Rough cut feedback
We showed our most recent rough cut to a 38 year old man. We asked him questions regarding the video so if he thought it was true of the Indie genre, what he liked and didn't.
Friday 18 December 2015
Rough cut feedback 1
Rough cut feedback
We showed our most recent rough cut to a lower 6th student. We asked him questions regarding the video so if he thought it was true of the Indie genre, what he liked and didn't.
We showed our most recent rough cut to a lower 6th student. We asked him questions regarding the video so if he thought it was true of the Indie genre, what he liked and didn't.
Genre/ audience research 2
Genre/ audience research 2
I asked a series of questions to a 38 year old man, these centred around what they personally thought about the indie genre and what age did they think the genre was aimed at.
I asked a series of questions to a 38 year old man, these centred around what they personally thought about the indie genre and what age did they think the genre was aimed at.
Tuesday 15 December 2015
Genre/audience research 1: post 16 student
Genre/audience research 1
I asked a series of questions to a student in lower 6th form (aged 17) a series of questions centred around what they personally thought about the indie genre and what age did they think the genre was aimed at.
I asked a series of questions to a student in lower 6th form (aged 17) a series of questions centred around what they personally thought about the indie genre and what age did they think the genre was aimed at.
First draft of digipak
First draft of digipak front cover
Using photoshop and illustrator I have created the first digipak front cover.
Photoshop
I have cut out the image of the 3 band members in masks using the polygonal lasso tool and then desaturated the image and using levels and curves tool, I have found the right dark black and white option for me. I then faded the edges of the image to make it blend better with the background.
I then transferred my image, which I took using long exposure on my camera and desaturated it again and using the levels and curves tool, I made the backdrop almost black and the light white to create more of a contrast. I then duplicated the image and flipped it vertically and merged the two images together to create one large image to create the background. I then transferred the image onto the background.
Illustrator
As I already had a template for the digipak so to make sure the image went all the way to the bleed (the blue line) I worked out how long the image would have to be to fill the front and back covers. This measurement was 291mm by 131.5mm.
I then found the font CFJackStory in the font book which looks almost hand written which fits very well with the indie genre as its freehand. Also to help fit with Sly Antics style I used the salmon colour they use repeatedly on their website. I did this by copying a screenshot of the font and using the dropper tool copied the exact colour. I then typed out the bands name and the albums name. To fit the genre conventions I made the bands name larger than the album name.
Using photoshop and illustrator I have created the first digipak front cover.
Photoshop
I have cut out the image of the 3 band members in masks using the polygonal lasso tool and then desaturated the image and using levels and curves tool, I have found the right dark black and white option for me. I then faded the edges of the image to make it blend better with the background.
I then transferred my image, which I took using long exposure on my camera and desaturated it again and using the levels and curves tool, I made the backdrop almost black and the light white to create more of a contrast. I then duplicated the image and flipped it vertically and merged the two images together to create one large image to create the background. I then transferred the image onto the background.
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| original background image |
As I already had a template for the digipak so to make sure the image went all the way to the bleed (the blue line) I worked out how long the image would have to be to fill the front and back covers. This measurement was 291mm by 131.5mm.
I then found the font CFJackStory in the font book which looks almost hand written which fits very well with the indie genre as its freehand. Also to help fit with Sly Antics style I used the salmon colour they use repeatedly on their website. I did this by copying a screenshot of the font and using the dropper tool copied the exact colour. I then typed out the bands name and the albums name. To fit the genre conventions I made the bands name larger than the album name.
Wednesday 9 December 2015
Audience research and magazine advert research
Audience research and looking at magazine audience
YouGov is an international internet-based market research firm and
played a key part in finding our target audience as well as choosing which magazines to exhibit our magazine adverts in. As Sly Antic is a relatively small unknown band their demographics would not be featured on such a site however I used closely comparative bands to use as examples e.g Blurr, Artic Monkeys, The Pixies and The Strokes. This method however not as accurate still gave us a pretty good understanding of the primary and secondary audiences of Sly Antics. However, we already know the bands actual target audience as they have told us first hand (primary audience around 18-27 and secondary audience are "old rockers" more around the 35 plus mark)
Demographics that fit with our primary audience
Demographics that fit with our secondary audience
Our findings fit our already layed out audiences so we knew that YouGov was a reliable site. So we then went on to find out which Magazines would fit with target audiences. We found that fans of the bands (Blurr and The pixies) would be readers of Empire magazine and their main readership audience age is 25-39 which fits with our secondary audience. Fans of (Arctic Monkeys, The strokes and Blurr) would be readers of NME and their target audience is 18-24 fitting with our Primary audience. Band featuring in NME which are relatable to Sly Antics are Foals, Artic monkeys and 1975.
