Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Final Digipak
Album Cover
Steph and I had a selection of over 30 photos to choose from for our four slides for the digipak. We used the photo of the band as they were in the video for the front cover for the front cover so that the album is recognisable because of the music video. Because of the size of the picture we had to use photoshop to cut it down the size. By cutting along the two band members on the left and right we were able to move them closer to the middle in order to fit the square shape of the digipak. We looked up fonts on the internet that looked like a gritty suburban grafitti, and used the one the we liked the most, in order to create the idea that the band are intentionally pretending to be from that kind of background. I had the idea of using a space invader as the band symbol, as it goes with the idea that although the band tries to be like other rap artists, they are infact a group of nerds. We took some images off of from the Space Invaders game from Google and inserted them onto the picture again using phtoshop.
Back Cover
Originally we wanted to use the shot of the alien in the ship as the back cover but put the track listing along the horizontal panels of the vents on the back wall, but they were too small and we would be unable to show the alien in the picture as well, so in the end we decided against it but still used the same picture. The track listing was dont in a font we thought was similar to the scoreboards on old arcade games.
Inlay 1
The inlay 1 is used as it is a shot of the band from behind, which we put there as it goes directly behind the front cover which had the front of the band on it.
Inlay 2
The inlay 2 we wanted to use a shot from the video, so we took a screenshot of the ship landing and photoshopped some more images from Space Invaders into it.
Steph and I had a selection of over 30 photos to choose from for our four slides for the digipak. We used the photo of the band as they were in the video for the front cover for the front cover so that the album is recognisable because of the music video. Because of the size of the picture we had to use photoshop to cut it down the size. By cutting along the two band members on the left and right we were able to move them closer to the middle in order to fit the square shape of the digipak. We looked up fonts on the internet that looked like a gritty suburban grafitti, and used the one the we liked the most, in order to create the idea that the band are intentionally pretending to be from that kind of background. I had the idea of using a space invader as the band symbol, as it goes with the idea that although the band tries to be like other rap artists, they are infact a group of nerds. We took some images off of from the Space Invaders game from Google and inserted them onto the picture again using phtoshop.
Back Cover
Originally we wanted to use the shot of the alien in the ship as the back cover but put the track listing along the horizontal panels of the vents on the back wall, but they were too small and we would be unable to show the alien in the picture as well, so in the end we decided against it but still used the same picture. The track listing was dont in a font we thought was similar to the scoreboards on old arcade games.
Inlay 1
The inlay 1 is used as it is a shot of the band from behind, which we put there as it goes directly behind the front cover which had the front of the band on it.
Inlay 2
The inlay 2 we wanted to use a shot from the video, so we took a screenshot of the ship landing and photoshopped some more images from Space Invaders into it.
Task 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Alex:In order to discuss with a visual aid which digital technologies were used in the making of Intergalactic, Alex and I constructed a commentary script
Steph: For the pre production stage of the pop promo, we continuously used the internet, especially Youtube to research other bands and songs that are similar to our chosen one. The Youtube site enables us to watch, listen and comment of a huge variety of songs which was really helpful. We also used the search engine; Google to research star images and music genre to improve the development of our own ideas of the pop-promo.
Alex: Another example of new media technologies used in the planning of the music video is using a Sony PD170 to film the storyboards. Once filmed we used final cut pro to produce an animatic. During the shoot day we used a Sony NX5s and shot the whole video in high definition giving which gave the video better quality and thus a more professional feel. When in the studio filming the video, a 42 inch Samsung monitor was used whilst the song was being played through a CD player. Steph and I used a blue screen in our pop video as we wanted to put in backgrounds like magazine covers and Simon Cowell to show the aliens rise to fame clearly.
Steph: After filming the music video, the rough cut was transferred onto a Mac G5 where we used final cut pro to edit the music video. The software used for after effects was called After FX, this was used to change the background from the blue screen to the images evident in the music video.
Alex: For the exhibition and distribution of our music video we uploaded it onto Youtube, facebook and Blogger. All of which method are via the internet and so they are new media technologies. Youtube allowed us to reach a mass audience of all ages, cultures and genders which was beneficial as feedback was very broad. On the other hand, facebook only promoted the promo to our friends and therefore to a more confined age group.
Steph: In conclusion, new media technology played a very consistent role in all areas of producing our media product, ultimately making the whole process more efficient and time effective. The most interesting new media technology we used was the after effects, especially as both Alex and I had never used the programme before.
Steph: For the pre production stage of the pop promo, we continuously used the internet, especially Youtube to research other bands and songs that are similar to our chosen one. The Youtube site enables us to watch, listen and comment of a huge variety of songs which was really helpful. We also used the search engine; Google to research star images and music genre to improve the development of our own ideas of the pop-promo.
