Photoshoot- Outside natural lighting vs inside artificial lighting

Originally, we thought of taking the photoshoot outside, however we can see such a difference in the way it is presented between inside and outside locations. We believed that shooting inside seemed more professional, helped fit in to their look, and fulfilled the typical 'dark' look of the post hardcore genre. By looking at other artists in the same genre, such as 'All time low' it was evident that the band members should predominantly wear black, and it should be either shot on set or in a fitting location. We therefore decided to shoot it in the graffiti tunnel in order for it to fit these requirements. If we shot outside, the whole look would have came across as completely different, which is not what we were aiming for. Both All time low and the Perfect fall photoshoot had a graffiti background, which shows that we have researched well and have become similar to these artists. 

Perfect Fall photo shoot

All Time Low photo shoot

Filming in an outside location looks extremely different

Star image of Perfect fall

Perfect fall is the name of the band we are going to shoot, who will be performing '100 Sleepless Nights' by Pierce The Veil.

We researched the star image of post hardcore bands to see their look, style and personalities and how this can be portrayed to the audience. Firstly, it is essential in ANY band, that the band members have a good relationship with each other. The following picture illustrates the chemistry that 'Perfect Fall' share with each other, and as it is photographed, their audience will seem welcomed into their music and they will become likable.

This is vital as bands are usually only successful if they are likable and have good chemistry between them.

Furthermore, the band have brought their instruments with them, which further echos the fact that they want to enter the music industry as an organic band. The fact that there are no close ups of their faces, show that we want to sell their musical talent rather than their image. 

The following picture of Rodrigo appeals to the post hardcore teenager audience because it represents rebellion. Smoking is obviously not want to set an example of, but is an easy way to present their rebelliousness. This is also the reason why we are targeting late teenagers, not early teenagers as smoking is a bad influence on the youth. 

The following picture of Bennie, the Lead Singer, shows him shouting. The type of music of post hardcore includes some shouting in it which is why the image relates to the genre. Furthermore his red-ish hair and the eyebrow piercing also further illustrates his 'emo look'. 

Tristan is the Guitarist, and he is fulfilling the star image of a post hardcore band member. The long mop hair cut amd the piercings enables him to fit in to the rest of the band very nicely.

The image below shows the lighting focused on them. once again we can clearly see their guitars and drum sticks which prove their organic approach. Filming in the Graffiti Tunnel was a great idea as the background really fitted in to the genre and look. As graffiti is vandalism, it also fits in to the rebellious teenage target audience.

The drummer, Daniel, also fits into the star image due to his clothing. The all black clothes shows he appeals to the post hardcore target audience as it is nothing that stands out too much. The edited image also contrast the black and white background to Daniel, who is in colour. However because he is wearing black he does not stand out as much as he should be, which helps the audience notice that.

We want to portray Rodrigo as the 'good looking' one in the band. His pose of looking down to the camera shows his power to the audience.

Serge is the other guitarist, his personality seems to shine through a bit more as he seems less intimidating and just gets on with performing. 

Digipack design research

Music video analysis 3- Weightless- Animations influences on our music video- researching music videos

In this music video, Weightless, the animations was really something that appealed to me, and something i have put forward as a suggestion to the group to try and use similar effects when we start editing. I noticed how the words that popped up on the screen were not the actual lyrics, instead they were words that the band were thinking and what they are doing.

This is different from when we looked at the song 'All i want' by A day to remember. Where all the animations on screen where the actual lyrics of the song. They also included arrows, and the question marks with an X on the bottom is appealing to their target audience as it is different, and once again links in to the emo idea and what they demand. 

 It was important to look at other music videos within our genre and see how their music videos differ to other genres, and with a few that we have researched so far, they use a lot of post-effects in editing.
They also focused on effects coming off of the instruments, which makes the video more interesting and different.

CD cover analysis 1: All Time Low's 'Dont Panic'

The name of the band of this album cover is All time low- who are, like Pierce the Veil, an American punk rock band. The name 'All time low' is depressing, as it means that people at their lowest point in their life. Therefore one can ask if they are targeting more than just the Emo target audience, are they also targeting depressing people?

The sans serif font stands out because they are clearer, thicker and boulder. The font design is concave which also helps draw ones attention to the skull and crossbones. The font also fits in with the cartoon, and looks like its hand drawn. 

The cartoon is the dominant image on the front cover which expresses the youthful nature of the band, as they are targeting emo teens.

The skull and crossbones is part of their logo; as it is used in their other CD's when their name is written and is on the drums when they perform.

