Change of Technology from the Make-shift Dolly to the Manfrotto Monopod 390

Reasons for change: 

• Easier to travel to destination with
• Creates a more stabilised shot 
• More successful to follow subject
• Less friction from the ground as you just carry in your hands
• Lightweight

Monday 12th December

Screen-grab taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2652221

What happened when we arrived....

At the location we were supposed to shoot at - Subway and Bridge



Closed down due to construction

Due to this situation,  our planning and initial view and ideas of our products will be affected. Therefore a new plan will be thought up as the construction within Coventry is supposed to dramatically change the view of the area and will be there for quite some time. 


This location is also not very cost or time effective so the site of the moving-image product will defiantly change. 

Original Call Sheet

http://nolanmedia.blogspot.com/2011/12/call-sheet.html

Changes in the weather and illness of the cast resulted in a reschedule of the shoot and therefore the call sheet will have to be edited. Therefore shooting times will most likely be compacted into less days yet longer shooting times (more hours). 

Production Schedule

Time schedule

Monday 12th December = Travel to Coventry for about 5.30pm to shoot setup shots of video
Bring - Camera, tripod, make-shift dolly for tripod, high visability jacket, music media to play song for lip syncing, shot list and story board

Make-shift Dolly made for the filming/production of Video

BBC Weather for Shoot week 5-9th of december - Coventry

From researching into the weather forecast for Coventry (the destination we are to shoot at), this prepares us for weather conditions in which will affect the avability to film or extend our resource list. If we film on thursday we may have to be prepared for rain and therefore bring an extra coat, however it the weather is bad we may have to reschedule the shoot for another day.

 We will  also have to worry about having a consistant weather/atmosphere in each of the shots; as we will be shooting on different days this may be tricky, however we will have to work around the weather and make it work postitively.

Shot List

The shot list is complete, follow link : http://nolanmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/shot-list.html

Getting to Grips with the camera - DSLR

( Tripod use )

Magazine Advert Design Idea

The typeface 'Papyrus' worked well for the magazine advert as it carried on the look of the background/artwork. To make the background, I used the images I took of Coventry for the storyboard and tore each image instead of cutting them out, to create the collage layout look. The typeface I used looked very much like this teared effect.
This idea was effective and may be used in the final layout and design.

Location Recce

Digi-pak outline (Original Design)

Treatment

The treatment is complete follow link : http://nolanmedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/treatment.html

New Media and Software used within project

Celtx

During the production of my storyboard I used the software called Celtx. There were many postives to this technology, for example to download it was cost-free, the software was easy to use and to understand and was definatly time efficient.

The media itself is a pre-production software which is multi-media friendly as it can be used to create and organise all types of media such as novels, comics, film, advertising, music video, podcasts and so on. Celtx offers the complete production process from write scrips and sketch setups to production schedules. 

(Screengrab taken from http://celtx.com/)

Celtx - Story Board Screengrabs

 

 

Time Plan

Thursday 10th- Location - Coventry - Story board and shoot location plan, Photographs for storyboard.

Wednesday 16th - Upload Story Board
Friday 18th - 21st-  Location Recce and Research into New Media Celtx + Magazine layout idea 
22nd - 23rd - Practising shooting with Camera - DSLR

Influences for intital ideas of Music Video Production

All these videos contain the shot of tracking a subject while they lip-sync to the lyric of the song. This effect I thought would be very effective and exciting to explore and make. Within the planning of this type of video i will be going to Coventry(Thursday 10th November), as this is the location i am planning to shoot the video at; to take photos and choose the exact street in which we will use. From this a storyboard with photographs shall be produced, with the acknowledgement of the locations features such as stairs, alley ways, shops, bus-stops, side roads and other important elements which will affect the certain shot types and camera movement.

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony - Directed by Walter A. Stern

The opening sequence begins with a crabbing shot of the subjects feet which then develops into a mid-shot, revealing the subjects identity (Richard Ashcroft).

 For another thirteen seconds of the introduction which is accompanied by the instrumental music, the camera movement gradually zooms out and introduces the location of the music video, a busy street/pavement of an English town. (London)

When the drum instrument kicks in, the subject emphasises this effect by beginning to walk in time with the beat. He has a confident stride which later is emphasised by he oblivious behaviour, as he does not react to anything that is going on around him (refusal to change his direction or pace of stride).