Alex: Another example of new media technologies used in the planning of the music video is using a Sony PD170 to film the storyboards. Once filmed we used final cut pro to produce an animatic. During the shoot day we used a Sony NX5s and shot the whole video in high definition giving which gave the video better quality and thus a more professional feel. When in the studio filming the video, a 42 inch Samsung monitor was used whilst the song was being played through a CD player. Steph and I used a blue screen in our pop video as we wanted to put in backgrounds like magazine covers and Simon Cowell to show the aliens rise to fame clearly.
Steph: After filming the music video, the rough cut was transferred onto a Mac G5 where we used final cut pro to edit the music video. The software used for after effects was called After FX, this was used to change the background from the blue screen to the images evident in the music video.
Alex: For the exhibition and distribution of our music video we uploaded it onto Youtube, facebook and Blogger. All of which method are via the internet and so they are new media technologies. Youtube allowed us to reach a mass audience of all ages, cultures and genders which was beneficial as feedback was very broad. On the other hand, facebook only promoted the promo to our friends and therefore to a more confined age group.
Steph: In conclusion, new media technology played a very consistent role in all areas of producing our media product, ultimately making the whole process more efficient and time effective. The most interesting new media technology we used was the after effects, especially as both Alex and I had never used the programme before.
Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Our video was uploaded onto Youtube so can be viewed by a potential global audience. We received comments like “Well performed - narrative slightly unclear. Great setting and after effects :) GOOD JOB. !”
Because the video was on the Hurtwoodhousemedia channel on Youtube it may not be seen unless the audience goes specifically into this channel. The video was also posted on our blogs but again this is opens us up to a limited audience as people would have to log into Blogger before seeing it.
Steph and I posted the video onto our facebook pages which allowed our friends to see it, which allowed us to gain a more viewers and better feedback, like “Great after effects, good job!”
In one lesson we got twenty people to fill out a form about the video asking them questions after watching it. The questions included 'was the narrative and the alien's rise and fall from fame clear?' which meant we were able to get a better understanding of how we could have improved our video or anything we could have added to it before publishing it onto the internet. This would have been better to do during the production of the video as we would have been able to change certain aspects of the video to improve it.
70% of the people we asked liked the song choice, although only 45% of the viewers had heard of the Beastie Boys. Everyone answered on the questionnaire that they enjoyed the video.
Both Steph and I agree with many of the comments about the narrative not being very clearly, and if we could improve one aspect of the video that would definitely be the thing we would improve.
Because the video was on the Hurtwoodhousemedia channel on Youtube it may not be seen unless the audience goes specifically into this channel. The video was also posted on our blogs but again this is opens us up to a limited audience as people would have to log into Blogger before seeing it.
Steph and I posted the video onto our facebook pages which allowed our friends to see it, which allowed us to gain a more viewers and better feedback, like “Great after effects, good job!”
In one lesson we got twenty people to fill out a form about the video asking them questions after watching it. The questions included 'was the narrative and the alien's rise and fall from fame clear?' which meant we were able to get a better understanding of how we could have improved our video or anything we could have added to it before publishing it onto the internet. This would have been better to do during the production of the video as we would have been able to change certain aspects of the video to improve it.
70% of the people we asked liked the song choice, although only 45% of the viewers had heard of the Beastie Boys. Everyone answered on the questionnaire that they enjoyed the video.
Both Steph and I agree with many of the comments about the narrative not being very clearly, and if we could improve one aspect of the video that would definitely be the thing we would improve.
Task 2 - Poster
We had to find a number of venues for our band to perform in that we could put on our poster, so I decided to look at the venues that the Beastie Boys played in themselves, assuring that the kind of audience that would attend would be the same. We can assume that as the band is a mainstream group, in a years time they would have gained some popularity and would be a well known, allowing them to play in large arenas with large audiences.
We used the photo from the digipak back cover for the poster and the same font type and colour for the title to show synergy between the two products.
Friday, 11 February 2011
Our second task is to create a promotional poster for our band. To do this we need to research existing posters for artists of many genres. Above is a poster of Eminem's album 'The Marshall Mathers LP'. Being one his first albums, he needed to create an image for himself that would define him for his career. That is what we need to do for our band.
For the promotional poster, there needs to be an interesting aspect of the band that would attract our audience, which we think should be a lighthearted approach. We want the band to show rap in a good light, making it seem fun and upbeat again like it was when it started all those years ago.
