Team Meeting 7

3rd December 2012

By this time our group had just completed rough cut 3. The majority of the editing is completed, some sections need cleaning up i.e adding transitions, changing colour. The ancillary task are slowly progressing, all draft work has been completed for the digipak and advert. The final versions are in the works more so involving the digipak. We are actively editing the final cut of our music video.        

Rough Cut 2

This is our groups second rough cut, the length is only 1.40 out of 3.00. The majority of the editing is complete in the earlier sections, the later sections are not. Mainly due to extra footage that is in the process of being filmed to be added. Throughout the video we will be adding more fluid transitions between shots, utilising the fade in-fade out technique to add fluidity. Also some of the sections contain unneeded or overdone opacity changes that deter from the video. Also some of the footage is slightly out of synch, no thanks to one of our editors, Alex, all of the files moved when adding a new video track to the timeline, trying to re-synch them has taken up much of our time.

Draft Digipak 2 (Dan Spurway)

This is our groups 2nd draft of a Digipak. For this draft we decided to merge and/or use elements from multiple images to create the mood and feel we want for the digipak. The reason for choosing these two photos are the unique elements present in both:

Original Images

 -The signpost has a symbolic connotations in the music video, adding it to the digipak will further it's symbolic effect.
-The shot of Jane (Karen O'Leary) looking upwards towards the signpost is good quality, and can be used in many different situations.   

-The Sky in this photo is extremely crisp and clear cut, making it the perfect background for a Juxtaposed image, the only downside it the buildings are in the way.
- The church which is in shadow could be used, brighten the image in photoshop and use it in another context.

- The Image of Jane (Karen O'Leary), like the one above can be used in and out of context as her pose can represent many different emotions.
- The background of the image is disquieting and dark but does not posses the required framing and image quality needed for a Digipak.   

Edited Images

 This image was created using elements of the second image (Above). The image has been brightened to ensure the sun is the focal point of the image. The buildings have been removed using the content aware tool. Even using this tool the image looked distorted and unnatural. To counter act this we used the colour and texture of the surrounding area, (not unlike the content aware tool) and masked the areas in the cloud.

This image is taken from the two reminding images. Using the quick select tool and removing them from the orignal image. These images can now be placed into any preselect background, thus creating the desired effect.

PhotoShop - Removing Objects.

 Using Photoshop we can remove images from photos without affecting the quality. This will be of great help to the creation of the Digipak and Advert. As many of the images have unnecessary object which deter from the feel and mood of the image.  The tool used is 'Content Aware', this copies the background surrounding the highlighted area and creates a sudo-background based of the surrounding area. Below is an example of this tool being applied.     

Band Photo-Shoot

An overview of the shots taken of the band. 

This was our chosen image of our singer for the band, we chose this one as it was the best quality photos in the way that the overall quality was extremely good , meaning there was not much blur or light interference , we had also for all of the chosen photos turned all the lights of apart from one so that we could achieve the shadow effect.

This was our chosen picture for the guitarist for the band, we used the same lighting technique that we used on the singer , the shadow effect that was created by this technique is also shown in this photo however due to the light coming from only one side it shows the guitarist with one side of his face in the light and half in the shade. 

This was our chosen photo of the drummer for the band , much like the other two chosen photos of the band members the shadow effect is in effect aswell as the half shadowed face effect which is alot more prominent in this photo mainly due to the drummers pose. 

For this photo of the band we had lights on either side of them , this did not create the many effects that we achieved with the band members by themselves ( shadow effects ) , this is why we chose to put all 3 of the photos of the band by themselves together to make it look like they were all standing together in the shot.

Oh Joe :-)

Photo-shoot (Jane)

This is a overview of all the shots well took of the actress Karen O'Leary as the mysterious Jane. Many of the shots if used will be abstract, even removing the background entirely.

This photo has been used in many of our draft digipaks, more so for the image of Jane (Karen O'Leary) than the background. The composition of the photo and the positioning of Jane allows us to use her pose in and out of context.  

It was unfortunate that the street light was visible in this shot of the the framing and composition is quite good. We may, as we did with the other photos, crop Jane out of the image and use her on a different background. We may use photoshop to change the colour of the image.

This image captures the feel and mood we intended for, unfortunately the background deters from that mood. We may remove her from the background and use the image in a lesser capacity, may show the image with a huge opacity change. As I believe the image has a small transient quality.

Again the dreaded background has ruined the shot, but the rusty chains and the fence are great feature, we may exploit. The use for this image is unknown at this time.

Whist conducting the photo-shoot our photographer Dan Spurway had a little difficulty reaching the right position, Enjoy.

  

Team Meeting 6

26th November 2012

This team meeting was one of relief as on the 23/24th of November our group completed the photoshoot for the band and for Jane. On top of that we refilmed the Jane seqeunce with the original Jane which was a serindipous as she was busy that weekend. This meeting focused on our teams future, the editing of the video. We dicided to completed the bulk of the editing by the 30th November which gives us a week to fine tune the video. During this time the other members of the group not working on the video will be updating blogs and completing draft digipaks in prepartion for completing the ancillary tasks.

