Friday, 4 March 2011

Pre-Production: Risk Assessment

  • The Masks restrict Vision so it will be important that the 'actors' take caution at all times when moving around the location as there are many hazards in the area where we are filming.
  • The Location is Old & Dangerous because we are filming in an abandoned airfield with many hazards such as broken glass, loose floor boards, burnt down rooms and decaying walls & ceilings. We must take caution when travelling around the site and filming, we should consider using protective clothing, thick boots and taking a small first aid kit just in case of any slight accidents.
  • Debris from props can fiy into people so it's a good idea to keep a safe distance from the actors using a bat to destroy the prop and to place the broken items we have used into the skip at the end of our work.
  • Holding the camera out of the car is dangerous, so the cameraman must hold a firm grip and keep limbs in the vehicle at all times.

FINISHED WEBSITE

Here is the link to our finished website to promote the band.





The only problem we came across that we could actually complain about is the fact that we could not include the song "Fraud" on the website because this was a feature in which the school would have to pay for. Below you will see a screenshot of what our site looks like. Thankfully Adam had good knowledge of how to use the site which came in handy when we came across uploading issues.



Below you will find the photo's we took for the website's "Photoshoot", we made paper cranes to suit the theme of our production along with the main character showing some sort of anguish in the picture to depict the emotions he feels throughout the main project.

FINISHED DIGIPAK

Here is our finished Digipak which we worked on together editing and sharing the file and adding to it as a group.
We wanted to achieve a simplistic look which wasn't to cluttered or serious, opting for a more casual look which captures the style of "The Scarlet Harlots".


This is the front cover which features the Band's name which is a very important title to have on a front cover as it informs the viewer what the name is of the group. We used different fonts for each letter to provide a more "rebelious" look to co-incide with the 'Fraud' song in the music video. The main character is also featured with a grizzly bear behind him.


Here is the back cover of the Digipak. Here you can see diamonds which is a running theme throughout our design, aswell as the decision to give each track name a different font in order for the song name to stand out and look different from each other, all while giving that abstract feel which matches the band's music.



Other characters from the Music Video are included on the inside covers, here you can see the themes such as animals and diamonds, as well as the crumpled up bit of paper which is the main background for our Digipak. This is in two sections and folds together to make a bigger picture.



This is the other section that goes with the top half, here you can see a cheetah chasing two characters that are from the Music Video. We are continuing with the abstract style that fits with this music style and "The Scarlet Harlets" general design.



We saw the Bombay bicycle clubs album cover and liked the idea of having someone falling, so we decided to have one of our characters fall into a pit of crocodiles in keeping with animal theme.


And finally we have the CD holder, we decided to go for a very simplistic look on this one and keep the CD itself the main feature on the page which will fit neatly where the large black disk has been placed.

Pre-Production: Digipak sketch

We worked together on the Digipak sketch and included ideas as to how it would look and where we would place certain objects and characters. I have a basic knowledge of photoshop and this will prove useful to our Digipak production.

Pre-Production: Digipak Research

In order to create a digipak we had to do a bit of research and pre-production planing in order to see what would work best for our production and whether or not we would include an information booket or place the info inside the actual covers of the package.

4 Panel 1 Tray CD Digipak Template



4 Panel 1 Tray CD Digipak with Outer Mooncut Pocket Template



4 Panel 1 Tray CD Digipak with Outer Walled Pocket Template


6 Panel 1 Tray CD Digipak with Gatefold Template

6 Panel 1 Tray CD Digipak Rollfold Template (This is the design that we chose in the end due to it's abililty to showcase various designs and the masks we have created.)

Pre-Production: Filming = Rough cut

Here are some shots of the crew filming a rough cut in order to give us a main idea of how we want things to look, we do have a new rough cut featuring an entirely new loaction but this is important to include as this was part of our pre-porduction.



This rough cut is missing parts of the original storyboard, but this does not really matter due to us having a new rough cut and a whole new board with a shot list and location.

Pre-Production: Filming = Rough cut

Here are some shots of the crew filming a rough cut in order to give us a main idea of how we want things to look, we do have a new rough cut featuring an entirely new loaction but this is important to include as this was part of our pre-porduction.

Pre-Production: Mask creation





Here's some screens of the masks being produced.



