Draft Plan

Filming Date: 31/10/13

Filming Expectations: we are expecting to get all of the shots on our storyboard completed for our draft deadline on Friday. We have a total of 79 shots on our storyboard, which we will replicate to our best abilities in such a short amount of time.

Filming Time Schedule: We are expecting to be able to get all of the shots done in around 4 hours. This should give us enough time to complete editing on the Friday. Thankfully Reece and myself have only two lessons on Friday; therefore we can use our study periods and focus on completing the editing.

Filming Locations: Because our filming will take place after school, in the draft we wont be able to include all of the locations we want to use, this is because it will get to dark, thus a Saturday would be a more suited day to film on while we can use the natural light to full potential. One of our band members Dad’s has a small room, which he has all the equipment and props that we need to film in, therefore we will be able to use this room.

Location Problems: The issue we are facing with the room we our using for the draft is quite small and with a camera/tripod set up it would be a struggle fitting in all of the band and a relevant mise en scene. This is something we will have to work around on the date. Furthermore the mise en scene on the room doesn’t real suite the genre of our band, this is because it has heavy-rock genre posters around the room, therefore we will allow ourselves time before filming to clear out some of the posters and other elements of the room that don’t suit our genre and make it more conventional/suited. There is also a possibility that we will use a lot more narrative in the draft in contrast to our final piece due to the location issue. 

Draft Filming Update

We are hoping to start filming tomorrow for our draft. However there has been a twist in our filing preparation; unfortunately the camera we are supposed to be borrowing of our friend for the filming has broken, and is currently being fixed. The camera will still be available for the filming of our final video but we need to find an alternative camera for tomorrow and thursday, which is showing to be a bit of a struggle. If worst comes to worst, an iPhone 5s will have to be used to film the draft. (which actually shoots in 1080p HD)

Draft Digipak & Poster

After extensive research into minimalist digipak and album cover designs, I have decided to adopt a similar design for my digipak using one image on the front cover as the main focus then linking the other panels to this using various different methods. The image on the front cover of the digipak is an photograph I took whilst at Leeds Festival whilst a flare was illuminating part of the crowd I was in. I believe this photograph is effective for use on an album cover as it quite striking, original and will catch the target audiences eye amongst other albums. Also, the majority of the photo is blank which allows room for the band and album name to be placed onto the photograph, transforming it into an simplistic album cover (after editing). I have then tried to design the other 3 panels of the digipak to flow on from this to give a sense of continuity throughout. On the inside left panel I incorporated a zoomed in (and edited) image of the red smoke from the flare therefore creating a sense of continuity by adhering to the colour scheme. The back cover/track list is very conventional containing all the necessary information such as legal wording, barcode and record label logo. The layout of the back panel is extremely simple, maintaining a minimalist look, whilst also adhering to the colour scheme once again.

In the creation of this poster I have tried to maintain the style I used throughout the digipak of simplistic and minimal in order to achieve an effective design that stands out. Using the same image from the front album cover allows the CD to be easily recognised for those who have seen the poster and will stand out (even subconsciously) as they have seen the image somewhere before. I have again adhered to the colour scheme of my digipak to create a uniform feel between the products as this is a very common convention where a product range maintains the same colour scheme throughout all its products created. 

Draft Digipak

After extensive research into minimalist digipak and album cover designs, I have decided to adopt a similar design for my digipak using one image on the front cover as the main focus then linking the other panels to this using various different methods. The image on the front cover of the digipak is an photograph I took whilst at Leeds Festival whilst a flare was illuminating part of the crowd I was in. I believe this photograph is effective for use on an album cover as it quite striking, original and will catch the target audiences eye amongst other albums. Also, the majority of the photo is blank which allows room for the band and album name to be placed onto the photograph, transforming it into an simplistic album cover (after editing). I have then tried to design the other 3 panels of the digipak to flow on from this to give a sense of continuity throughout. On the inside left panel I incorporated a zoomed in (and edited) image of the red smoke from the flare therefore creating a sense of continuity by adhering to the colour scheme. The back cover/track list is very conventional containing all the necessary information such as legal wording, barcode and record label logo. The layout of the back panel is extremely simple, maintaining a minimalist look, whilst also adhering to the colour scheme once again.

Album Cover First Draft: The EVERYTHING- Holdfast

This cover was constructed using a photograph I took at Leeds Festival 2013 on a disposable camera and then scanned onto my computer. Prior to scanning, the photography looked very blurred and fuzzy with lots of vertical lines running through the picture (bottom photograph) which gave the picture a vintage/retro look that is a feature used in some modern day album covers. I thought this was quite effective and worked well with the text to form a professional album cover. However, I then decided to edit the photo to remove the 'vintage look' and form a more conventional looking photograph. Equally, this cover works just as well but with a different effect. 

Poster Inspiration

After research into album posters I have discovered that it is quite difficult to find high resolution images of the posters on the internet hence the reason for lack of images included in this post. However, through this research I was still able to find common conventions throughout the posters which combine to form a conventional album promoting poster. The band and album name are almost always placed on the poster along with the date of release which is a little more uncommon and is not featured on some posters that strive for a very minimalist look. Particularly, the lines above, in between and below the names on the Foals poster have caught my eye as give the poster a defined professional look and this is something I would like to replicate on my poster. I have also noticed that some posters include ratings from magazines etc. which is something that I would also like to replicate on my own poster. 

