Making the website

For the website we first decided that we needed to find a site to create  it on, this site needed to be accessable at school so our original plan to create it on Tumblr had to go, since although it was easily customisable with free themes it was unavailable at school and therefore we would not be able to edit it if we were in class.
After considering several websites (such as Weebly, Freewebs, webs) me and Ben decided to use Wix since it was available and unblocked at school, it was easy to edit and alter and it gave a good design.

Using images we had created for our digipak, including the cover and fonts we uploaded them onto the website, this is because when researching into other band websites we discovered that many of them did this as a marketing technique, using the same image so that it is a symbol of that band and retains in your memory. By using the same image it will help with sales and works to cross-sell products.

With creative suggestions, Ben organised the design of the website since he was most familiar with the website, and positioned the navigation bar, banners and positioned the background so that the light source of the photo-manip was in the centre of the page. He then positioned our created font/logo where it could be easily spotted and at the top with the navigation system, this was in keeping with similar codes and conventions from other sites. We decided to keep the colour scheme the same so that it looked smoother and so that everything complimented each other. This was important as other band websites I had looked at used similar palettes throughout their pages.

We felt that the video needed to be the most important aspect of our design so we placed it in the middle of the page so it immediately drew attention to viewers and so that it also was easily accessible. (this would help as a marketing technique to increase sales and views).

Overall I am pleased with the outcome of the design and think it works well to stick to similar codes and conventions of other band websites, but also includes our own original designs too.

Film and Audio post on band websites

I have recorded several band websites (Defeater, the band whose song we are creating a music video for, Paramore and another band called Nico Vega) and discussed common Codes and Conventions found on these and other band pages. These features will all go towards our final website design for our own band page.
I used an inbuilt sound-recorder that was installed into my computer and a headset with microphone to record my voice and I used a registered Hypercam 2 to record websites that I had chosen on my computer. This was all edited together using Windows Live Movie Maker to edit it all together, this included clipping and trimming clips to fit the audio and exporting the file into my documents.

25 of the Best Websites of Bands and Musicians

This is a link to an article I have found that rates the top 25 best websites of bands and musicians, this is particularly useful because it can help us with the design of our own website and it lists many of the conventions and features found in specifically band websites.

Extra Filming

These are images that we have taken during extra filming, this was when we developed our original idea and needed to shoot the extra clips needed for it, and also to fullfill the timeline of the song. We used the same camera to record so that there was no difference in quality of the clips and we had when filming near the railway we made sure we were in safe locations and that we were in no danger.

Editing video

 

This week we have started our editing on our video and putting it together, once we had imported the clips we had needed from the camera and sorted out which ones we needed (since we filmed extra to make sure) we uploaded the song into the editing timleline and started slowly putting the different clips together.
Once we were happy with the rough cut, we decided to test out effects and transitions that would improve the video. We decided on several 'fade' effects and since the song was quite sad we decided to include effects to match the narrative of the story.
Since many of the clips we had filmed were sad, we decided to use a 'Black and White' effect once the storyline in our film reached it's depressing plotline. This was so it was it would relate the audience, because they would see how it was affecting the character and would be empathic towards him.
To find the effects we had to go through video effects, at first we searched through colour correction but it wasn't located in that file and instead we found it under the folder 'image control'. The black and white effects worked well and was not too dark/light contrasting which was good.

 

 

 

 

For editing our music video we will be using the editing software programme Adobe Premier Pro, loading up the programme we immediatly tested the colour alteration and colour correction settings within the programme since it will be most likely that we will have to alter the appearance of the clips to fit with the narrative. We have also got the basic understanding of depth of field editing, motion blur and slow motion effects since we have discussed possible ideas for clips that could help improve our music video. Whilst we are editing and re-filming clips (if needed) and finding out information on things like Digipacks, Ben will develop the skills we have already produced to further our music video's performance.

This is the editing panel for colour schemes as stated above, this is also incase we need to emphasise the colour of the scenes since some of them were filmed when the weather made the natural lighting dim.