NME demographics
Target audience
So our primary audience for NME magazine is 18-24 and is social grade C2DE. (I will explain lower down)
YouGov is an international internet-based market research firm and
played a key part in finding our target audience as well as choosing which magazines to exhibit our magazine adverts in. As Sly Antic is a relatively small unknown band their demographics would not be featured on such a site however I used closely comparative bands to use as examples e.g Blurr, Artic Monkeys, The Pixies and The Strokes. This method however not as accurate still gave us a pretty good understanding of the primary and secondary audiences of Sly Antics. However, we already know the bands actual target audience as they have told us first hand (primary audience around 18-27 and secondary audience are "old rockers" more around the 35 plus mark)
Demographics that fit with our primary audience
Demographics that fit with our secondary audience
Our findings fit our already layed out audiences so we knew that YouGov was a reliable site. So we then went on to find out which Magazines would fit with target audiences. We found that fans of the bands (Blurr and The pixies) would be readers of Empire magazine and their main readership audience age is 25-39 which fits with our secondary audience. Fans of (Arctic Monkeys, The strokes and Blurr) would be readers of NME and their target audience is 18-24 fitting with our Primary audience. Band featuring in NME which are relatable to Sly Antics are Foals, Artic monkeys and 1975.
Empire magazine demographics
NME demographics
Target audience
So our primary audience for NME magazine is 18-24 and is social grade C2DE. (I will explain lower down)
The social grading of ABC1C2DE denotes a persons social class and levels of income. ABC1s are thought of as appreciators of broadsheet newspapers and complex and foreign dramas. However C2DE are more likely to read tabloid newspapers and watch sitcoms as well as film genres such as rom-coms. Overall it is widely agreed that AB is equivalent to upper class, C1 and C2 are upper and lower middle class and DE is working class.
It is also assumed that the higher on the scale you are the more intelligent and sophisticated a person is.
Saturday 28 November 2015
PARTIAL: Rough Cut 4
PARTIAL: Rough Cut 4
In this rough cut:
- I have added in more footage to get a better sense of what the full video will look like.
- Used intertextuality by adding in a shot inspired by Depeche Mode's "Never Let Me Down Again" video of the side profile of our lead singer in the car at approximately 1 min.
- I edited to the beat of the music much more.
In the next rough cut:
- Put in place holders for the missing footage.
- Focus on the countryside shots and the warehouse scene to make that look more fluid and un-shaky.
- Use transitions more, this will make it look more like a music video.
- Use the "Bagman" shots to make him look more menacing.
PARTIAL: Rough Cut 3
PARTIAL: Rough Cut 3
In this rough cut:
- I've changed the long panning shot by making it a shorter take and adding in the vertical pan upwards of the lead singer.
- I've also added another layer onto the panning shot of the band near the end, (I added separate shots of the band), this makes it seem more interesting in my opinion.
In the next rough cut:
- Add in the countryside footage and hopefully some of the warehouse footage.
- Edit to the beat of the music more.
- Use the lip syncing more so it looks more like a music video.
INITIAL EDITS: Cafe 2
VERY ROUGH ROUGH CUT OF CAFE SCENE
This is a VERY rough rough cut of the cafe scene, this is not intended to be a guide to how it will actually look, I've been playing around and experimenting with the footage we have and the editing tools in Final Cut Pro X, there are still things that need doing with it for example:
This is a VERY rough rough cut of the cafe scene, this is not intended to be a guide to how it will actually look, I've been playing around and experimenting with the footage we have and the editing tools in Final Cut Pro X, there are still things that need doing with it for example:
- More layering to fit with the genre.
- Add in cross-cutting to make it look more fluid.
- Sort out shaky shots so it doesn't look amateur .
- Stabilisation to make the shots look clean and un wobbly.
- Darkening the effect, this is "Black and White" and "Flim Noir" from the effects bar in FCPX, which although looks good there isn't enough contrast in it.
AUDIENCE RESEARCH: Male aged 18
INFORMATION
This particular piece of audience research was conducted on a male aged 18, he is a university student from Leeds, West Yorkshire and an avid music listener.
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK: Cafe Sample Scene
CLASS FEEDBACK
After looking at my sample scene in class both Molly and Mr Burrowes came up with some ways and ideas of making the scene better.
MISE-EN-SCENE: Another Poster of Sly Antics
MISE-EN-SCENE: Poster of Sly Antics
This is the poster I created using Photoshop, it will be used in the first an last shot of our video. I will also create duplicates of this to create verisimilitude.
SLY ANTICS SOCIAL MEDIA
Sly antics social media
Sly antics have the following accounts: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and their own website. They advertise their other social media sites from their main website.
This is clever as their website is an easy link to their various other social media sites, helping to create a larger interest in the band as people can quickly see what they are about and in a way get to know the band them selfs. It creates a very approachable feel to the band as they have a section called "speak to us" where people who don't wish to post directly to a visible website can privately message them. The immediate updates also means that people can keep up to date with the bands new music or gigs as well as their page outlining all new gigs. Another way the band has successfully brought across their image is to post reviews of the band from promotors and magazine adverts, this gives a real feel about what kind of atmosphere the band creates at a gig and what to expect from a unbiased view point. This here is a band with promise and potential and we are only just seeing the beginning of it – LITTLE INDIE NIGHT
Website style
The band has again brought across their image through their use of fonts, colours, images and textures. We can see from their use of black and white grained images that they have gone for an alternative indie approach, this is common of indie bands such as The arctic monkeys
. They have also used the same back and white colour scheme by using many shades of grey rather than just a straight black and white effect.
Sly antics have the following accounts: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube and their own website. They advertise their other social media sites from their main website.
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| immediately uploads recent Instagram posts |
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| shows their song list and how to listen to them |
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| immediately uploads recent twitter posts |
This is clever as their website is an easy link to their various other social media sites, helping to create a larger interest in the band as people can quickly see what they are about and in a way get to know the band them selfs. It creates a very approachable feel to the band as they have a section called "speak to us" where people who don't wish to post directly to a visible website can privately message them. The immediate updates also means that people can keep up to date with the bands new music or gigs as well as their page outlining all new gigs. Another way the band has successfully brought across their image is to post reviews of the band from promotors and magazine adverts, this gives a real feel about what kind of atmosphere the band creates at a gig and what to expect from a unbiased view point. This here is a band with promise and potential and we are only just seeing the beginning of it – LITTLE INDIE NIGHT
These guys play hard and fast, creating tension and release with great ease – DISTORTED SOUND MAGAZINE
On any good music lovers “to watch” list – 45 MAGAZINE
Very loud and very exciting – RIGHT CHORD MUSIC
Incredibly musically complex tracks, grounded by gruff vocals that impress from start to finish – HUMANITY HALLOWS
The band has again brought across their image through their use of fonts, colours, images and textures. We can see from their use of black and white grained images that they have gone for an alternative indie approach, this is common of indie bands such as The arctic monkeys
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| Arctic Monkeys a successful indie band |
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| Sly antics using the same approach as Arctic monkeys |
PHOTOSHOP: long exposure
Using photoshop to create the effect of long exposure on a camera
Instead of changing the settings on a camera to create the effect of long exposure you can do it very quickly using photoshop. Here is a video explaining how:
(messy example with time and care it will be a lot neater)
Before
After
Another attempt at different image:
Instead of changing the settings on a camera to create the effect of long exposure you can do it very quickly using photoshop. Here is a video explaining how:
(messy example with time and care it will be a lot neater)
Before
Another attempt at different image:
PLANNING: tutorial how I made the masks
How I made the scarecrow mask for the bagman
I bought 1 1/2 metres of brown sack material from a local fabric store
Step 1: cut the material into 3
I bought 1 1/2 metres of brown sack material from a local fabric store
Step 1: cut the material into 3
IDEAS: digipak-long exposure
Digipak front cover ideas- long exposure
Using long exposure has been used before on album covers such as the indie band Electric city.
We like the idea because it is very simple but effective and it also fits well with our indie genre as its an alternative approach to a plain image.
Our idea
Would be to use long exposure but using a crowd of people or traffic. The bag man would be stood in amongst a group but they would all be blurred, using long exposure, and he would be clear and still. To fit with the album name 'Captive city' it would be in a city environment and he would looked maybe trapped in a sea of moving people. Also to connect all three forms together (Music video, digipak and mag ad) the
follow on of the bagman from the video would to help secure a clear link.
Using long exposure has been used before on album covers such as the indie band Electric city.
We like the idea because it is very simple but effective and it also fits well with our indie genre as its an alternative approach to a plain image.
