions that it used. this advert really helped us and we started to decide on the type of font we want, however we couldn't decide on the picture as they were on Bijal's computer at home that we took while filming.
I had to leave half way through the lesson so I left Bijal working on researching music adverts.

Weekly Log 11th & 14th November

On Friday’s lesson, me and Louise wasn’t in due to being ill, so Bijal and Evie were planning to continue with the editing, however the computers server wasn’t working so they were unable to log in. The girls started to prepare the ancillary tasks for when me and Louise returned.
Once Monday came the computer servers still weren’t working properly so we were still unable to edit. Evie and Bijal showed us what they did in the previous lesson, which consisted of research on music album adverts and digipaks.
We used the rest of the lesson to research our own digipaks and music album adverts - we looked at the conventions so we knew what we should and shouldn’t do when making our own.

Editing

As we had lost some of our opening footage we decided to edit the footage we filmed in the drama studio. Bijal had already uploaded the footage so we didn’t have to waste time waiting for it all to load, however we didn't know what was going to come next.
We didn't realise that the camera we used would have to be associated with iMovie, in the past we have used iMovie HD which is the programme we are more comfortable using. After telling Sir our worries, he helped us to convert the footage over to iMovie HD - this meant that our clips would no longer be separate; but one big chunk. This meant the clips had to be cut down manually. Louise did the main cutting of the video as one person could only really do it, but we all took a few turns and we eventually got to the end.

Once we had our separate shots, we noticed that we didn’t think about our framing properly, so a lot of images had people standing in the background. After talking about it we decided the best thing to do was just delete them as it would look unprofessional and doesn’t follow the conventions of a music video. Altogether we had around 13minutes of footage, but we had to delete around 6minutes of this due to our bad framing and camera shakes. After loosing the footage from day1 and noticing the mistakes from day2 we have realised that we need to really look into every detail and manage our time appropriately.

Filming - Day 2

As we planned to have performance parts in our video we decided to book the schools drama studio - we booked it 3weeks in advance so we knew we would definitely be able to film. We thought the drama studio would work much more effectively with our backdrops and we also had the advantage of professional lighting.

Our time came to start using the studio, so we started to prepare it for when our cast got there - meaning we could start filming straight away. I, Louise and Bijal began to set up the studio, whilst Evie went to collect some costumes and extra cast. In total we had four flags, we decided to pin two up side by side so we could give them their own individual lighting - it just meant moving the camera along when we wanted to use the alternate flag. The best way to get the flags in place was to use large safety pins, this allowed us to put the flags where ever we liked and if we wanted them to be hanging tightly or loosely. The drama technician lit up the flags and also set up a spot light for where our cast would be standing. I then had to stand in where our cast would be so we could determine what we liked and didn’t like about the lighting. It took a little while to decide what we liked, however we was happy with the overall finish.
We thought it would be more useful if the music was at a louder volume so the cast and ourselves could hear it. As we only had the song on an iPod, the technician gave us a cable that connected to the main audio system - this helped us to play the music on whatever volume we wanted.

Evie eventually came back with the clothing and cast, so our main character and the rest of the cast could begin to get ready. Once our main character was ready, we started to set up our first few shots of him using the story boards as a guidance - this helped to save a lot of time as we knew exactly what we had to do. We all took turns to film as some of us were apart of the cast. We noticed one of our cast members were wearing American flag converses, we thought these looked really effective - although it wasn't originally in our plans, we decided to film a few extra shots of these which came out quite well.

The afternoon of filming was quite a success, as we manage to film nearly everything needed for those particular scenes. Once we finished filming everyone helped to clear up the studio and get changed. As Bijal was the only one not in costume she went straight to the media room to upload our footage - so we had no chance in loosing it, such as previous situations.

Once everyone was changed we all went to the media room to see what we had filmed and were quite impressed with the results. We had a good rang of shots which will become very helpful in the editing stage.

Making the Props

Once we had our material ready we headed back to my house to start creating the backdrops. As we wanted a big peace sign we decided we would cut one out of the zebra print material and stick it to one of the black sheets. Out first attempts to drawing the main circle weren’t going well as we couldn’t get it to be even. After thinking about it I suggested we draw around my garden table as it is circular – luckily it was the perfect size so we went ahead with the idea. We eventually cut out the peace sign and stuck it down to the big piece of material.
As we couldn’t find a Union Jack flag that was big enough to be a backdrop, we decided to paint one onto a white sheet of material. At first me and Evie thought this would look rather tacky and cheap, however we came round to the idea. Louise took charge of this and created the flag, you can see how she made it with the pictures she has provided in another post.

Unconventional magazine Advert

The album advert by Babyshambles  advert doesn't follow the typical conventions of a a magazine advert. There is no band imagery although the bands name is mentioned but the album name and record label are not. There is no release date but it does say its about their previous tour so the audience might be able to gather that its recently be released. The simple red background and black writing might be reflecting the album/tour and the song content so some aspects do slightly follow the conventions. 