(Action - Knocks a passer-by off her feet by pushing past)



From this video I was inspired to want to create this 'pavement-journey' type video. The use of the different camera work is very effective and also capable to reconstruct.

Point of view shot

Close up - Lip sync

Insert Shot

Cutaway - Reaction shot

The meaning portrayed by the video is how the subject has the ambition and strength to get to where ever he wants and nothing will stop him or stand in his way. The world around him also seems very negative and out to get him, however this does not interup his ambitions.

Primary Analyse of Bon Iver Digipak + Research

 

Review of Album : http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?p=91047361

Analysis of The Killers' Sam's Town CD Case-Jewel Case




Outside of CD Case

 
 This compact disk case I am analysing is the Killers' album, Sam's Town, which has been produced by Flood and Alan Moulder with the Killers. The co-producer Flood appears in the Album's booklet, dressed as an American Native.


The front of the digipak displays what the album features and star ratings from magazines such as The Guardian, Q and Mojo. This would show the purchaser of the album it is worth buying.

The monochrome colour scheme of the album sets the tone of the indie-rock band.

The typeface used for the albums title is of the archive roundhand script. The title of the album was taken from Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, the hometown of the band. 

Visually the album is targeting primarily males, due to the black and red colour scheme and the use of the female model in a bikini (Felice Lazae). The model and the ram frame the shot of the image, they also show the band's American background (due to her 'Miss' sash). 

The back of the album has the image of all the band together. This wide shot reveals their body language which is quite cool and relaxed, this relates to their music which is in the sub-genre of indie-rock.
This style has the characteristics of the do-it yourself attitude, this is portrayed by the impression they express to their audience; the band have their co-producer make an appearance in their album booklet as a model. 



The album was themed very much around America and the band's background; "Hot Fuss was all based on fantasy. The English influences the make up, they were what I imagined rock was. I'm a dreamer, you know? So I dug into that dream and made Hot Fuss. But hearing people call us the best British band from America made me wonder about my family and who i really was. That's what Sam's Town is really about.

Sam's Town wasn't some love letter to America or overreaching mythic thing. It was about me. I sang about my Grandma Dixie and my brother being born on the 4th of July and guess what? My Grandma's name is Dixie and my brother was born on the 4th of July 1969.  " Brandon Flowers in 2009, reflecting on the negative reviews the album received. His quote portrays how Sam's Town was just written about the band's hometown and life. The photography of the album which was done by Anton Corbijn also relates to American and Las Vegas by the location and subjects chosen.  

Inside Album with Advert & CD

The ram is a symbolism for leadership, power, force, authority and sacrifice. The ram head is also sacred in witchcraft and Satanism. Relating to songs within the album, When We Were Young: " They say the devil's water, it ain't so sweet", Bling (Confession of a King) "So I ran with the devil", The River Is Wild "Because that bitch, Keeps trying to make him pray". This evidence within their lyrics suggests their are hints of Satanism within their music.
However Brandon Flowers is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints suggests the reason for the appearence of the ram to be otherwise; that Flowers does have the belief of the devil and yet worships Jesus Christ and God, hence the mention within song lyrics. Such as within When We Were Young "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus" and My List "And your prayers they’re not fables " have biblical content. So therefore enforce the band as powerful and authoritive for their auidence to admire and create a loyal fanbase.

Using the advert to give the buyer the choice to use the artist's music on other media types (mobile phones), this new media use within their album shows the band are modern and up to date on technologies and knowledge.



Inside Album without Advert or CD



Inside the case the same image used upon the CD of the rams head is then duplicated within the case itself. The techniqual reason for this is that it gives the consumers the recognisable relation from CD to case and therefore for them to know where to place the CD easily.

Plan to improve Blog.

• Analyise complete promotional package - One artists magazine advert of an album or single, the digi-pack for that single or album and the music video. 
• Research more in depth of primary and secondary audience research - put results into graph and conclude results. 
• More in depth research into New Media 
• Include information on the software and hardware which I plan to use 

Cross-Media Advertising

Definition of cross media - advertising with the use of different media types intergrated together to achieve higher value and wider audience reach. 