The cartoon and the skull and crossbones connotes a dystopian theme where all hell is breaking loose. This is presented through the UFO, the fire, the aliens etc. The name of the album is 'Don't Panic', and is fitted in with the cartoon as the riot police are telling their citizens 'don’t panic'. There is a reference to the 'keep calm and carry on' signs. 

The album cover is full of dark colours, dark green and dark blue are the main colours on the album cover. This fits into the genre of organic artists and no bright stand out colours.

There is no physical appearance of the star. All time low have only physically  featured in one of their album releases- where other one is also character based.  

  On July 3, 2012, All Time Low revealed that they had signed back to Hopeless Records and that the new album would be released in October 2012. Hopeless Records is a independent record label and their artists are usually punk rock, post hardcore or alternative rock. 

The genre of pop punk in the All time low album is clearly signified in the band due to the aliens and skull and crossbones. Their target audience is typically emo teens and their attitudes and values associated with this genre is depressing, dark and is a type of subculture; showing they differ from the mainstream society. 

The cover is appealing to this audience as it is different from the norm, as a cartoon on an album cover is not the 'norm'. It has dark colours and the skull and crossbones is eye catching to this audience. 

    

 

  

Audience questionnaire and target audience analysis

I asked 5 different questions to both male and female students of the age between 16-18 year old's about the music video. The first question is a broad one, asking their taste in music, to see the percentage of people that are into the genre that we are using, post hardcore. Most of the people I interviewed did not like this genre as it was loud and too "scream-ish". The next question was about the target audience and who it should be for our product. Most of the audience recommended was teenagers and early 20's. this is typically because it is a time in their life when they like to rebel and go against the 'norms' in society. The post hardcore genre fulfils this as most parents enjoy slower mellow music. Next, I explained our narrative, how the lead singer has been cheated on by his girlfriend, and as a result, has written a song called '100 sleepless nights'. Most people thought that the narrative fits into the name of the song and works with the genre. One girl found the storyline confusing (which is included in the video above) which may cause one or two concerns, but the rest of the feedback seemed positive and promising. Furthermore, when askin whether people would watch our final product, most girls said no because it is a nicher audience and the genre does sometimes alienate females as they look for something much brighter and lighter. However most boys seemed to be interested in the music video as a whole and would watch it.
In order to attract a few more females as part of the audience, we believed it was a great idea to pick the lead singer as a good looking boy.

Our perfect audience member

Danny King is our perfect audience member. Danny is 18 years old, and is from London. Danny is interested in new and upcoming music and works at the Roundhouse in Camden.  Danny King is always looking for new music, but in the same genre. Danny's favourite genre is the Post Hardcore genre and pop punk. He attends meet up with his friends- who are also categorised as 'emo's' and as seen from his profile, his favourite bands are Pierce The Veil, You Me At Six, Of Mice And Men and All Time Low. His favourite movies and TV programmes include 'Cut', 'The Walking Dead' and 'Crank'. 

According his psychographic and demographic profiling, he is part of the emo subculture who very much fits into our target audience and rebel against society but in an organised way. The Emos all have a subcultural capital as they seek identification and validation through their differences yet conversely theres a uniformity to their differences. It is important to use this and take this information on board as part of our research for our target audience. If the audience did not believe in our product, they would not buy into our product.

Analysis of how we storyboarded

Storyboarding rushed us to get our ideas onto paper, and due to this, we needed to take a step back and actually think of the exact shots we want to shoot, and take our time to make sure the balance between the narrative and performance based. Therefore we took our time as a group in order to decide what fit and what didn't. Therefore the animatics helped us as we were able to put it in time to the music and therefore we could gain a real understanding of when we need to cut to the next shot.  

License Agreement and Permission- Email to and from the record company

Kole sent us a License Agreement to sign and send back to him which grants me permission to use the song 'One Hundred Sleepless Nights' by Pierce the Veil for my music video. This is the License:

Animatic analysis

What did I learn from the animatic?

There are many things we have learnt from creating the animatic which differs from the original storyboard. We had to change and add a number of different elements in order for it to work.

We realised that our storyboard duration shots were too long and as a result we had to move things around. Therefore when we added the music on top of the storyboard, we realised we had to add more shots so we could cut the shot down in order to make it more exciting and enable us to change the shot in time to the beat. We also realised we need to add a wider variety of shoots, we added more close ups, medium close ups, long shots and extreme long shots. This would also enable the tempo and pace of the music video to increase.

Storyboard

Here is the storyboard that has been created to fit our original idea

One hundred sleepless nights - storyboard from amyphillips2223

Music Video Analysis 2 - All I Want, A Day To Remember

'A Day To Remember' are a similar band to 'Pierce the Veil' in their genre, target audience and star image. The music video I am going to analyse is All I Want by 'A Day to Remember':

This music video shares many of it's conventions with Pierce the Veil's music videos. Moreover, it also contains many conventions of music videos in general.

Firstly, it can be seen that the video contains many quick cuts to the beat of the song. This is specifically in the band performance element of the video. This is a convention of all music videos as without it the song would sound disjointed. This rhythmic editing is seen throughout the video.

Moreover, it is conventional of rock videos to have a narrative element and a performance element. At first glance it appears that there is no narrative element to this video. However, it could be argued that the various other people singing the song in the video, who are from other bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy, Trivium, Pierce the Veil and Parkway Drive, are in fact the narrative. Some would argue that the narrative is that all the other bands are coming together to sing the song and work together to achieve their aims as bands to stay strong for their fans ("keep your hopes up high and your head down low" or "mend the hearts of everyone who feels alone"). 

Vic Fuentes from Pierce the Veil actually makes and appearance in this video. This shows that the genre of Pierce the Veil and A Day To Remember are similar (Post-Hardcore)

Furthermore, the performance element to this song is a massive part of the video. It can be argued that the whole video is performance in fact. It can be seen that the performance elements that are of A Day To Remember mainly focus on the instruments, intending to sell themselves on their music rather than their looks. This also suggest that A Day To Remember are an organic act as they play their own instruments rather than getting other people to do it. This also suggests that the main focus is the music.

Moreover, the star image of A Day To Remember is being clearly portrayed in this video. The drummer, Alex Shelnutt, is wearing a tank top and so his tattoos are exposed. Neil Westfall, the guitarist, also has his tattoos exposed and has his ear stretched. This portrays them in a similar light to Pierce the Veil as tattoos and piercings are conventional of rock music and rebellion. This makes them desirable to their audience. Additionally, Jeremy McKinnon, the lead singer, has his ears stretched. Therefore it can be seen that the star image of A Day To Remember is similar to that of Pierce the Veil.

At the beginning of the video, there is a shot that fades in from black of one of the posters on the wall with 'A Day To Remember' written on it. There is then a cut to another poster with the bands name on it. There is then another cut to another poster, again with 'A Day To Remember' written on it. The next shot is one of a microphone on the floor. Much like the Pierce the Veil video for 'Bulls in the Bronx', this could possibly show that the band sells themselves on their name and what is associated with it, ie their music, rather than what they look like. This suggests that this band is an organic act. Alternatively, this could mean that they sell themselves on their name and star image, suggesting that they're a synthetic act.

Similar to Pierce the Veil, this song is also of the post-hardcore genre. This music video reflects that. This can be seen by the performance part of the video as the focus is equally on the lead singer, guitarists, drummer and bassist. Moreover, there is also a major focus on the instruments. This shows that 'A Day To Remember' are an organic act.

Lastly, the reason I chose this video is not only because A Day To Remember are a band of the same genre as Pierce the Veil, but they also use an animation element in this video. i fins this particularly interesting and I would like to use a similar type of animation in the making of my music video. The animation adds a sense of emphasis on certain parts of the song, and not only does it look amazing, but it also makes the video 100% more interesting. The type of animation used, moreover, projects the genre of the song into the viewers head as the pictures and lyrics being animated are related to the genre. For example, when the drummer is drumming, animation comes up to emphasise this. This also projects the lyrics into the viewers mind as they're animated on screen. This is the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics.

Set Design for our music video

We have chosen to shoot in the Graffiti Tunnel in London and considered the set design when doing so. Our band does not need many props or particular lighting added to the set, as they will use instruments as they are an organic band. in addition, when researching similar bands in the same genre, we noticed how the lighting was very naturalistic and there are dark colours. Therefore we took this on board and when we shoot, we are hoping for dark colours, with no bright lights or colours so our music video suits the style and typical conventions of a music video in a post hardcore genre. All lighting will be natural and this will therefore reflect on the urban gritty style through the music video.

Star image- Dyer

Location change- The Graffiti Tunnel in Waterloo

After the photoshoot, we realised how great the graffiti background looked with the band and therefore as a group, we believed that the Graffiti Tunnel would be more suitable, practical and realistic than shooting at a warehouse. After researching a number of different warehouses, we found problems in finding electricity sockets, permission to shoot and lighting at warehouses would also be difficult.However the Graffiti Tunnel was our ideal location. The Graffiti Tunnel is right by Waterloo station in London, therefore it would be easy to organise the band to get there as there is easy access through public transport:

 

The Graffiti Tunnel also matches the star image of the band and also amplifies the anti authoritarianism, rebellion and youth subcultures.
Pictures of the Graffiti tunnel in Central London:

When researching into our location, we wanted to see how to get there, see the location first hand and gain an idea where we wanted to set up prior to the music video. We did this to be organised, efficient and prepared before the shooting day. We knew our roles and had already planned our journey before we filmed. We also went there during our photoshoot and therefore the band had already been to this location before. Therefore we did this to be organised and as a result have less room for error. 

