Final magazine advert

Final magazine advert

digipak

Final digipak

Music Video

Evaluation question 3

Evaluation question 1

Evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 2

Our music video so far

The original footage we had was unusable so we decided to change the whole idea of the music video and reshoot. We had the idea of using filters to film and use different colors for each girl. Giving the girls a color each means we are separating them within the group but having them in the same color filter for choruses and group shots brings them back together again. Here are some thumbnails from some filming we did (featuring 2/4 of the girl band).

Some finalized adverts

These are the two adverts we have completed. We are unsure about what advert we will use so will ask classmates their opinions on what they think is the better option. We took inspiration from previous adverts both from students and actual artists. We included a lot of what generic adverts include such as ratings, quotes and the continuation of our branding.

digipak drafts

These are some drafts of digipak. We wanted to ensure the branding of our girl band is followed through on the digipak which is everything from the colors to the fonts to the images. We wont follow these plans precisely as some changes may need to be changed depending on what images we want to include.

The digipak so far

Currently this is what me and Miriam have created for our digipak. The color scheme is the same as it is through out our branding and adverts. As well as the colors  the fonts are also the same. The diamonds in the background is an image we want to include on the CD itself as well as our logo for the group. The track listing for the album are songs we feel are urban yet have a pop type of sound to it. Black Diamonds is an RnB group with a hint of pop because we know not including some kind of pop will alienate a very large audience.

Our music video so far.

This is what me and Miriam have filmed and edited so far. We are aware of the amount of spaces in the video as we are still in the process of editing our footage. From what we have done so far we believe it is in the making of a very good music video with a narrative clearly matching the songs.

On going weekly production diary

We are currently in the process of editing our music video and sorting through the footage. Me and Miriam have now split the work and i am working on the music video while she works on the ancillary task. We are constantly asking opinions and ideas from one another to ensure we both agree with what we are doing which is being found very beneficial because an outside eye is useful in terms of new ideas and suggestions.

Filming update

On the 19th of March we continued our filming and we believe we now have the majority of footage we wanted. We mostly filmed outside with all four girls and we got the scenes we wanted. At the first we chose to do the lip sync scenes for the chorus also, but we found the girls were picking up the lyrics very well so we did the first verse of the song. We have already began the editing of our music video with the footage from our first shooting session and will continue with editing with the new footage. It is likely that we still have some filming to do mainly for filler footage but we believe that we have at least two and half minutes worth of good footage to edit.

Filming update

On the 17th of March we began filming. We filmed the first scene with three of the girls and we think that the footage came out well. We also began some filler footage such as them walking down a corridor and the girls chatting/consoling each other about their relationships. We have planned a second filming session on Thursday with the entire band in which we hope to get the majority of our filming done.

On going weekly production diary - What I did this week

This week we carried on with our advert drafts. We want to perfect our advert which is why are doing so many drafts. Each draft we do is different because once we are happy with our drafts we want our audience to decide which one they think is the better advert and which ever one has the most votes, we will then enhance and use for our advert. Next week we will continue with our drafts and our digipak to have it completed within the next two weeks.

Third advert draft

For this advert we decided to try a completely different layout. Instead of portrait we chose a landscape canvas and we used a lot more of the color white. The black background allows for the bottom stip to stand out more so the reader is instantly drawn to the information on the box. I included some reviews and ratings from well known music magazines. We have chosen to focus on the album release because it will further help us when creating the actual digipak. We have chosen a self-titled album name to help introduce the girl band. I think adding more information such as the ratings makes an advert more interesting because it brings more color  decreases dead space and gives the reader more of an incentive to buy the single. 

Second draft of advert

This is the second draft of our advert. This time it includes all four members in their 'personality clothes'. I especially like the image I chose because each member is showing their specific personality through their facial expressions. For example - Raeneece on the far right has a very straight almost moody face, Shanelle (next to Rae) is showing a cute smile and twirling her hair for the girly girl, Matisha (next to Shan) has a very stern yet pretty face; neither smiling or frowning and Miriam on the far left has a smile with teeth showing being the neutral. I also like the fact that the advert is very simplistic - its not overfilled with logos, information and pictures. It has what it needs - image of the artist, logo of who is selling at/record label, the name of the artist and song and the release date.  

Advert analysis - Beyonce I am Sasha Fierce

Advert analysis - Bruno Mars

On going weekly production diary - what I did this week

This week I focused on researching digipaks' in preparation for our teams. I chose two real digipaks from real artists and two made by other students found online. You can easily tell the difference between the professionals and the non- professionals. When searching for the students digipak's I found that a lot of them used already existing artist names and album titles and just made their own digipaks. We have chosen not to do this as it takes away from the whole idea of making a music video for someone - when you use someone else's name your more likely to copy what they do and thats not what we want.

