Thursday 15 December 2011

ANCILLARY TASK! - Finished Digipack

1st Step

The first step was to copy my front cover into a new blank photoshop with the real measurement's for a digipak.



2nd Step

The second step was to place the back cover of the digipak onto it as well with the correct amount of space left for the spine of the cover.


3rd Step

The next step was to create my spine. Therefore, I used the rectangle tool to do this. I made the spine black as it goes with the colour pallet of the digipak.


4th Step

I decided to go with the typical conventions of a digipak and place a bar code on it.


5th Step

The fifth step I did was to add the title of the band. I used the same style font only this time I used the colour white because if it were black it would of just blended into the background.


6th Step

After looking at more digipaks I discovered some artists have the name of the record company on the spine. Therefore, I decided to do that with mine.

ANCILLARY TASK! - Back cover of the Digipak

1st Step

The first step was cutting out the chosen image for the back cover. To do this I used the magic wand tool. I also changed the brightness and contrast to make the image appear brighter.

The reason why I chose this particular image is because if I placed the title of the songs next to her hand it draws more attention to them and makes it look as if she has made them appear.


2nd Step

The next step was picking the background colour, I chose the exact colour I decided to use for the front cover. I used the same technique as I did on the front cover and added an outerglow on the image to make it stand out.


3rd Step

I added the title of the band. I chose to have it coming down on the left hand side to make it look unique. For the title I used the same style of writing and the symbol aswell.




4th Step

This is when I added the songs on the cover. Rachel and I picked the song titles together and we chose names that stereotypically link with the theme of the type of album these singles could come from, which would be an alternative rock one.



5th Step

Another typical convention of a digipak is a bar code. Therefore, my 5th step was to add this.


6th Step

The final step for creating my back cover was adding the information about our chosen record company, which was Interscope Records. I had a Lady Gaga album in the house and her record company is our chosen one. Therefore, I coppied all the relevant information so it would appear like a real digipak. Neverthless, I did change the producer and so on to mine and Rachels name. I also added the logo of Interscope Records.


ANCILLARY TASK! - Front cover of Digipak

 1st Step          

After re-searching Digipacks I decided to break the typical conventions of having the band on the cover. Instead I decided to have the pentagon, the necklace the vampire wears in the music video for the image of the front cover. Then in the centre of the star would be the eye of the vampire.

First I changed the brightness and contrast of the eye to make it appear darker and once it was in the centre of the star, I used the magic wand tool to get rid of the parts that were not needed. Here is the oridginal eye:-





2nd Step

The next step was deciding the background colour which I decided would be a deep red as it is the opposite colour on the colour wheel. It also connotes danger and passion and is the colour of blood which links with the aspect of the vampire. I then decided to add an outer glow on the image of the pentagon to make it stand out more.



3rd Step

The next step was adding the text. I decided to use the font called Papyrus for the name of the band and song title as it reminds me of vampires with the sharpness of it. I added an outer glow on this text aswell as it makes it stands out to the target audience more.


4th Step

Nevertheless, I felt that the title still didn't stand out as much as I would like to. Therefore, I decided to look for symbols on google images to see what came up, and a moon and star did which I thought linked with the theme.



5th Step

After doing this the star looked like it had too much white on it and I felt it needed something else to stand out. Therefore, I looked for different shapes on Photoshop and came across some that looked like blood splats. Nevertheless, as well as red I used the colours purple and black to make it look more vibrant.

6th Step

After adding this, the cover still felt plain. Therefore, as some digipaks have a sticker explaining some of the extra songs that will appear on the single, I decided to do that. Then add the outerglow on to make it appear to stand out.

Friday 9 December 2011

Ancillary Task - Poster!

As I started creating my poster early on this week I felt that more research was needed to be done. Therefore, I re-searched HMV posters to see what the typical conventions of theirs were to expand my knowledge and produce the best quality poster possible.

Behind The Scenes Dance Rehearsal! - The attempt of a lift!

These videos are of all of us attempting a lift and failing quite a few times, Kayla and Nicole kept dropping me. However, luckily no-one was hurt during the making of this video!



                                                                They drop me. AGAIN!


But in the end we got it right


Nevertheless, the transition from the left still needs some work but this was our first rehearsal on attempting the lifts, so I'm sure with a little bit more practice this will look effective.

Here is a little taster section of the dance sequence that will appear in the music video. We still have many rehearsals ahead of us to get it as perfect as it can. To make sure the timing are accurate and everything but here it is.


Wednesday 7 December 2011

Re-search in to company's to distribute Ancillary Task!