We could do this by use of colour, style, writing font and selction of photos.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Monday, 7 February 2011
After Effects
For the whole of the narrative strand, we needed to use after effects for the backgrounds as we filmed him in front of blue screen. With Adobe After Effects, we replaced the blue screen with backgrounds we found on the internet or made on Photoshop. We resized the shots and and used key light to affect the lighting so as much of the blue screen as possible was changed to be the background. For the beginning and end sequence of the video where the ship lands and leaves we used a basic key frame animation, where we place 3 points on the screen and After Effects fills a path for the image to take, resulting in a moving object in the shot.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Editing
We started editing our music video a few days after the shoot day was finished. We had 2 two and a half weeks to finish the whole music video, which Steph and I found quite difficult, especially as our video had lots of special effects. To start off with, we made bins for each type of shot, as well as those we wanted to use and those we weren't planning on putting in the final cut.
Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. Before doing any of the editing we put the track down on final cut pro. We then put the first runthrough of the rap over it cutting it to the beat. Luckily our song has a very prominent beat which is easily identified, so syncing the sound to the image was very easy. Once this is done, the hard part comes when trying to layer other shots of the rappers over the top of it as we were only using smaller parts, maybe only a few seconds long. We only had a few shots of the rappers singing the actual song, so although we were limited in how many shots we could use, it made the process very simple with the selecting shots and inserting them, as we didn't have to go through many shots to find a specific movement or action we liked, as they were already in the shots we had due to good direction on the shoot day. We used shots from all of the runthroughs of the song, as well as the short shots of the rappers repeating the word from the end of each line.
After we had got the cut we wanted with the performance, we added the other element of the performance, like the reactions to what was happening to the alien character, and the part where the ship starts to fall apart. I think we managed this well, and were able to sync the rapping perfectly amidst the chaos of the scene.
The final part of the editing process was to put the narrative strand in. This was much easier as the shots were all similar, and all we had to do was to select a shot that could fill in the spaces that we had specifically left for these shots, which matched a certain point in the song.
Now all that had to be done was the after effects.
Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. Before doing any of the editing we put the track down on final cut pro. We then put the first runthrough of the rap over it cutting it to the beat. Luckily our song has a very prominent beat which is easily identified, so syncing the sound to the image was very easy. Once this is done, the hard part comes when trying to layer other shots of the rappers over the top of it as we were only using smaller parts, maybe only a few seconds long. We only had a few shots of the rappers singing the actual song, so although we were limited in how many shots we could use, it made the process very simple with the selecting shots and inserting them, as we didn't have to go through many shots to find a specific movement or action we liked, as they were already in the shots we had due to good direction on the shoot day. We used shots from all of the runthroughs of the song, as well as the short shots of the rappers repeating the word from the end of each line.
After we had got the cut we wanted with the performance, we added the other element of the performance, like the reactions to what was happening to the alien character, and the part where the ship starts to fall apart. I think we managed this well, and were able to sync the rapping perfectly amidst the chaos of the scene.
The final part of the editing process was to put the narrative strand in. This was much easier as the shots were all similar, and all we had to do was to select a shot that could fill in the spaces that we had specifically left for these shots, which matched a certain point in the song.
Now all that had to be done was the after effects.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Account of the Shoot Day
Painting and co-ordinating the set was done on Friday afternoon, the previous school day before actually filming the footage. Our set really came together at this point; the painting and attention to detail on the plastic space-craft like panels truly made the set come to life. To give an idea of the set it was made from three silver painted walls in a rectangular shape, with three vent looking panel across the back walls. We also have a controls box of about four foot with painted knobs and monitors, on the other side there was another panel with many different buttons on it. We left school for the weekend looking forward to filming the music video on Monday.
The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. I therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we just didn't have. After a quick costume change I was ready to continue the practises. When we felt that it was time to start filming we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations. Being in the video was good as I could perform in a way that me and Steph wanted for the video, but it hindered my ability to judge the shots and direct them a I was no longer spending all the time behind the camera. With the initial mid shots done after three takes of the rap part, the other performers and I started to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, we did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.
For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the foreground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. In these scene I felt more comfortable as I was able to direct with Steph behind the camera and give ideas while seeing how the shot looked on film. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it though eventually after 5 or 6 takes we managed to get it right.
After this shot was completed, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair in both mid shot and close up.
The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.
The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. I therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we just didn't have. After a quick costume change I was ready to continue the practises. When we felt that it was time to start filming we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations. Being in the video was good as I could perform in a way that me and Steph wanted for the video, but it hindered my ability to judge the shots and direct them a I was no longer spending all the time behind the camera. With the initial mid shots done after three takes of the rap part, the other performers and I started to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, we did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.
For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the foreground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. In these scene I felt more comfortable as I was able to direct with Steph behind the camera and give ideas while seeing how the shot looked on film. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it though eventually after 5 or 6 takes we managed to get it right.