Our idea
Would be to use long exposure but using a crowd of people or traffic. The bag man would be stood in amongst a group but they would all be blurred, using long exposure, and he would be clear and still. To fit with the album name 'Captive city' it would be in a city environment and he would looked maybe trapped in a sea of moving people. Also to connect all three forms together (Music video, digipak and mag ad) thefollow on of the bagman from the video would to help secure a clear link.
Friday 27 November 2015
MOODBOARD: magazine ad and digipak
Moodboard
Using conventions of an indie approach to images I want to create a grungy look to our magazine ad and digipak using maybe black and white to follow these conventions as well as creating a link between all three pieces of work (Digipak, mag ad and music video)
Using images of rough urban areas it helps to create a grungy retro feel. (look on this blog post to see actual examples of digipak who have used this approach)
Wednesday 25 November 2015
TESTING: teaser advert test 2
Magazine advert
Using photoshop I played around with trying to create a simple poster to be used with in our music video. In these I used images taken from footage we had previously taken and added some effects to make them look more grungy to fit with the bands style. As a posters main focus is the information I made sure that it was bold and visible from afar.
Next
Next I will need to try develop these using illustrator which i have just been introduced to. This will help with the pixelation of the text and images.
Influenced by:
Again these simple images are influenced by fellow indie bands such as the arctic monkeys and 1975 who use very simplistic and stylised images with minimal to no text included.
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| Arctic monkeys - Do you wanna know- art work |
TESTING: Teaser poster test 1
First draft of magaziene advert
This is a very rough edit I created on photoshop using screen shots of my previous filmed footage. As the quality of the image wasn't very good I using the effects tool added this complete black and white effect. This very simplistic approach was inspired by the Arctic Monkeys past art work. Both use straight black and white colouring and only simple lines. Also as this was intended to be a simple teaser advert I added minimal text/information in order to create hype and mystery behind the upcoming Sly Antics album.
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| Arctic monkeys - Do you wanna know- art work |
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| Arctic monkeys - Do you wanna know - art work |
Friday 20 November 2015
Magazine adverts: draft 1
Rough teaser advert drafts
After playing around with the new cutout font I have over layer these with one or multiple images which after lowering the opacity has create one larger image. The faded image fits with the Indie genre due to the unfocused effect seen in many of The 1975's art work.
However the image its self is not good enough quality to enlarge it any more as it is a screen shot and so not big enough to be a magazine ad. So I tried layering it on top of another larger image and then lowering the opacity. The finished product is not very good but I needed to see the effect created to then expand on it. This is a very rough first draft.
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| The 1975 art work |
The text and how I will progress
As this is a teaser advert it will have minimal text on it so my next draft will contain the release date of the Digipak/album with I have decided will be the 30.09.16 as it is around the end of this year and the album title Captive city. As the poster will not be giving much away it will create hype surrounding the band and its new material.
Audience feedback
After receiving audience feedback they said that they liked the layers but that they didn't like the shadowing of the numbers or the fabric like effect.
Wednesday 18 November 2015
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE: Update 3
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE: Update 3
BY THE 27TH OF NOV
- A full basic rough cut of video
- Audience Research to be done
- Digi Pack and Mag Ad ideas
- More Audience Research to be done
- Links list
- Flyer design to be done
- Flyer shoot
- Podcasting
- Further Photography
- Green Screen footage
- Audience Research Video done
Saturday 14 November 2015
PLANNING: costume
Planning costume
Band:
The three members of sly antics were all dressed in clothing stereotypically worn by an indie band for example the Indie bands Catfish and the bottlemen, the Kooks and Noah and the whale wear jeans, monochrome shirts or teeshirts and either a leather or denim jacket.
So we put sly antics into similar clothing, jeans monochrome tee shirts and or shirts with either a denim or leather jacket.
Masked figure:
We wanted the masked figure to wear the same outfit as in the original video to help with the continuity. So we put him in a white shirt buttoned up, dark jean trousers, black shoes and the mask.
Elderly cast:
We asked the elderly cast to come in their normal everyday clothes as we wanted it too look quite relaxed and un-styalised. This consisted of comfy trousers (not really jeans) a simple shirt or t-shirt and a cardigan or plain jumper. As the edit would be black and white the colouring of clothes didn't really matter.
Band:
The three members of sly antics were all dressed in clothing stereotypically worn by an indie band for example the Indie bands Catfish and the bottlemen, the Kooks and Noah and the whale wear jeans, monochrome shirts or teeshirts and either a leather or denim jacket.
So we put sly antics into similar clothing, jeans monochrome tee shirts and or shirts with either a denim or leather jacket.