Above is the timeline that shows us editing the clips together and adding transitions such as "cross dissolve", "fade" and add titles to certain clips. The layout for editing on Adobe Premier Pro is fairly simple and combined with our knowledge from last year should be easy to handle. The programme tends to crash often so we will need to save regularly.

digipack codes and conventions

The snow has melted which means that if we need to go back and re-film anything then it will be possible to do so with more ease than before. We will need to check the forecast beforehand though since the weather is unpredictable at the moment and always changing.
Editing is coming along good and a rough cut of the film should be finished shortly.

Target Audience for our music video created on Prezi

Weather change

 This was early in the morning when the snow had just settled the first day and i walked down the the lake where we were filming, around 7am.

 These are a few days later after it continuously snowed and stayed the same conditions, this is later in the day around 3pm.

Although we have already filmed (hopefully) everything already, the weather these past few weeks has changed drastically to when we recorded our music video and this will therefore be a problem if we choose to redo anything. However, this should hopefully clear up over the next few weeks.

Mise-en-Scene

Mise en-scene from Lauren_Alexander

Several live-footage videos that I have found of the band performing the song we are making a music video, this shows that they have an active fan-base and you get and rough idea of the target audience that we will be aiming at. It shows you the type of places the band play and therefore what kinds of people they are likely to attract. Although these shows are in America, Defeater do play in the United Kingdom stating "Everyone in the UK has been so nice to us, the riders and everything is incredible. Getting fed every night and getting drinks for free and stuff, it’s so much different than in the States."

Dom has contacted Bridge 9 Records to check if it was okay to use the song we had chosen for our music video, as you can see we do and everything is going as planned.

These are photos I have taken of the group whilst we were setting up and preparing to film on the day, before we started the filming we realised that we would not be able to book a school camera in time for when we wanted to start, so instead we used my Fuji Film camera as a substitute since it could also record footage. I think it was suitable for the recording and hopefully we will not need to re-film anything, it looked okay when re-watching the camera however we will see when it comes to do a rough cut.

We have filmed some of our media project and are going out again next week to hopefully complete the rest of what we will need for our music video, we have been filming whilst the weather is the consistently sunny (although if there is a shift in the weather next week, we should be able to edit the brightness using Adobe Premier Pro since we have prepared for this and played around with the editing special effects/transitions incase we needed them).
We are aiming to get it all filmed for definite before the christmas break since the weather is likely to be unpredictable, last year it snowed early and around christmas which will be difficult if we need to go back and re-shoot.

Storyboard

These are scans of the storyboard that was created when we had decided on a rough story narrative for our video, most of the storyboard was drawn by me but as a simple guide for what want. The storyboard was created by ideas from the whole group and everyone was happy with the final story-line.

We wanted a narrative that would be similar to the original message in the song we had chosen so we stuck closely to that and expanded on it, we pictured what the band themselves were likely to do if they were to create a music video for their song.

Script, Scenes and Shots

recce shots

These are images that I have taken whilst looking into possible places to shoot our film at the location we had decided to use, as you can see there are lots of different looking places which have a lot of potential since they add variation to the scenes we will be shooting and we can even make it so it looks like the characters are in a completely different locations which has a lot of potential for the narrative of the song.

Problems: location change.

due to the fact that our location and idea would not be ideal for the sudden change in weather we have decided to change it, instead of walking to Nine Bridges for our filming, which would be a 40-50 minute walk, in changeable weather situations, we are now filming at the location 'Cuckoos Hollow' which in comparison is a 10-20 minute walk that would take up less time; especially since it is getting darker, sooner which means less filming time. It would be better for us if the weather is bad, since we could meet up anyway to film or discuss ideas indoors and it a location within easy reach of all of us.
Overall I feel this is a better choice and that the video will benefit from it, 

Presentation and idea feedback

 

After having finally come up with a plan for our final idea for a music video, we created a power point presentation and then briefed the idea to the rest of the groups for feedback. Our presentation included our location for filming, (which will be Nine bridges, a location in Peterborough), how we plan to edit the video, what shots we will use and we also let the groups hear the song we wish to use. We received much positive responce, aswell as a few improvements we could make which we will take into account and add into our production as we go along. Our teacher also gave us feedback, and although he liked our initial idea he also suggested what else we could put into out music video.