Behind the Scenes (Jane)

This is a overview of the shots we took 'Behind the scenes' the shots below are more important and visually imposing shots. These shots were used to illustrate specific points. 

 This shows our two camera operators preparing for the first shot of the day. Unaffected by the cold.











This captures our co-director Dan Spurway discussing how our actress, Karen O'Leary, should act. This shot is very integral as throughout filming as we deviated from the shooting schedule, in hopes of filming more creative and intriguing shots.

 Our Actress Karen fighting off the cold, as we continue filming the opening sequence. Fortuitously she found a lovely dress for the filming. As previously she did not have a dress for the first Filming session.

 The shows our Actress continuing to fight the cold as we film the later sections of the song. This also shows that we used two different cameras to ensure we had enough unique and diversified footage to use for the music video.

 This shows our co-director Alex Preston, expressing his excitement as we finished our last shot of the day.

 This humorous image of the co-director Dan Spurway as a random bystander walks infront of his shot.

 This heart warming image of our actress, Karen O'Leary preparing for a day of filming. Notice she is not shivering, yet.

Adding a Logo

Our chief editor, Dan Spurway made a intresting point at our lastest team meeting. He highlighted that the majority of bands have their bands name or their logo on the instruments. The posed a problem as we had already completed our filming of the band, and lacked the time to refilm the entire band sequence. Therefore he created a work around, by placing a image on the video above. Thus rendering our refilming concerns void. Below Dan Spurway illustrates how he created such an affect.

To achieve this affect, I started by selecting the areas with the content we wanted to remove (i.e. the two italic P's, and the unnecessary text at the bottom). I then used the Healing Brush tool; using clean patches of the drum skin to paint over these areas. From here, I then added text on a separate layer, using a font that would resemble our chosen genre. Finally, I used the warp tool to warp the text to the angle that's related to the drum's position.

The video below showcases this to great affect.

Draft Digipack 1 (Dan Spurway)

Concept 
This was our first try at producing a draft digipak, at this point we did not have all the photo shoots completed. So this digipak was completed using a very basic template. The underlining concept of the digipak is of a memories and remembrance. Thus the worn texture on the digipak to denote that specific concept. There was a overall feeling of Zen tranquility that was created with the digipak. The reasoning behind this was that Jane found peace in her untimely demise, and the band are searching for such calm and peace in the acceptance of her death.

Construction      
To build the digipak, our marvellous digital graphics creator, Dan, will discuss how he built it with the following:

To begin, I found a digipak template, with the 6 panels marked out. From here, I used an image of old paper as the background. As the image was semi-cropped, I reconstructed the image by replicating the top of the image. Then it was a matter of creating each panel. As we decided to go with the Zen idea, I acquired visual examples of the Zen culture, which included the Zen leaf, and Zen sunshine. I cropped the lower half of the Zen sunshine, as I wanted to show the beginning of change by having a sunrise; however, some pessimistic audience may see it as a sunset representing the end of life. I then changed the colour of the Zen leaf image, by going to Image -> Adjustments -> Replace Color; and tweaking the colour (blue) to a golden/brown colour to blend better with the background. As the background of the image was of a different texture, I masked the image, removing the background in a non-constructive manner. This meant the leaf would blend better. Finally, I reduced the opacity of the image's layer so that the image wasn't intrusive to the viewer's eye. Another addition we decided to add, was a QR code. This was due to the fact that many albums feature a QR code to navigate customers to their website, or Facebook page, via their phone or portable device, assuming they have an app which will read the QR code. In regards to the front cover, I went with a font that resembled handwritting which denotes a more personal feel to the digipak. This subverts conventions of the genre, but applying David Gualett, conventions are in constant negotation, allowing us to create new and unique interpretations of the album.




Whilst creating this post our team member, Dave Waugh found a interesting copyright free image which may add to the effect created above:

Editing Tools

The RENDER BAR the bane in every editors existence. The render bar appears when a file is moved within the timeline, and must be 'Re-rendered' to it's new postion.

 This image clearly shows the benefits of using markers to synch audio, as the to different coloured markers represent the two files. The snapping feature allows for the markers to snap into place.

The timeline allows the editor to view the sound waves of the audio tracks. This in-turn allows for quick and simple synching of the audio tracks, by matching the audio-waves.

 The timeline is the place where the video and audio files are placed in the order in which they are played. There are many tools present on the timeline to aid the editing process. The most prominent being the 'Lock' the lock freezes everything in that specific audio/video channel for any changes. This is imperative when working with multiple files in different channels, that the effect in one channel does not ripple into the others.

 This is the marker tool, a imperative tool in the creation of the music video, as this tool allow the editor to synch video and audio seamlessly.  