Student digipak analysis

Student digipak analysis

Second photo shoot with Black Diamonds

This is a collection of images from the second photo shoot we did on the girl band. We asked the girls to dress according to their personality traits - the girly girl, the neutral, the tom boy and the more rocky kind of girl. We think that the girls did an excellent job of choosing their outfits based on the criteria we gave them and you can really see the type of girl band Black Diamonds are. Also, Raeneece was finally able to join us for a photo shoot as she was unable to attend our previous one.

Digipak analysis - Rihanna Loud

Digipak analysis - Sugababes Overloaded

Location recess

These are images and videos of the locations we intend on using for our music video.

On going weekly production diary - what I did this week

This week we mainly focused on our animatic. This is where we drafted a storyboard of our music video and made it into a video with our chosen song behind it. We did this so we have a rough guideline of what each scene will look like and how long the scene will last. We did this on premiere pro so we had yet another chance to practice our skills which will come in good use when we later use the program to edit our music video.

Mood board

Follow Alice's board cartoons on Pinterest.  

This is a mood board of R&B inspired cartoons of females. We took this inspiration from a cd cover from Stooshe. We loved the idea of animating our girl band because it looks so interesting and it could be another reason to draw the reader in. The animation would go no further than the digi-pack as it would be very time consuming to animate moving footage (our music video).

Storyboard for animatic

first draft of advert

This is a first draft of our poster for our music video. We have decided on the color scheme of pink, white and black as we think it conveys R&B through the black and white and the pink conveys the 'girlyness' of the group. We know that the band is R&B but there is always going to be some kind of 'girlyness' in a girl group no matter the genre. The bottom strip is still undecided in terms of what needs to be said;we have confirmed that we need the title of the song and the release date but nothing else as of yet. The two logos are of iTunes and an already established record label.  There is a white background d because we were unsure whether it needed to be color or not. The less color the background has, the more attention drawn to the focus of the advert.

Draft of logo ideas

Advert drafts

Colour Scheme for digipak

We have create a rough colour scheme we intend on following through our digipak. As you can see the main colours are black and pink because we feel as though those two colours suit an RnB girlband. We think that the colours flow well together and they would work well on an advert or our cd case. We want to ensure the use of pink because that colour we connote to femininity/ pop and although the group is mostly an RnB group we still want a hint of pop in their as it helps reach a much larger audience as pop is such a dominant genre in the industry.

Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHpENyEaAAc

On going weekly production diary - what I did this week

This week me and Miriam focused more on being organised for the video shoot and for the girl band. We created chacacter profiles, props/costumes/euiptment list, productions schedule, shooting script and some initial ideas for the branding of our girlband. Each of these things contribute massively to the way we will continue. By being organised in terms of what we need, when we need it and where we need to be with who allows for minimal disruptions for the filming of our video. Next week we intend to continue the branding of our girlband ready to begin out digipack.

Photo shoot 1

Today we carried out our first photo shoot for our girl band. We had them dress in all black as we wanted them to have that elegant look but still wearing gold chains and hooped earrings for the R&B look. From the shoot we came out with some excellent photographs and I was able to see how confident and comfortable they all are with each other. This was also one of our first chances to talk to the girls and discuss our ideas for the video in which they all thought we had some good ideas going.  Unfortunately one of our members was sick that day but we have already scheduled another photo shoot with her. Here is a few images from our shoot.

Band ideas in choice of fonts

We have selected these fonts because we think they are suitable for a R&B girl band. We are yet to decide on the colour of the font so for now we stuck with black. Each font is different and different things about the font made it stick out to us; sometimes it was just one letter that we liked. We especially like the first font in the name Black Diamonds as we were able to use icons for some of the letters and we feel as if it looks R&B.

Shooting script

Shooting script 

1) Studio 

2) Outside school ally way/ recreation area

3) Stairs outside of school building

4) Taken around the school - 6th form room, empty corridors

5) White room performance (Miriam/rest of the group)

Props, costume and equipment list

Props, costume and equipment list

Props

• mobile phones
• pictures 
• cars
• laptops
• sunglasses

Costume 

• black dresses (not identical) 
• high heels
• trainers
• winter coats with/without fur
• skinny jeans
• plain tops (no logos or embellishments) 
• hats
• rings
• big earrings 
• long gold chunky necklaces
• bracelets
• boots

Additional costume 

• Long straight/curly
• make up (in some scenes subtle, other scenes loud make up)

Equipment 

• Camera
• Tripod
• Blankets
• Stairs

Production Schedule

Video shoot 1 - 
The first scene in which the girls are looking at their phones looking at a text they sent to their boyfriends and they haven't replied. This will be done in the studio as we are re-creating it to look like a home environment. Each girl will have their individual scene looking at their phones.  This is the scene which will start the music video and the first verse of the song. We want it to look like a bedroom environment so we will be using blankets and cushions either on the floor or over a bench/chair to make it look like a bedroom. The blankets and cushions would be our props for this scene which can easily be brought in from home as well as mobile phones in which all of us have. We will also have pictures of the couples lying around for the girls to look back on and reminisce. The girls would be wearing causal clothes and little make-up/jewelry to emphasize the comfort of their own homes.