HMV

HMV is a company known throughout England, it is UK's and Irelands leading entertainment brand which has a chain of stores, online and digital sites. The company currently owns 250 stores throughout the UK which gives everyone access to their music.

HMV is now the country's seconds largest tickets live music and ticketing operator.

As this is one of the largest company's in the UK I think this would be the best comany to publicise the album. Nevertheless, I will be doing more re-search into other company's to check.

Re-search into Record Company's!

Sony Music Entertainment

The first record company I looked into was Sony Music Entertainment, the company supports artists like local bands to international stars, and is home to premier record labels which represent artists from every genre.

Looking into it further Sony has loads of record labels such as, Epic, RCA and Masterworks. Featured artists represented by these labels range from Kelly Clarkson to One Direction, even Jimi Hendrix is apart of Sony.

Maverick Records

This is the record label Muse signed with. This record label however, lost artists such as Madonna after legal action was taken against parent company Warner Bros.

Interscope Records

This is an American Label owned by Universal Music Group. It's original focus was more on Pop/urban artists however after 2000 it began to expand. As of 2007 it partnered with Justin Timberlake and they created a new record label called Tennman records and the first artist to be signed was Esmee Denters.

Rachel has also do her own re-search on records labels, therefore we will put all the information we have gathered seperatly together and debate what record label our artist should be from.

Audience Re-search- What do you like to see in a music video?

Rachel and I asked a group of 6th formers aged 17 and 18 what they would like to see in a music video as they are the centre age of our target audience. We did this to expand our knowlege on what our target audience would like to see so we can look back at our ideas for our music video and see what we can do to make it better.

This is what they said: -

PROPS/COSTUMES!!!


These are the props the dancers are going to use. It's a cross made out of twigs and black shoe lases. The reason why I made them from twigs was to give a stronger impression that these people are from the 16th century. I used shoes lases because I couldn't find any wool around the house but you would only be able to tell in close inspection.

Costumes for the dancers will be on the blog soon, I just need to make the final details on them.






These are the jewellery pieces the vampire will were in the future along with the star. The reason why I chose this necklace is because it's quite bold and unusual. The audiences eye will be immediately drawn to it, which will draw them to the star.

The reason why I have chosen the religious bracelet is because it's not only a piece that is in fashion now amongst 21st century girls but is also ironic because she is supposed to be a dangerous predator yet is wearing a symbol for God.

I chose the red bracelet because it's colour connotes danger and is in contrast with the religious bracelet, which goes with the protagonists personality, there are two sides to her.

Friday 2 December 2011

STORYBOARD!!!


Here is the animatic which I created as a guid line for what camera angles Rachel and I could potentially use during the filming of our music video.

ANCILLARY TASK : - PHOTOSHOOT!

Rachel and I had a photoshoot for our Ancillary Tasks which is to create a digipack and a poster. We wanted the vampire to be the centre of the photoshoot as she is a significant aspect in the narrative of the video.

Before the photoshoot I had a practice of what the make-up would look like and as I have never put contacts or anything in my eyes before it took me a long...long time to attempt to put them in. But eventually I succeeded and here it is my first attempt in a short presentation: -


Here is a short movie clip of some of the images we took on the 14th November: -



I have started my Ancillary tasks and have finished my Digipack. I hope to get this on the blog very soon. My aim is that before we break up for the Christmas holidays my Ancillary Task will all be complete.

DANCE, DANCE... and MORE DANCE!!!

Over the past month I have been working out the choreography for the dance/fight scene. My dancers Nicole, Kayla and Charlotte have picked up the motifs really well. However, there is still a lot of work to be done before filming starts. I have used sharp gestures to emphasise the aggression and frustration between the characters. My inspiration has came from the beginning scene in Westside Story which was choreographed by the famous Jerome Robbins and from other music videos like Jenifer Lopez Papi. Although this breaks the typical conventions of a rock video that is what we were hoping for.

I have Behind the Scenes videos of some of the rehearsals we have had and I will post them on my blog in due course.

LOCATIONS!

The locations I have chosen reflect the time period the video is set in which is the 16th century. Therefore I have went with eccentric elegant buildings that reflect the vampires freedom along with nature scenes. Nevertheless, a ruin that reflects that, that freedom may be coming to an end. However, in this short presentation below I have went into more detail.


Over the past few weeks I have been searching for a waterfall that would present the century at it's best and present that she is linked with nature too and in a recent article in The Journal I found a beautiful waterfall that Rachel and I will use as another location in our video. Here is a picture I have taken of the article.




COSTUMES!

Over the past few weeks I have been debating what costumes I would like the characters in the music video to wear and what would be the best ones to potray their personalities in the best light. Over careful analysis I have narrowed it down to the ones in the presentation below.