Much like the gorillaz digipak our group wants to follow the typical conventions of a advert because it will reflect the genre of the song, artist and video.

CD Digipak

A digipak is a type of CD packaging - it usually consists if 4-8 panels which contain various amount of images and very little extra information where as, a regular CD case usually has more text and fewer images. Ocassionally digipaks have an extra section that has a pocket inside which can contain a leaflet - however this isn't used as much anymore as companies want their digipaks to be more simple. The elements of a digipak consist of;

• The front cover: normally has the main image, artist name and song title
• Inside cover: sometimes contains a booklet with all the songs inside and their lyrics. Once the booklet is removed there is usually a background image.
• Spine: this has the least effort, as it simply has the artist name, song/album title, however it is still important as the audience can use the spine the quickly recognise what the cd pack contains. 
• The back cover: this part has the track list and it usually has the record company and production names on it and the barcode.
• Inside back cover: this is where the cd is actually placed - if it is a double CD the second one will either be opposite, or they sometimes have a flip up holder. Once the CD is removed there is usually an image or symbol that represents the artist.

Here are some examples of Digipaks;

This is a Digipak of Katy Perry - Teenage Dream.

The digipak instantly relates to her music and her style as it reflects her most recent music videos, singles and her 'California Dreams Tour' - which are all mainly based around this fun, candy theme. The two Cd's in the pack are designed so they they like sweet treats, this makes it more unique and interesting - this also being the main theme in the 'California Girls' single and her in her tour. As she has many young fans, this candy theme will really relate to her younger target audience. 

The leaflet inside the digipak carries out the pink candyfloss cloud which follows this theme throughout the rest of the - its very bright and vibrant, which relates to her pop genre. The font on the leaflet inside the digipak is a candy red and white spiral which is very similar to sweets; it is also written in a balloon/bubble like font which is very youthful and fun.

The two images in the digipak can be seen as very provocative as it appears that she is naked - only being covered by candy floss. This would go against her younger audience, however she does have an older target audience where she is seen as sex symbol - so it can instantly start to increase sales.

 The image inside the digipak is of the Katy dressed up as a prom queen wearing a tiara; this is because going to the prom and becoming a prom queen can be any girls 'Teenage Dream'

This is the digipack for Rihanna Greatest Hits - this is a special digipak as it is a Platinum edition with only 500 copies released world wide. 

The front cover (shown on the left) of the digipak is a complete contrast to what we see inside- on the front she looks very innocent and happy, where as the images shown inside are completely different. Rihanna's digipak is filled with images of her, as she is the main focus, rather than the writing. Inside the digipak, we see images of the artist wearing very revealing clothing, these images may be seen as provocative, however her target audience being an older group will appreciate these.  In the pictures we can see her bikini, this can be seen as an important element, the white carries on the innocence and pureness from the front cover and the actual zebra print brings an exoticness to it - this can also help her to appear to be a sexy and appealing. These are things that reflect her as a person and artist as she is known for being quite provocative in her music video's and she is from Barbados which is a very exotic country. On the flap of the digipak there is a lot of writing - mainly about Rihanna and her music. There is also smaller images of some of her album covers - this can be a way to promote her music and also shows some of her accomplishments as an artist. Finally, the colours inside are different tones of brown - these are a good mix to use as brown can be seen as a warm, welcoming colour. With the golds used it looks more richer; reflecting back to her R'n'B genre - where wealth is an important part of the lifestyle.

• CONVENTIONS of a CD digipak:

• artist/band name
• song/album name
• tracklist
• visual images that relate to the song/album
• booklet containing information on the songs and the lyrics
• record label name and logo 

Editing Day One

We started our editing the monday after filming the backdrop scene. Bijal previously uploaded the footage so that we could straight away start with the editing, however with the camera we were using we had to edit in iMovie where we didn't feel as comfortable as we did with iMovie HD, however, we were able to convert the format so that we could edit in iMovie HD. As we had 13 minutes of footage we had to wait for a while for it to convert. Once it was converted it was all in one long shot so we had to split the shots up and then get rid of the shots that we didn't need. In some of the shots we had people standing in the background so straight away we got rid of these shots. Splitting up this 13 minute clip took ages as we had to figure out and cut the shot extremely accurately so that we didn't miss any important clips out and get rid of it accidently. As our song is extremely fast paced we need to have loads of shots so we are aiming to get quick shots so we had to edit very carefully as these shots can be useful. Overall, it took 1 hour to edit 3 minutes worth of footage, so it will be a long process, however we want to make sure it is perfect and that nothing else goes wrong so we will put the time and effort in to make sure the editing is up to standard.