Foals Digipak Analysis

CHVRCHES: The Bones of What You Believe Digipak Analysis

Locations for the Final Music Video

The setting of any music video is of the upmost importance as a wrong location choice can ruin the entire video despite any other visuals in the video. In conjunctive videos, the location must match and correspond with both the other visuals displayed and also the lyrics in order for the video to flow professionally. In disjunctive videos, the circumstances are of course different but this does not apply to our video as we are planning to visualise the lyrics using both the setting and the artists performing the narrative elements of the video. Therefore, as we are trying to visualise the lyrics, the location will need to be perfect else we will portray the wrong image across to the audience which will lead to the visuals not matching the lyrics which is not what we intend.

After much contemplation on the subject, we have decided upon our locations for the video. We have decided to implement a wide variety of locations throughout the video that connote isolation and loneliness as this will be fitting with the lyrics of our chosen song: "Lonely Boy". We wanted to include multiple different locations as we this is common convention we have seen in videos across all genres and believe this will make our video more interesting oppose to only a few locations being used. However, finding multiple suitable locations is a arduous task considering the importance of the locations for the video but we believe it is necessary to allow the video to convey the message that we have planned. 

Firstly, the predominant location for the performance elements of the video will be in a grassy field with little/no infrastructure within the shots used. Also, we plan to film in a slightly forested pathway again with very little infrastructure.  This will ensure the focus is on the band and the instruments. This is a common convention used in videos within our genre where the band are located in a natural environment such as Olympic Airways- Foals. This will also benefit us as there as less variables that will have to consider as there will be very few members of the public passing through the area and we will be legally allowed to film. We will only have to be concerned with weather and lighting.

For the majority of the narrative shots we will be using deprived, derelict run down areas of Leicester's city centre to again connote isolation and loneliness to illustrate the lyrics. The decision to use a city centre for some of our shots was made as it will be juxtaposed with the natural nature shots for the performance part of the video and will lead to a fitting mix of both locations. Within the city location, we plan to film the leading band member (in the narrative shots) alone in what appear to be locations that would usually be deserted such as small back streets and alleys and we also plan to show the band member alone in places that would usually be thriving and very busy. Both clearly illustrating the lyrics of our chosen song.

Dependant upon access issues, we also plan to film some narrative shots in a abandoned engineering site in a village near to we live. We believe this would be a very effective location to connote loneliness and would also be intuiting for the audience as it is a rather unusual setting to use for a music video. It would also set our video apart from other music videos from similar genres.

Forested walkway

Old, Run Down street- Leicester 

Busy Highstreet- Leicester 

Derelict Building- Whetstone 

Jamie XX and Gil Scott-Heron: We're New Here Digipak Analysis

Simplistic Album Cover Ideas

Here are some examples of some simplistic album cover ideas. These album covers are realistically very easy to create; however they are extremely effective. For example the XX’s artwork for their album is simply a white ‘X’ placed on a plain black background. This binary opposite is very effective in gaining attention, and it represents the band too. Similarly Arctic Monkey’s album cover (first photo) uses the same colours, however includes sound waves in white in contrast to the X, yet again the simplistic/minimal look is very effective. The majority of these artworks are also from an indie or alternative genre, this can show that certain conventions seem to be followed throughout the genre, which is something to consider when designing our own cover.

Music Influences Playlist

This sound cloud playlists includes some of our bands (THE EVERYTHING) music influences, the kind of music which inspired them. All of the music comes from within the same or similar genres, for example indie/alternative genre.

Risk Assessment

Hazard: Falls of both crew and equipment

Answer: Yes

Severity: High

Likelihood: High

Persons at risk: All actors and crew (3+). All equipment

Precautions: We will have to be extra safe when running down steep hills and ensure all equipment is stable and secure while in use.

Hazard: Temporary structures

Answer: No 

Severity: N/A

Likelihood: N/A

Persons at risk: N/A

Precautions: N/A

Hazard: tripping hazards

Answer: Yes

Severity: High

Likelihood: High

Persons at risk: All of our band and filming crew (5 people). All equipment is at a potential risk.

Precautions: Tape down leads to the fall to prevent tripping over and damage to equipment, for example tape down guitar leads. Check the areas where filming will take place before thoroughly to make sure there aren’t any potential tripping hazards around.

Hazard: vehicles

Answer: Yes

Severity: Low

Likelihood: Low

Persons at risk: Actors and crew (3+). Camera.

Precautions: Only being used for one shot, however there is always a potential risk of a crash in a car, therefore the car driver will be concentrated on the road while the filming is taking place. Camera will be firmly held during filming to prevent chance of dropping it into the road.

Hazard: Special effects

Answer: No

Severity: N/A

Likelihood: N/A

Persons at risk: N/A

Precautions: N/A

Hazard: weapons

Answer: No

Severity: N/A

Likelihood: N/A

Persons at risk: N/A

Hazard: Burns from lighting

Answer: Yes

Severity: High

Likelihood: Low

Persons at risk: Crew and Band (3+). Can be burnt from lighting of cigarettes and also film lighting if it is psychically touched.

            Precautions: Make sure all lighting is safely positioned and isn’t too close to the crew or the band. Also turn them off when out of use to prevent overheating of the equipment, which could cause serious problems if they were touched.