Production diary:

Working on my green screening:

Production Diary-

This week I conducted my location shoots. I used primary two locations: my garden and the local woods. In terms of the pre- production I didn’t create a running order because I had in mind what kind of shots I wanted and the whole purpose of my location shoots was to experiment with these ideas, specifically as I already have the majority of my footage. I also didn’t need to get my actress to sign a release form because she had featured in my previous video and I had already signed one.
In terms of the actual footage I conducted it at two separate times during the day so I could get the lighting right. I used a steadicam which gave me a lot of flexibility while filming which meant I could take a variety of different shots in terms of camera movement and shot type. In order to fit in with the overall theme of the music video I wanted to film her doing simplistic things such as picking flower petals, simple pleasures which link back to theme of simply wonderful. In the next couple of weeks I’m going to focus on incorporating these into my own music video as well as starting to focus on writing my evaluation. This week I also got audience feedback of Lily Da Costa, someone who would make up part of my target audience in the real world. I asked her to give me feedback on my final digipack designs in order to see if there were aspects she thought needed changing. This was particularly useful because she highlighted how the text used on the back cover doesn’t stand out enough like the others text used, something I’ve already been considering and therefore I’m defiantly going to improve this design.

Behind the scenes on my location shoot:

The following is an example of the kind of footage I got when conducting my location shoot as well as some images I took while getting ready to film and assembling the steadicam:

Production diary:

In the past two weeks I focused on finishing my digipack designs, developing my initial ideas through the audience feedback I had got. I decided in order to improve my designs I had to come up with a more creative, unique concept whilst still utilizing the puzzle piece scheme. I changed the initial idea I had for the second digipack to including a close up of the main artists with a faded puzzle piece effect in the background and instead of musical notes coming out from the artist’s mouth puzzle pieces. I also developed my previous designs of using a collage of images fitting in an overall puzzle piece, making the images inside it look more interesting and the puzzle piece appear to be in 3D. I created a Prezi explaining the development of my designs from first draft to final and everything I did to achieve these.
I’ve also been working on my music video and though I’ve finished organising all of the films taken on green screen I decided that in order to fit in with the overall ‘simplistic’ concept I wanted to get some location shots of one of the people featuring in my video celebrating all the natural, simple elements of life such as picking flowers and taking photos of nature etc. Not only will this fit in with theme of the video but it will make the footage look more varied. Therefore in the next couple of weeks I’m going to focus on getting audience feedback for my final digipack designs in order to see if I need to change anything else slightly as well as conduct my location filming.

Production Diary-

Production diary

The past two weeks I’ve been focusing on creating my music video. I’ve been experimenting with various effects such as changing the speed duration on the video to reverse, for one of my clips the people featuring in the video pulled a party popper and I changed this into reverse and visually this looked quite good. Additionally I’ve been focusing on experimenting with the placement and order of the clips to see what arrangement they look best in. Also by watching the video through I’ve realised that some of shots aren’t paced enough so I’ve been working on correcting this and timing the shots more effectively with the pace of the song.
Additionally I've uploaded the audience feedback I got from my draft designs. This advice was particularly helpful in helping me to improve my designs and their overall concept, which will enable my final designs to be better.

The following are some screen shots of my music video making process:

Holiday Diary:

This week I’ve been focusing on getting audience feedback on the draft designs I created before Christmas. I asked several people to give their opinions on what they felt was successful about the designs so far and how I could improve them. I created a prezzi of their feedback which I will be uploading soon.
In the next few weeks after Christmas I’m going to start my final drafts for my digipack and magazine advert as well as finish creating my video. In order to ensure that my final products are as good as possible during these holidays I want to create a document ( based on the feedback I got) of possible improvements I want to make and really consider areas I need to develop on. This will enable me to know exactly what I need to do when I get back to better my product.

Production Diary:

Today I uploaded the draft designs for my digipack as well as my music advert. Currently I do like the basis of the design but I know they need some work in terms of font type, brush effects used etc. In order to see areas which I really need to improve on in the Christmas holidays I’m going to ask a few people who would potentially be interested in my product to fill out a form on what they think of the designs so far and how for the final products these could be improved. This will really help me in developing my current ideas.
I’ve also been working on finishing my music video first draft however while working through it I’ve realised that a lot of my footage isn’t varied enough and therefore after the Christmas holidays I’m going to plan some re-shoots and use different people and more props.

Weekly Production Diary-

This week I’ve been focusing on creating my draft Digipack’s on Adobe Photoshop and it what in this respect that my research and planning (creation of my first drafts on paper) was really helpful. I experimented with a variety of colours however and after seeing that visually my initial idea of having lots of words related to the artist, running down the side of my front cover made the design look cluttered and detracted attention away from the artist and other relevant text on the cover I decided to keep it simpler by only utilizing the puzzle effect and bright, dominant text. I’ve recorded a video of me creating the Puzzle effect on Photoshop (cutting out the individual pieces of the puzzle by using the magnetic lasso tool and using colour fill) and experimenting with the text and font designs on my front cover which I will be uploading soon. I’ve also been focusing on creating the first draft of my music video however when putting all of my films together I’ve realised that it will be necessary to conduct several more shoots.
In the next week I want to focus on creating my magazine advert and looking at potential sources of inspiration for which will in turn influence my own product. It’s also important to gain audience feedback on my initial idea in order for me to see whether it’s a successful product and if my TA like it.