Music video tips

How to make a successful music video:

• We need to make a successful music video as it is meant to be the bands first release, therefore we need to manufacture a band for a song.
• We need to make sure that the image of the band is spot on; this includes styling their image to fit in with the genre of the song. they need to know how to play the instruments required so they can realistically mime the track properly and professionally. 
• Next the visuals and narrative need to be relevant and connect to the song to blend in well with the music visually.
• The band we are creating also doesnt currently have a fan base- as they are brand new to the market, therefore we need to attract the new audience through marketing strategies, including advertisements, and digipacks. 
• The best type of music video contains three different narrative strants, a performance element which the label think is vital as it acts as a fail save. A lip sync element, just simply singing in a situation with very few props. Lastly, a narrative element, the story, which will be led by genre and style. The music video will then consist of constant cutting between these narrative strands, this keeps the video exciting and interesting
• We were advised to make a prezi which involves a set of images to create a short film to demonstrate the ideas for the final product. this helps clarify the idea, and helps identify potential problems. 

Change of narrative and explanation of narrative

Since the end of last week, we were told that we have to complete the final pre-production storyboard, including the shots we want to film, and the duration for how long each shot would last. Therefore we had to consider how much will be performance based and how much will be narrative based. We also need to make sure that the way we film and edit would help the audience understand the storyline and locations. We decided that 40% of the music video would be performance based, which is a higher percentage than other music videos. We chose this high percentage because of the rock genre and we would be able to shoot a number of different shots that would show each member of the band to be shown. The other 60% of the music video would be narrative based, where we have since adjusted parts of the storyline.
Since the prezi about the narrative ideas, we have removed the pregnant part of the narrative as this may look tacky and hard to portray and also changed a number of ideas.

The storyline has been altered and in basic form it is now this:

We are going to start shooting the lead singer with his girlfriend
Then we are going to see the girl getting bored with the singer and his guitar.
Next, we see the girl start hanging out with another boy
Then we see her leave/break up with the singer
We see the lead singer walk around looking lonely and miserable
We cross cut to him being moody and he picks up a guitar and starts writing/singing a song in reaction to the break up
The lead singer then forms a band and perform the song he wrote after the break up and has chosen to pursue his dream in the music industry.

We then felt that we may need to add a sub story to this in order to achieve the 60% narrative based visuals.
We could either expand on the relationship breakdown at the beginning with the lead singer, or we can add the reaction after the lead singer finds out and cross cut him to trying to look for the person she cheated on and have a physical abuse scene.

Hoxton docks-location

After receiving an email from the council regarding the Upper Beeding location saying we cannot gain permission to film there, we have looked into further locations which are hopefully more practical and realistic. We researched Hoxton Docks in the East End in London, which also had a similar image of our ideal location. Therefore we contacted them regarding its availability for one day to shoot there. We went on their website and contacted the owner of the property, the local council:

We never got a reply from them so we looked into further locations

The Photoshoot

Below are all the photos taken of the band on the photoshoot. After looking at them, we had to chose a selection of the best ones and edit the pictures to make them look more professional. The photos are a way of showing the bands star image to the target audience:

originals - Video Maker

Bruno Mars album cover- Doo-Wops and Hooligans

In the next comuter activity to practice for our digipack we had to recreate the following image of a Bruno Mars album cover- Doo-Wops and Hooligans:

The following image is my recreation of the original:

Since the beginning of the year, I have already noticed significant changes in the way I use Coral Paint and Coral Draw. Since the beginning of September, I have become much more familiar with the features within the software, such as the different tools and the number of different ways one can edit a picture. I feel much more comfortable using Coral Paint and no longer need much assistance from the teacher.

Firstly, we had to make two squares, the main bright yellow one, and there is a lighter baige colour as the boarder. In order to make it as a perfect square at the right size, I had to adjust the width and height to 125mm each. After I dragged the original onto the software so I could compare throughout the editing. We used the eyedropper tool to get the exact same colour as the original, by dragging the colour from the bottom right. 

Next, we had to make the pathway. I used coral draw in order for me to draw the rough outline of the path, and then we were able to adjust any lines with the shape tool. I could then smooth out the edges by double clicking on what I had done so far and fill in the colour. 

Moreover, I then dragged the Bruno Mars image, got rid of the background using the magi tool and the rubber tool.

Next I dragged the plane and moon into the software and also got rid of the backgrounds in these by using the same technique.

Finally I added the text and tried to choose a similar font to the original. 

Timeline

Below is a timeline of the music video of the storyline, describing the shot types, as well as having the exact seconds we need to cut in time to for the editing. This helps massively when we shoot and edit, as we will know how much we need to film, in what position and what shot type. We will take the timeline when we shoot and also when we edit. This should make the process much easier as it is good preparation and planning.

Time	Shot description
0:00-0:05	Two shot of long shot of lead singer and Gail walking together
0:05-0:01	Two shot at eye line level of two characters sitting on a bench, long shot of them being happy together
0:01-0:02	Two shot of couple holding hands and being happy together in long shot showing scenery around them and then they kiss. Shows that they are happy together- which is the narrative we want to get across straight away to the audience.
0:02-0:06	Close up of band member playing his guitar when the music starts at high tempo.
0:06- 0:10	Lead singer practicing playing his guitar
0:10- 0:17	Close ups of the couple sitting together on the sofa with Gail on her phone and seems uncomfortable and disinterested. She looks at him and sees that he is too busy with his music that he is not giving her any interest.
0:18-0:24	Gail walking away, getting off the sofa and leaving the lead singer
0:24- 0:26	Tracking shot of Gail (camera behind) of her leaving through the door
0:26- 0:29	John meets and bumps into Gail
0:29- 0:32	Over the shoulder shot match on action between John and Gail speaking and meeting
0:33-0:38	Two shot of John with Gail, we can see they are happy together
0:38- 0:43	Cross cut to Bennie on his own walking on a street with his guitar case
0:43- 0:46	Bennie in his bed- sleeping alone emphasises that they are not together anymore
0:46- 0:50	Cross cut to Bennie walking up to the setup of the performance/band with no-one there
0:51- 0:53	Bennie puts his guitar case down in an extreme long shot showing empty guitars and drums on his own- emphasises his isolation
0:53- 0:55	Close up of Bennie starting to sing into the camera
0:56- 1:00	Cut to the band appear along with Bennie, shows Bennie has reacted by forming a band
1:00- 1:03	Close up of drummer playing the drums
1:04- 1:05	Showing the first guitarist jumping while playing the guitar
1:06-1:11	Cut to the other guitarist in a long shot- showing off his image
1:12-1:13	Lead singer singing into the camera in a medium close up
1:13-1:15	Cross cut of Bennie (lead singer) walking into Gails house
1:16- 1:20	Bennie approaching Gail’s sofa and sitting down  with match on action
1:21- 1:22	Over the shoulder shot of close up of gail crying, shes telling the lead singer that he is leaving him
1:22-1:24	Bennie reaction to Gail telling her shes leaving him- close up showing his facial expressions of being angry
1:25: 1:28	Bennie leaving Gails house
1:28-1:34	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
1:34-1:36	Bennie looking moody walking in a long shot which will also pan across
1:36: 1:41	John and Gail being happy sitting at a table
1:41-1:45	Bennie putting his guitar case down in anger1:45
1:45- 1:47	Close up of Bennie
1:47-1:51	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing

1:51- 1:55	First Guitarist playing/rocking out to the song
1:56- 2:00	Second guitarist playing/rocking out to the song
2:00-2:06	John and Gail walking along the street together
2:06- 2:11	Bennie walking across the street towards them
2:12- 2:17	Cross cut to extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
2:18- 2:23	Long shot of the member of the band playing the bass
2:23- 2:29	Close up of the drummer
2:29-2:39	Medium shot of guitarist
2:39-2:43	Close up of drums in a low angle
2:44-2:49	John and Gail lean in
2:49-2:51	Bennie runs and stops them from kissing
2:51-2:53	Bennie pushes John against a wall in anger
2:53-2:55	John retaliates an pushes Bennie to the floor
2:55-3:01	Gail comes into the shot feeling awkward
3:01-3:06	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing
3:06-3:13	Bennie walking backwards watching John and Gail walk away
3:13- 3:18	Bennie turns round to watch them leave
3:18- 3:21	Extreme long shot of John and Gail walking away
3:21-3:25	Medium close up of John and Gail walking away together
3:25-3:30	Medium long shot of bass player
3:30- 3:31	Close up of lead singer
3:31-3:33	Guitarist playing while moving
3:34-3:37	Long shot of drummer playing
3:38-3:38	Extreme long shot of the whole band playing their instruments and singing