 Our editors, Dan Spurway & Alex Preston, have created 'Bins' to organise the film clips into specific groups. Such as Jane 1, Band 1. This allows for easier searching for clips.

The green button on the left hand side of the image, allow for a video or audio file to become silent/invisible. This can be used to view a segment on a lower video channel without deleting the files above.

This tool was extremely helpful as the change opacity allowed us to create interesting affects in the video. Also the line to the right allow for the opacity to be changed throughout each specific clip.

Rough Cut

This rough cut is extremely rough. The editing is not as fluid as it could be, as many of cuts do not flow the desired way. In addition to the editing the filming of the second narrative strand will be redone as during the editing we decided that the clip were not good enough for the final video. The rough cut only conform to some theories present in many music videos the most prominent being the use of thought beats. Many of the edits are simple straight cuts, there is no use of transitions between the narratives.  

Other Influences

This book had some very interesting ideas that we might apply to our music video. As it mostly discusses issues and problems on a more generalised level. Allowing us to try and exploit theories from other denominations and apply them to the music video.    

Team Meeting 5

5th November 2012

The team meeting was more a ploy to ensure the filming will be completed, we had filmed the Band on 3 separate occasions. They are completed to the best of our barely sane minds. But during this time of great insanity our actress known as our 'Jane' gained a huge work load and is unable to film anymore. Due to this we have had to find a new Jane, and scheduled a shoot with her for the 17th November. If everything goes well we will finish well ahead of the deadline.   

Team Meeting 4

29th October 2012 

The group meeting we discussed the recent cancelations on the Bands shoots and tried to find a solution   for this major problem. We checked our blogs and they were up to date. We are only behind on the filming front. Alex and Dan have started the animatic and is on schedule to be finished by the deadline. We also got a progress report from our tutor on our working at grades,. This information has motivated us to work even harder.  

Team Meeting 3

22nd October 2012

The team meeting we discussed the filming that was completed over the 1 week break, and decided that the majority of the filming was not suitable for the music video due to the quality of the video. The weather for the shoot made it very difficult to get the best shots, and set a date for the Band shoot. During the meeting we compared blogs to ensure that nothing was missed on anyones blog.  

Team Meeting 2

7th October 2012

In this second meeting the group came together and discussed the progress we made towards the deadline on the 8th October for the basics of the Research & Planning. During the meeting we double checked the call sheet to ensure the details were correct, as the next week we have a holiday. So made plans to film parts of the Jane narrative over this 1 week holiday.  

  

Team Meeting 1

October 1st 2012

This is was our first official team meeting. We discussed how we were going to portray the meaning of our chosen song 'Diary Of Jane'. During the course of the meeting we consulted our pervious work (Lyrics Breakdown) and other people music videos for help. The end of the meeting was settled on a music video that contained two narrative strands one following the band and a second following the mysterious Jane.  

Recce Shots Location (Band)

 Recce shots of the Recording Studio

The lights will play a imperative role in the production of the music video, as these are more suited to illuminate the band than the over head lights in the recording studio.

In addition to the better light they produce, they are also portable, allowing for more complex lighting tobe used in the music video. They are also setting on the back of the lights to increase or decrease the light they output.

An image of the sound system present in the recording studio, this was going to be the primary way to play the song. But due to technical issues a second more up to date sound system was used.

A shot of the drum kit used in the video, this allowed us to have the same equipment each shoot. They was a issue with equipment as an other subject was using the drum kit.

One is the most expensive pieces equipment in the recording studio, the 'Green Screen Cameras', we were debating using this immensely expensive pieces of equipement but ultimately decided not to as it did not fit with the image we wanted to portray the band in.

A long shot of the room in it's entirety, giving the green screen the presence it deserves. The green screen acts as a great back drop for the band. As many of the shots are framed perfectly with it.

Behind the Scenes (Band Shoot 1)

 This is a shot of the band practicing for the shoot. This is also used as a reference for later shoots for the postion of the band members.

 This shot captures one of the camera operators at work, Dan Spurway, filming a close-up of the guitar. The lights in the background are positioned to allow the correct amount of light in to the frame to create the desired feel.

In this shot you can see a more music savvy team mate, Dave Waugh, giving the guitarist some tips well needed tips. Having a more music and instrument savvy team mate has help our group immensely. From the creation of the storyboard to the filming, his input has allowed the shots to have a realist and professional feel.   

This is more of a reference photo, for the postion of the lights, for later shoots. This shot does however capture the guitarist playing a particularly hard solo. 

A second reference shot for the cameras. We also see, Dave giving the band some more advice, while in a more comfortable postion. We can see the green screen in the background, we have not used the screen directly in the filming but used it to frame our shots.

This shot was a practice shot for a angle, we where experimenting with, the video camera was changing at this point. Not to dismiss the endearing dance on display.

This is shot of the band performing, one of there better takes. This has been used as a reference for the later shoots.