The masks were made out of paper mache and paint, including a personalised look for each character.

Research: Location Scout

Here are serveral pictures which include me and my group looking for appropriate places to film.
It should be noted that we have changed our location setting and I will upload that post in the near future, as for now I will evaluate the following pictures as follows.






Here is me in the toilets lol, our idea was to have the main character find the mask in the toilet which would enable use of the mirror as he picks it up and wears it. This would give a couple shots of the character from behind as well as facing the camera.





Another shot of me near the lockers, this would mean we could have our character walking alone down this corridor and use an edit effect of multiple people flashing by him, similar to what you see in those movies where the character walks through a busy street and the camera only focuses on the main character while everyone else is moving incredibly fast and flashy, emphasizing the importance of that one character at that moment in time.





Yours truly staring deep into the camera.

This is a very important location as this is the entrance area that will introduce the character. We would be able to capture shots of the character entering and leaving the toilet as well as leaving the school. The size of the area is very useful and would provide us with room to get the best shots possible.






This shot includes a mirror in which you can see Adam and Kiel, we prerfer this shot over the stairs due to the mirror and the potential of this shot in terms of showcasing the actual character.

We don't really like this shot as much as we like the lift. Although it has it's uses such as doing something similar like the flashy corridor shot and having the shots of the character moving up and down the stairs including more engery then just sitting in the lift, we still like the fact that the lift has the mirror for us to use. We don't want the video to be all the same and lose the viewers interest.

Research: Early Storyboard

While I was away Adam and Kiel drew up a storyboard.

This was a fairly detailed representation of how our main idea would work, containg such notes as location, film techniques and characters.
Since this board we have all worked on a bigger and better storyboard with more details and a shot list to acompany it.

Research: Main Idea

The main idea has been centred around the song, we picked the song first then decided how we would build around the music and create a video. Much like real producers who first have a song then find a way to create an interesting music video .
The song is called "fraud" so we decided that we would have a main character who uses a mask he finds to conceal his identity and take on another persona in the form of a rebelious being who spreads his choas to others my giving them similar masks.
There has to be energy in the shot depicting the pent up emotions and rebelios feel that should emit from the people wearing the masks. In order to achieve this, the actors must show speed and energy in their movements which will match the song.

Our old idea, which sounded good at the time, was to use a flip book and draw the animations but we decided that this would be a tedious and time consuming project which had many editing and production problems.

I had an idea of using toys to animate it but much like the idea mentioned above it harboured the same problems, such as requiring around 30 frames per second in order to make a smooth animation.

Research: Target Audience

In order to grasp an idea of our target audience, I created a Questionaire out to 20 students at my school and 15 people outside my school.

The school questionare had 10 males and 10 females aged 16-19 and had several questions asking things such as what genres people listened to, whether they watched Music Videos and if so what channels, if they owned an iPod or any MP3 devices and how long the music should be and the like.

The questionare handed to 15 people outside the school involved 8 females and 7 males, aged 20-27. The questions were the same as the school version.

This type of research enabled me to gather the type of data I needed to determine my target audience and who we would need to 'sell' the music to. The main question that proved most useful to me and my group was the "Do you prefer highly edited flashy material for a music video, or a more natural raw version with less special effects?" It turns out the most favoured type was the one with the higher production values, it should be noted that people aged 16-19 preffered this whereas older participants didn't mind and often opted for the more simpler production.

People aged 16-19 seemed to want a music video tailored to their current generation and styles, they preffered it when the people in the video wore similar clothes to them and were representing a genre that they enjoyed.

People aged 20-27 voted for the same thing as the younger participants, and that includes an artist who they can relate to.

To conclude, the question was a valuble piece of data that has improved my research and given us the insight to decide how we will construct our production and most importantly who to distribute it to.

Research: Music Promo and choice of Music

We have chosen to use a song by "The Scarlet Harlets" who's main genre consists of 'Indie' and are an unsigned band. It's important to note that the type of song we have chosen is very upbeat and the images on screen in our production will have to mirror the pace of the song.

A Music promo is virtually the same concept as a music video and aims to 'promote' the band and their music. Ultimately the idea is to draw in an audience and produce sales in order to make a profit as media is a business.