Weekly Production Diary-

This week was my research and planning deadline and therefore I focused on finishing and uploading all the planning documents I had to create before beginning the filming of my music video such as the floor plan, equipment list and running order. I also went back over my blog, in order to see what I could improve on and two areas I felt I hadn’t done in enough detail were my inspiration page and my audience feedback. Therefore this week, as well as uploading my design inspiration Prezi, I analysed a few successful music videos which I found effective and discussed how I would like to use some of their features or concepts in my own for example never shout never- What is love? Where I particularly like the way in which the video communicates to the audience by using signs and this is something I am doing for my own. I also feel like I hadn’t gained enough audience feedback, specifically from the male part of my TA, so therefore I asked Aaron Hunt (someone who in the real world would be interested in my product due to his personal interest in this genre) to fill in an audience feedback form on my digipack drafts and I found his advice really helpful. In the next week I’m also planning on showing a few members of my primary TA clips from the first filming shoots in order to see what they think of it so far, and how and what they think for the next shoots I could change.
This week I’ve also uploaded my footage of the first 2 shoots I conducted and began to work with them on Adobe Premiere in order to make my first draft.

Photo Sequence-

This is a sequence of some of the photos from my first shoot. It was important when conducting my photo shoot to take pictures from varying angles and different shot types in order to make the pictures look as interesting as possible as well as provide me with a large variety of images to pick from, minimising the chances I would have to conduct a re-shoot.

Production Diary-

Last week I started filming my music video, on Tuesday and Wednesday, and therefore before this I was working on my floor plans, release forms, call sheets etc some of which I’m yet to upload. I found the whole process really fun however when undertaking the filming I realised the importance of organisation beforehand where for example my call sheets were really useful in helping me to arrange what props to take in the following day. Additionally when conducting my re-shoots I think it will be much easier if I separate the groups into even smaller groups who will film on different days as it’s much easier to direct a smaller group than a larger one.
This week I’m going to really concentrate on working on the design inspirations of my products and how these have come to shape my own ideas. I’m currently in the process of creating a Prezzi on this and by conducting such similar product research I think it will help me in understanding what I actually want to achieve out of my product by the end. It will also help me in terms of allowing me to identify the specific parts of other products which I find successful and how I want to incorporate these into my own video.

Production diary:

Because I’m filming in two days time today I focused on going out and buying all the props I want to include in my music video like balloons, the cardboard to make my ‘simply wonderful’ signs and other things like glitter. Also I’ve finished completing my risk assessment sheets and will soon be uploading these as well as the actor release forms I’ve got all the people participating in my video to fill out and the permission slips I got participants to fill in as agreement they wouldn’t let me down on the day and not turn up.
As well as concentrating on filming, I’ve also been getting audience feedback on what people thing on my digipack draft designs as in the next few weeks I’m planning to create my first drafts and I think it’s necessary that I understand firstly whether people find them effective as a product or not and whether they like the design and find it interesting and eye catching, which is its main purpose.

Production Diary:

The following is a time lapse of the photography process for the creation of my digipack. I took a variety of shots of my model from different angles and perspectives however I still need to go back and take some photo's of the puzzle pieces and strings which will make up the design for the back of my album cover.

Half Term Holiday Diary:

My half term Homework this week was to begin the draft storyboards and the animatic for my music video as well as the drafts for my digipak. I’m currently in the process of creating these and have nearly finished but before actually creating these it was vital I get audience feedback for my overall idea. I asked several people to fill in audience feedback forms on my proposal and how they thought I could improve the idea for my music video. I also made sure that I didn't just give these forms to people in my media class but to people that will be able to give me a more impartial opinion. Additionally I didn’t just give out the forms to anyone but to those who will potentially be interested in my product and the kind of people that would listen to this genre of music.
This was really useful because it not only provided me with a fresh perspective on my ideas but also showed me how my potential target audience would react to my product and ultimately whether they would like it or not and what parts they did and didn't like. It also gave me ideas on how to improve some aspects of my music video idea and what difficulties I may face in the process.

Weekly Production Diary:

This week I did the photo shoot for my album cover. I already have an idea in mind of what I want to produce in terms of my cover and digipack and this helped me when conducting the photo shoot as I knew what kind of photo’s to take however in case I do change my mind at a later stage I took a lot of pictures so I won’t have to redo the photo shoot. Before actually carrying out I had to get my model to sign a consent form, this is print screened below. I also created a time lapse of the whole photography process which I will be uploading soon :)

Production Diary:

This week we out and experimented with the cameras, we were given a checklist of shots we had to take for example high angle as well as of a list of effects we had to create on the software Adobe Premiere like reverse and extreme slow mo. We then tested shooting different objects, one of our ideas for reverse was to shoot people smoking and then put this in slow motion however when we did this it wasn’t as effective as we first thought because we had to take the camera of the tripod so the footage was really shaky. After shooting I uploaded the footage to Adobe Premiere and then experimented with different effects, noting ones down I found particularly successful like colour pass as I may use this in my own music video. I found working with the equipment and software really useful because I now feel better prepared to make my video and shoot it.
In order to make a successful product its important I get audience feedback at every stage of the production and planning of my music video, specifically by people who will interact with my product in the real world. I’m therefore in the process of creating polls on my blog to find out about the kind of things my target audience find successful in a video and where they would typically watch a video as well as getting feedback about my proposal idea and what people think is successful/ unsucessful about it and their ideas about how I could change these unsuccessful elements. In the next week I’m also going to create a target audience profile, by understanding my target audience better it will enable me to make a better product that will suit their wants.

Production Diary: