The Promo

Facebook feedback

A little after deciding on our final cut for our video we posted it on Facebook and Youtube to get some audience feedback for it. As a whole, we got a very positive response, with over 60 likes on the video  in less than 24 hours and overall good comments.

The 180 degree rule problem

Towards the end of the music video, to finish the narrative we wanted right from the start for the lead male to be on one side of the door and the girl on the other. Followed shortly by him opening the door to reveal the girl was going to open it to, hinting their mutual agreement ti stay together. To illustrate this we had always planned on using a match cut to show them on either side of the door. Here are the two shots as they appear in consecutive order:

While these shots look great when put next to each other and do exactly what they're meant to, we did run into one slight problem with them, this problem is regarding the 180 degree rule. Learning this last year we were told that if two characters are seen to be interacting to each other then there should be a figurative line directly between them, essentially going from one character's eye to the other's. To keep the viewer from having to think about what character is which the 180 degree rule keeps the character associated with a side of the screen, making it easier to identify. To achieve this the camera should never cross over this line between the characters. While these shots don't look like they're breaking the rule; they do. Here is a diagram to show why.

The orange line linking the two cameras clearly shows that they are on the wrong sides of the line, and thus, are breaking the rule. This leads to the match cut to being technically incorrect. However the solution to this was to digitally flip one of the videos horizontally and instead of having a match cut, it's just a plain cut between the two, which doesn't look as nice, but is technically correct. As group we had a discussion about the problem and we decided we wanted the shots to look nice, regardless of the obvious blunder. So in the name of art over technicality, we kept the shot as it was.

Teacher feedback during editing

Miss Scott

• Good use of shots
• Good use of narrative and peformance
• There are some major shakey shots
• If we were to re-shoot there would need to be better framing
• Needed to be better over-shoulder
• Good shot transitions and sizes of shots
• Good props used
• Need to work on speed of shot transitions
• Good use of syncing on Imovie

Mr Collier 

• 180 degree rule confusion ( breaking it with the final scene of boy opening door to girlfriend, angle issue-different sides)
• Good use of footage ( enjoys each part of it)

Magazine ad idea 2

digipack re redesign

So we had to redesign the digipack once again because the images of the streets didn't belong to us, we found them off of Google images. So we went about remaking the poster using only photos we took. We decided to keep an interior and exterior theme. Using outside shots for the outside covers and interior shots on our inside shots. we also wanted eddie and look to almost be facing each other to emphasize the fact that they are the main characters in the video.

Magazine Ad idea 1

This is one of the ideas for our Magazine ad. The ad would be following the simplistic theme of 'The Verve' poster I studied a few months back.



We aimed to get as many parralels as possible for this image because we felt the simple image was very powerful and stuck in our head. We used a stricking font saying very little about the poster itself but gives just enough information to get by / gain attention.We also drew inspiration from the lighting design of the poster so we stuck a filter layer over the top of our photo and accentuated the lens flare. This gives the photo a high conrast look. The high contrast in turn lends itself to some noticeably dark areas on the shot, which are perfect for putting fonts in and making them noticeable. We also used the effect of having the font affected by the photo filter, and lens flare, giving it a shadow.





The Black Room

The Black Room was the set we used to get the cluse ups of the entire band when they are solo'd out. This set had to be constructed by hand due to the fact that no one has a room thats completely black. We used a fairly small room near the back of my house because it worked nicely and had good control of external light aswell as having very reflective, cream walls.

Shown below is the room as it was being built:

 Here is what it looked like from the side:

As you can see the lights are postined far enough away for the light emmitted to propogate in the space required but are both positioned differently to allow for more fuller and defined lighting on the actor. These lights were not to be moved at any cost to allow for consistency in shadows. The black foam at the back is standard insulation foam that is found at most home diy shops, it is very large and very matte while being very light so it is ideal for a lighting set. We attache it to the wall by use of a wooden beam. This beam was only wedged between the opposing walls to preserve the integrity of the room as well making it easy to move, this is because Becky and Eddie are considerably shorter than Luke, Elliott and I, so keeping them at same level will show the cream wall behind them underneath.

Here is an overhead few of the room. here you can clearly see how the two cameras are positioned differently. The idea was to bounce the emitted light off of the reflective cream walls to allow the light to disperse and create a more fuller effect rather than a harsh 'Flash' looking light. This reflection trick is a common technique used in interviews and photoshoots, hence why the umbrellas usually. You can also clearly see here how we made the cross bar for the light strong enough to support the camera so that we could have a steady, stationary shot throughout.

Shooting evaluation

Going out and doing the filming proved to be a very organized and straightforward process and went very much how we would like. That's not to say some problems didn't arise.

Day 1

At 8:30 in the morning i turned up to Eddie Mears' house, already packed with band gear and we headed off together to Tolethorpe. Upon reaching the destination we hit met with Steve the site manager. To our elation he informed us that the shakespeare company that normally practice there weren't there for the day so we were allowed the fantastic opertunity of using the large open air stage. While the story boards did call for a white room we simply could not pass up this chance so we decided to use the stage, which provided us not only with more psace but a wider variety of shot types and more natural lighting, alongside keeping the contrast that we wanted in the original setting by being an incredibly wide open space with the juxtaposition of the cramped space of the black room. With the new set in mind we set about setting up the band gear in preperation for the shooting set ahead before I set off again to Bourne, set on picking up the rest of the media group and the set of lights.*

Meeting Becky, Luke and Elliott at Bourne leisure centre some 40 minutes later meant we had the cameras on hand and were ready for the filming day ahead. We took a short detour to Eddie's house to pick up the lighting gear and headed straight back to Tolethorpe where Eddie had been waiting patiently. Upon arrival we began finishing preperation on the stage, taking a good hour in itself to ensure all the band equipment was positioned appropriately and allowing the sun to pass overhead to give less of a harsh backlight. After set up was completed, due to the cold weather and, frankly lack of knowledge of the song on Luke's part (Not his fault, he was not made aware of the lyrics prior) we headed inside the hall to have a drink of coffee, warm up and listen to the song a few times. This break was crucial as the morning had already been tough and put everyone in bad spirits and it was only 10 in the morning. This break picked everyone back up, refueling them with energy, allowing us to clear our heads for what it was we were about to do and generally refresh us. Feeling rejuvinated we trecked back down to the stage o begin filming.

Due to the nature of the stage and the scale of it, it proved inconsequential to use the lights we had brought with us as they wouldn't do anything, so we chose to rely on the open aired roof to provide light for the shoot. The next problem that arose for us however, was that we hadn;t brought any speakers with us. Figuring we'd be in a small ish room we thought it would be substantial to play the song off of my phone and mime along. This obviously was not the case as my phone was nearly inaudible in the expanse of the stage. Thankfully the site manager at Tolethorpe has both a speaker set, an amp AND an auxillery cable, allowing us to take that down to the stage, with an extension lead and connect it up as needed. Through this we could hear much better and were able to actually begin the filming. Finally. At noon.

This aside, the rest of the shoot went fantastically smoothly. The number of chairs littered around the stage made for some great vantage point to rest the camera on to get some stationary shots in interesting angles. Both close and far away. We played through the song numerous times to get as much footage as possible ready for post production. The only problem for the rest of the day was the constant cold weather, lowering morale constantly and making a lot of shots frankly, painful. We began by taking whole band shots with stationary cameras, followed by moving cameras, operated by Eddie. Then we moved on to close ups, this entailed the band playing the entire song but the camera focusing on one person for the entirity of the video an then seeing what is useable afterwards. We did this with the entire band and then moved onto specialised shots, such as the 'think' shots and the reaction shots. Alongside any cool tricks and band performances we wanted. e.g. drum stick tricks.

Sadly at around 3pm our shooting had to come to an abrupt end due to all of our cameras running out of battery. Thankfuly we had gotten more than enough footage in the time we had to film, we were merely taking more for safety. Confident in the days work we packed up at around half 3 and headed off back home, reversing the process as before, except leaving Elliott to guard the equipment in our absence.

Day 2

Day 2 began at around 10 am with the cast and crew arriving at morton church as punctual as ever (...). We got every one inside and spent the first 30 minutes having a meeting briefing everyone on what sould be happening during the day, showing them around my house to see the sets we'd be using and how to utilise them. We then got into costume and got ready to begin filming. First we did the nerd scenes by bringing the atari down and plugging it into the TV. with Elliott and Eddie performing those scenes, Becky and Luke discussed other shot possibilities using the surroundings. After getting the gaming scene done we swiftly moved onto the calculator and arm wrestling scenes. Then the argument scene followed immediately by the back together scnene. For these shots every went exactly according to plan with no problems arising whatsoever, light was on our side as was time so the scenes were punched out very quickly. Next, sinc ethe rest of the scenes involved the punk and the girl, we needed it to be dark outside so we put the punk scenes on hold and got to constructing the 'black room' Prior to the shoot i had not constructed the black room however we did have a rough idea of what we wanted. The overall construction of the black room can be found in a seperate blog post. After getting the room constructed with the lighting we wanted we began filming the close ups of luke in the room. Orginially we had intended to only have luke in the black room but luke himself suggested we take close ups of the entire band in this way to create the theme of singling them out, so we did and it ended working fantastically.
We did encounter a prblem halfway through the black room shots as Becky's camera SD was full, to counter this i had to find one of the SD cards from my dad's camera and use that, meaning we had a total of 3 SD cards of footage in the end. While this wasn't too much of an issue it did mean we'd have to be more organized in total. Finally, we got all the shots we wanted and so decided to call it a day of sorts. Becky, Luke and Elliott went home, leaving behind one camera allowing Eddie and I to get the rest of the scenes knocked out in the dark. We waited a few hours for the light outside to get dark before setting up the table outside and filming the lady and the tramp scene, which was thankfully illuminated by the porch lights which gave a beautiful orange glow to the set. We then carried on inside for the nail painting scene and the dvd scene, which went without a problem.