Video shoot 2 (chorus) -
In this scene the girls will be in their winter attire (coats, scarfs, hats, jeans, boots) with jewelry as they are now outside walking together. We want to ensure they are looking like an RnB girl group and we we researched this genre, that is what we found. We will use the school playground as their are parts of it that look like a general park such as the small walkway and area behind the back of the school.  This scene will display all four of the girls and we will need all four of them on this day.

Video shoot 3 -
This scene main performance element of the video. The girls will be wearing the same clothes as the previous scene as they are still going to be outside. We have chosen the block of steps outside the school for this scene as we still want to show them together as a girl group singing directly down to the camera. Second ver

Video shoot 4 (filler footage) -
For this shoot we will be filming a lot of our filler footage. We have some ideas for filler footage such as flashbacks of the couples being how they used to be (this will be done by looking back at photos and videos of the pair)

Video shoot 5 (rap verse) -
In this scene will be Miriam (my team member and girl band member) rapping the verse in the studio with white background. Parts of the rap will come up on the screen as lyrics (post production) next to Miriam. It then cuts to scenes of the girl band laughing and joking around in black and white and her alone on screen.

Character profiles

On going weekly production diary - what I did this week

This week I produced from more video analysis and those of very different kinds; one was a analysis of a previous a2 media student's work and one was a very popular girlband's video. Each one was clearly very different on more than one levels but I thought the quality of the student's video easily matched that of the professional video. The shots, visuals and quality of filming were to an outstanding level and the narrative of the music video was incredibly smart. As well as this me and my team member Miriam came came up with our idea and concept treatment which is out pitch to the class on our music video. It had to include everything from narrative to casting to locations to contingency plans. We found this task useful as we were able to fully lay out what our idea was and get feedback from our classmates on what they think about our idea.

Fifth Harmony Boss video analysis.

Lyric analysis - more than a million miles

You and I

We belong

Still we always bring our bullshit home

Time is passing us by

Holding onto you tight

I ain't letting go

I just want you to know

You and me together it should work

But your mind is in another universe

Your ambition is a thing I like to see

Let me know, let me know

If you can find some time for me

How can we be strong

When the road is more than a million miles long

When the song is done

Will the love be gone?

Or should we forget it

Don't sweat it

Regret it 

I ain't with it let's quit it, quit it

Is it red, is it green

Am I stuck in between

It ain't black or white

Just ain't feeling right

But it ain't what it seems

Can you say what you mean

Tell me why this always happens to me

You and me together it should work

But your mind is in another universe

Your ambition is a thing I like to see

Let me know, let me know

If you can find some time for me

How can we be strong

When the road is more than a million miles long

When the song is done

Will the love be gone?

Or should we forget it

Don't sweat it

Regret it 

I ain't with it let's quit it, quit it

Missing you lately

All of the time

All you seem to do is argue

Make up your mind

Come to my yard

Bring all the man dem

The broke ass n*ggaz

With all the fake gem

Communication, that's what we need

All the silence makes my heart bleed

All you wanna do sit and bun weed

No R E S P E C T

Tell me what happens to our quality time

Every time we meet

You're bringing trouble to my mind

A good man is so hard to find

Maybe we should dead this

Come back rewind

How can we be strong

When the road is more than a million miles long

When the song is done

Will the love be gone?

Or should we forget it

Don't sweat it

Regret it 

I ain't with it let's quit it, quit it

The lyrics to more than a million miles clearly states that the song is about a relationship on the rocks. The girl loves her partner and wants to be with him but she's getting fed up with the way he acts. The lyrics and the title 'more than a million miles' could easily suggest the distance between them. Not necessarily physical distance but emotional distance; as if they could be in the same room as each other but completely ignore one another because they both feel the tension. She repeatedly sings about "not letting go" and "holding onto you tight" which means she wants the relationship to keep going because she loves him so much and clearly they've been through so much and now at this point theres no going back. Although the love is still clearly there (mostly on her behalf) she has mixed emotions about whether to push through the difficult bits or just leave the entire relationship; with lyrics such as "is it red, is it green, am i stuck in between?" referring to her place in the relationship. She is completely unsure. When it gets to the rap verse, her feelings seem to become more intense. she talks about what he's doing wrong such as taking drugs and constantly having friends round to purposely ignore her. Even in the rap verse she is considering ending things all together referring to the relationship as 'dead'. The overall feeling we get from this song is that although they've been together for a long time and she loves him a lot, he isn't worth the time or heartache anymore and she wants to finish things to stop herself getting even more hurt.