After this shot was completed, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair in both mid shot and close up.
The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Props
We bought 4 jumpsuits the week before the shoot. We ordered the specific sizes after having measured the people we were using in the video, and using a spray can we painted them silver. For the headwear we had a construction helmet also painted silver, a white beanie and a red neck scarf in order to create the individual identities of the band members.
Building the Set
The afternoon before shooting Steph and I were able to go along and help with the painting and putting together of the set. The set for our video had three main functions: inside the space craft, the outside of the space craft and the blue screen background. Our first shot of the day according to the shooting schedule was the rappers within the space craft so we therefore set up the ship to save time the following day. Apart from the initial painting there were other areas like ensuring the panel on the set were straight and which colours to use on the knobs of the control pads that took up a lot of time. We felt that by putting in small details and paying attention to detail it would create more of a professional vide and ultimately make our video look better. One of the largest issues we had whilst set building was deciding what to do with the doors. Firstly we had decided to try to incorporate them into the set so they could be shown at all time and equally so the audience would be more aware that the alien was leaving the ship that had the rappers in, not that they were separate. But after a short chat, we felt that it would be more advantageous to not include the doors and have them separately and instead build up narrative of many reactions shots of the rappers from the actions of the alien. Now the only issue was getting the doors to open at the same time and at the same speed with people pulling them apart. This was very difficult, especially with lots of smoke and flashing lights but after around four attempts the doors were starting to move evenly and the monitor showed promising results.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Storyboards
This was a key stage to the ideas and development of our video, as through creating the storyboards we were able to get a rough idea of what kinds of shots we wanted in the video and what we wanted to be going on within those shots. The majority of the shots were focused on the two parts involving the band members. The first being the performance, the other being small parts where the band does something comical related to the part in the song. The rest was of the alien character in the narrative becoming a celebrity and later falling from stardom. For the narrative we planned to use all kinds of shots, like extreme close ups to extreme long shots, while the performance was limited to mainly mid/wide shots throughout.
We later had to film these images and edit them into a version of what we were planning our video to look like.
Friday, 14 January 2011
Camera Testing
Before deciding on a final cast, we needed to camera test and take photos of some of the people we were thinking of having in the video. We needed to make sure that the people both looked good on camera, but also that they were not at all uncomfortable being filmed but instead that they could be lively and energetic to match the mood of the song. If someone were going to be shy or awkward taking direction from just a few people then they may not be able to handle it on the day where there would be much more people about behind the camera.
Letter to Record Label
Def Jam records
2220 Colorado Avenue,
Santa Monica,
CA 90404
6th October 2010
Dear Sirs,
Myself and Alex Roberts would like to use your song “Intergalactic” for our A level media promotional pop video task at Hurtwood House. The aim is to create a unique video idea to go with your chosen song; our idea is keeping in tune with the video you created. Our ideas include an Alien coming to the planet Earth and instantaneously getting given a contract. We will use many shots to show the rise and fall of him and have fast cut editing to three rappers miming the words of the song. We hope that this will be ok especially as it is school policy to upload completed videos onto you tube. If you would like to contact us please email me back or have any questions do not hesitate to ask.
Many thanks, yours sincerely
Stephanie White and Alex Roberts
2220 Colorado Avenue,
Santa Monica,
CA 90404
6th October 2010
Dear Sirs,
Myself and Alex Roberts would like to use your song “Intergalactic” for our A level media promotional pop video task at Hurtwood House. The aim is to create a unique video idea to go with your chosen song; our idea is keeping in tune with the video you created. Our ideas include an Alien coming to the planet Earth and instantaneously getting given a contract. We will use many shots to show the rise and fall of him and have fast cut editing to three rappers miming the words of the song. We hope that this will be ok especially as it is school policy to upload completed videos onto you tube. If you would like to contact us please email me back or have any questions do not hesitate to ask.
Many thanks, yours sincerely
Stephanie White and Alex Roberts
Set Design
For our det design we wanted to recreate the inside of a spacecraft, which from the start we wanted to be instantly recognisable as that, which we planned to do by use of silver walls, control panels and buttons and coloured lights. We looked at pictures on the internet of cockpits of shuttles for inspiration before drawing a rough design.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Location Ideas
We needed a location for the narrative that was close to school that we could travel to and shoot in in a short amount of time, which we were planning to be just one afternoon. Guildford high street is just 25 minutes away, so the idea of using Guildford High street as a location seemed good as the town is not an extremely modern town with traditional shops and large stone buildings. This would fit with the theme of the 50's, which we desired to match the old sci-fi scene.
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