Evaluation

Overall the shooting went fairly well although we did have a few problems here and there we managed to work through each and everyone to get adequate footage for what we wanted to create. If we were to film again we would wait for light to be better for the conditions and make sure the cameras are fully charged before heading out. All the problems were more situational rather lack of judgement so overall we did all we could to handle them and did it fairly well.
























*Yes the number of times the word 'set' is used in that sentences is intentional

Promotional strategies work

In this day and age it is getting both increasingly easier and harder to promote yourself as a band. Promotion is an essential part of being a band and earning money as it is the way people find out about you. While the mediums for accessing them are easier to access than ever (Itunes, youtube etc) the sheer amount of other bands using this exact same approach oversaturates the market and makes competition so fierce it inevitiably makes promoting yourself hard again. While back before the internet you would onlyhave poster and margazine ads about you, you didn't have as many people trying to barge into the industry by those methods. It has become almost a neccesity to advertise your band in the most up to date and creative ways possible. Here i shall outline some of the best ways to do so in the current market:

Social Networking:

Examples:
 - Facebook
 - Myspace
 - Twitter




Social networking is an integral part of getting your band known these days. It is almost impossible to find a band without a facebook page acting as THE source for all information regarding the band possible. A Facebook page allows anyone who is following to be on a pseudo mailing list very easily. Keeping anyone who likes you informed of all upcoming gigs, releases, and general notable things happening to the band. It also sereves as a place where fans of the band can gather and share thoughts and opinions either with the rest of the fanbase or directly to the band themselves, allowing a fantastically simple form of fan feedback.
Facebook also proves as a great way to introduce yourself to new people who might be looking for more music as the site allows you to host mp3 files with a playback feature, giving everyone an opertunity to listen to your music, alongside the link of how to buy it. This is what MySpace became practically famous from. A noteable example of social networking being a particularly effective means of obaining popularty is the ever loved Arctic Monkeys, who were the first band to utilize MySpace's capabilities and launch themselves from it. The difference between then and now is the saturation of bands there are around on facebook and other sites, the band would have to stand out an awful lot to be noticeable in he shoutin contest that is  band marketing.
While twitter doent have quite the capabilities of facebook it provides a unique window into the band's goings on, almost being a more personal look into the band, which gives the band a little more character. which is important for the band's image.


Video hosting websites:

Examples:
 - Youtube
 - Vimeo

As mentioned before Youtube is a fantastic way to get noticed because of the sheer amount of users constantly looking for new stuff and the easiness it is for someone to click your link. A band should aim to have a good image for youtube to allow for an enticing thumbnail that people will want to click. You should also have a good quality music video to provide the content that would go along with the music.









Photography:

A band's image is defined by, well, it's image and the only way to get across a bands image is through the us of....Images....As well structured as that sentence is it does actually hold true, album art has been known to make or break an artist so having a good theme with strong, eye-catching photography is crucial for the band.

 

If we hope to mimic something like this we should aim to think about colour schemes we want present in it along side costume, lighting, themes and even the font used. A good picture will leave good first impressions and make people want to listen to the songs.

Web Hosting
We felt as a group when looking online at other inspirational rock artists each and every one of them had there own website to post on information and new uncoming albums for the viewing public to look at. After looking at this we felt that having your own websit looks more professional to the music industry and companys. Websites are cheap to host and easy to build with a small budget on hand. However as a larger group we would have to ensure to update it as often as your social network profile though. One large advantage of a website is that they don't die out. Hosting through a social networking site means that your page can fade into obscurity and potentially be closed by the social network itself due to lack of activity. By setting up your own website it is there forever and anyone can find it.