An example of cross media is music videos. The visual image of an music video is made to accompany an artist's record and the lyric of the song. They are mostly made for artistic and promotional intentions.
Music videos are used to promote the artists single or album and influence the audience to go out and buy the artist's products.

New Media - Adobe Photoshop CS5

The latest version of photoshop has many new and updated features in which positively influence the creative and reduce time in which it takes to edit photographs.
Photoshop CS5's new features include:

• Complex selections made easy
• Content-Aware fill
• Superior HDR imaging
• Extraordinary painting effects
• Easier UI management
• State-of-the-art raw image processing
• Puppet Warp
• Efficient workflow
• 64-bit performance
• GPU-accelerated features
• Black-and-white conversion
• Photoshop companion apps for iPad
• Adobe Color Lava color mixing app for iPad
• Adobe Eazel painting app for iPad
• Adobe Nav productivity app for iPad

Ratings (taken of http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html) :

Reviews : http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/software/356920/adobe-photoshop-cs5

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/reviews/7690298/Adobe-Photoshop-CS5-review.html

In the production of my own media products, for example the digi-pak and magazine advert, Photoshop will be useful to use in editing and design.

Useful Technologies- New Media - The Qr Code.

When researching into existing products the use of the Quick Response Code came up reguarly in different products. For example, I found many album adverts providing these codes for the audience's use to scan, using their smart-phones to recieve more information on the artists and their new album's, also linking them to digitally purchase the items.


 Qr codes are a two-dimensional bar code that contain information which usually feature URLs that take the consumers to a certain website which relates to the subject they are placed on. The consumer can learn more about the certain subject. - (Mobile tagging)


Decoding the information within the QR code can be done with any camera-phone that has the QR reader software.


Secondary Research - An useful article on QR codes by Educause Learning Initiative

This research is useful for the production of my own media product, as technologies like the QR codes will be interpreted and made in such things as the magazine advert.

Media Time Plan

10th October - Technologies - Useful for my media production- info on Qr Codes.

11th October - Research into new media - Photoshop cs5 & into Cross-media advertising

Research on existing products - The Jewel Case & Digipak

Jewel Case

This example is of a quite simple design of a jewel case. Within this project I am to produce a dijipak product which is like this but with additional panels within the design. Researching into the contrasts and comparisions of the different designs is useful as it helps identify the construction and conceptions of a digipak. The design is obviously important as it would be the first thing the audience/buyer would see, therefore would want it to be attractive and pleasing to the eye. 

Jewel Case Design

Example of Jewel Case

The back of the jewel case shows the content of the CD and also works with the themed artwork of the whole album. 

6- Panel Digi pak Design

6-panel Digipak

example: 

Definition : 

"Digipacks are a type of CD packaging made out of card stock or other heavy paper/cardboard material. Digipacks can flip open like a book, or it can have three parts, so that one portion of the packaging opens to the right and one to the left, with the CD in the center portion. Usually, the portion of the digipack that hold the CD is made of plastic like a traditional jewel case CD - the plastic part is simply attached to the paper background.
Digipacks were first created by MeadWestvaco, and their product, called Digi-Pak, is trademarked. However, as the format became more popular and began to be used by more manufacturers, the generic "digipack" came to be used to describe all soft CD packaging.
Digipacks have pros and cons:

• They look nice, and many bands and labels like to use them for aesthetic reasons. The three section digipack sleeves opens up more design options because there is more room. However, they're more expensive than traditional liner notes and jewel cases.
  
• Digipacks don't crack like jewel cases do, but they will rip and eventually the paper begins to peel apart and separate.
  
• The trays in digipacks break much more often then in jewel cases. There's not as much protection since the outer portion of made of paper, so the teeth that hold the CD in place crack and fall out easily.
  
• When the teeth of the tray does break in a digipack, the CD falls out of the bottom of the digipack, because unlike jewel cases, there is nothing to hold it in.
  
• Digipacks can be more environmentally friendly than jewel cases because they can be made of recycled paper - however, they aren't always in fact made in this way.
  

Digipacks look great, but if you're just starting out and money is tight, looking for ways to cut your manufacturing costs is important. Stretching your budget to because you like digipacks aesthetically is not a good investment."

(Taken from http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digipacksleeve.htm by Heather McDonald)