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| sly antics |
We wanted the masked figure to wear the same outfit as in the original video to help with the continuity. So we put him in a white shirt buttoned up, dark jean trousers, black shoes and the mask.
Elderly cast:
We asked the elderly cast to come in their normal everyday clothes as we wanted it too look quite relaxed and un-styalised. This consisted of comfy trousers (not really jeans) a simple shirt or t-shirt and a cardigan or plain jumper. As the edit would be black and white the colouring of clothes didn't really matter.
PLANNING: Props
Planning props
For this shoot we needed minimal props, however each scene had a few to help the mise-en-scene.
Warehouse:
100x Tea lights (bought from tescos) and matches (these helped the shrine scene to look more realistic)
Printed pictures of the band (printed in local supermarket and to make the shrine scene look more realistic)
3x masks (hand made)
Lights (for lighting the set, brought from home and borrowed from a friend)
3x chairs (brought from home, we chose these chairs as they looked old and plain which fitted with the run down look we were going for)
Travelling shots:
2xCar (the band brought one and we brought the other)
Cafe scene:
Cups of tea for all cast (provided by cafe)
Bands instruments (provided and brought by band)
For this shoot we needed minimal props, however each scene had a few to help the mise-en-scene.
Warehouse:
100x Tea lights (bought from tescos) and matches (these helped the shrine scene to look more realistic)Printed pictures of the band (printed in local supermarket and to make the shrine scene look more realistic)
3x masks (hand made)
Lights (for lighting the set, brought from home and borrowed from a friend)
3x chairs (brought from home, we chose these chairs as they looked old and plain which fitted with the run down look we were going for)
Travelling shots:
2xCar (the band brought one and we brought the other)
Cafe scene:
Cups of tea for all cast (provided by cafe)
Bands instruments (provided and brought by band)
PLANNING: casting masked figure
Casting for the part of bagman
In Sly antics video Intro they include a masked figure at the end
to create a link between the two videos we wanted to follow on the story and include the masked man. As he is masked it didn't need to be the same actor playing the the masked man in our video so we chose someone who was around the same build and height so the two looked quite similar and the follow on would be obvious. That person happened to be my dad which was convenient as he was available on any date or time.
In Sly antics video Intro they include a masked figure at the end
to create a link between the two videos we wanted to follow on the story and include the masked man. As he is masked it didn't need to be the same actor playing the the masked man in our video so we chose someone who was around the same build and height so the two looked quite similar and the follow on would be obvious. That person happened to be my dad which was convenient as he was available on any date or time.
PLANNING: Casting cafe scene
Casting
As sly antics came to us via the social media platform twitter we didn't need to do much casting as we would centre the band in our video.
Cafe scene
To fit our idea of having a scene centring a cafe full of older people we need to get at least 10 elderly cast members. Firstly we went to the centre for the elderly in Ilkley to ask if anyone would be willing however as our filming fell later on in the day it wasn't possible.
So then Mr Burrows suggested some of his neighbours, who worked at a home for the elderly, would be able to help so they were contacted but due to late notice and one neighbour being on holiday this also didn't go ahead. So I then started asking my own neighbours if they would be willing to help out and even though many said they couldn't enough people said that they could. We asked them to be at the Outside the box cafe for 4.
As sly antics came to us via the social media platform twitter we didn't need to do much casting as we would centre the band in our video.
Cafe scene
To fit our idea of having a scene centring a cafe full of older people we need to get at least 10 elderly cast members. Firstly we went to the centre for the elderly in Ilkley to ask if anyone would be willing however as our filming fell later on in the day it wasn't possible.
FONTS: genre examples
Font examples
All of these examples are from indie bands magazine adverts. All show very simplistic fonts which I like. As sly antics also fall within the same genre we can follow this trend. For example the Manic street preachers have flipped the R in one of their ads indicating the alternative nature of the band. Also the colours are quite dulled in most of the examples which denotes a more serious genre. The use or art work in one advert again works very well to indicated their arty alternative approach. Each are very simplistic and are very pleasing to the eye as they are so stylised.
All of these examples are from indie bands magazine adverts. All show very simplistic fonts which I like. As sly antics also fall within the same genre we can follow this trend. For example the Manic street preachers have flipped the R in one of their ads indicating the alternative nature of the band. Also the colours are quite dulled in most of the examples which denotes a more serious genre. The use or art work in one advert again works very well to indicated their arty alternative approach. Each are very simplistic and are very pleasing to the eye as they are so stylised.
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