Final Product

Making Magazine Advert

I used an 'Making of' picture as I thought that it would tie in nicely with the fact that I wanted all my media products to tie in together.
I edited my picture by using an online site called Picnik. I used the effects '60's', 'Cross process' and a rounded boarder to give it a retro look. The colours gave its a dreamy, indie effect. Like it had been taken on a 33mm film camera. I then used the same font has I had on the other products for the band.

I then had to make...

a magazine advertisement for the promotion of my band, I had a look at my NME and looked for ideas. The magazine advert would feature inside a magazine along with other magazine ads which could be in either A4 or A5 which would have individual style also reflecting the artists own style. The advert could also be produced in other mediums such as, posters, billboards bus-stops/trainstations, TV and on their website. Before our own advert is created, research is required to understand the style the artists actual magazine adverts and what is featured in them, along with the basics of magazine advertisements. Most of the adverts were on the release of a new album or single. I have found this piece of artwork which was made for a magazine for the band 'Bat for lashes'.



http://andrewbannecker.typepad.com/bannecker/2009/05/bat-for-lashes.html

Features of a Magazine Advert

The main aspects which an advert to feature in a magazine in order for it to reach its target audience and draw new crowds are:

To have a logo, being of the name of the band, or an original symbol/picture or mascot to feature on the front.
Depending on the artists style, a photograph of the band, artist a representation of their genre,style, song or use graphic design or even illustrations to portray your own style so it stands out from the crowd.
For a photograph, choose a location which would most likely fit with the artist theme, or contrast with the location if that’s the type of message the song coveys.
The title of the single/album etc
The dates in which it is released, specifying the format it will be released on eg. LP, CD, Download etc…
Additional information for the artist such as the name of the band/artist if it isn’t concluded in the logo which would be a main feature with the background.

Penny & Pounds DigiPak

I wanted to have the running theme/style with the bikes and I used the same font for all of my promo package. I also designed the inside to represent a bike and the CD and DVD to look like bike wheels.

This was my finished product for the Digipak.




Click to enlarge

Digipaks :D

For one of my ancillary tasks I have to make a Digipak for the band.
Digipak is a patented style of compact disc or DVD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI Media, a MeadWestvaco, Inc. resource, which acquired the original trademark holder, IMPAC Group, Inc., in 2000. MeadWestvaco licensed the name and designs to manufacturers around the world.

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digipak

Final Music Promo Video

This is my final cut for my music video. I will get some feedback from my tageted audeience and write about this in my evaluation.

Fly for a fly final cut from rosie-beth hickling on Vimeo.

Animation

I've now got round to doing my two pieces of animation of Yasmin's hands. I'm using 'I can animate' which is a piece of software which allows me to plug the video camera into the Mac and take still shots with it. The first shoot was of Yasmin writing the word 'Love' onto a piece of paper this took a while as it was hard making the writing look good. The second shoot was of her hands making a heart shape break in half. The animation was done quite easily and I then transferred it into iMovie were I edited it into my music video. This has gone well, and means that I can make up any time.

Animation from rosie-beth hickling on Vimeo.

Editing

Now that I have all my filmed footage, I'm now going to use the Apple Macs to edit it using the software iMovie.

I have run into a problem. I had started to edit all my footage, but then the Mac decided to bring back all my deleted footage. This means I need more time to start again with the cutting, which is a pain as i still have some animating to do.

Filming with couples

Original planned in my storyboard, the shots of the couples were suppose to be in the same park that I shot the bike shots. However due to lack of time I had to film in school, but I did try and film in a location with trees and benches to give the effect of a park.

I had to film three couples in various places outside. I wanted them to show a huge amount of affection for each other as I needed to show the contrast with the lonely girl on the bike. I also incorporated angle shots that I used when filming Yasmin, they were mostly a mix of long and mid shots.

Mise en scene - Bike Scenes

It was essential that I took the two main props with me when filming to Brandon Hill.

Bike

&

Radio

I also had to think about how to dress my actress. As we don't see the actually band in the video, I made the girl character as a 'face' of the band. So I want her to reflect the bands image and style. I decided to give her quite an individual/city/quirky look.

Costume Inspiration:

The Makings of - Pictures

Filming with Yasmin

I have already got a location in mind for the bike riding scenes, its a park located in the middle of Bristol. Its called Brandon Hill and it over looks most of Bristols city scenes. I really wanted it to be a sunny day as thats what I had in mind while drawing out my storyboard, luckily we did it on a sunny Sunday. :) I had some interesting shots in mind and I hope I can capture them, I did really want a tracking shot of Yasmin on the bike, but it would of been impossible to make it look smooth and would probably look to amateur.

Storyboard 2 :)

I have a new storyboard which should be posted up soon. It has a mixture of real filmed footage and animation.

Inspire me?

A mood board I made with things that make me think of Penny & Pound

Change of plan!

Looking at my storyboard I wasn't sure if it was what I wanted, and after a long decision I decided not to make an animated video. I didn't think that I had the right equipment and time to make a good, professional looking animation. So I'm going to re-draw another storyboard and re- think a new narrative.

Animatic

I've made a video that shows the idea for my animated music video, the images are playing with the track 'Fly for a fly'.

Fly for a fly from rosie-beth hickling on Vimeo.

The story is based on a girl which is finding it hard to face reality; broken relationship, lonely and living in a scummy city. When a fly which is suppose to represent positivity leads her into a space ship which takes her up into space where she can escape from her harsh life and start fresh. I think that it fits in with the subject choice the band decided to write a song about.

Band Live

I've just been on YouTube and found this video of the band playing live at a local pub. :)

Lyrics

After emailing a member of the band I finally got the lyrics for 'Fly for a fly'. I'm going to look at the lyrics closely and then decide if to draw a storyboard around the lyrics or to not have a narrative a bit the the Grizzy Bear music video.

Fly for a Fly

is it comedy or tragedy as your eyes look into mine?
a feeling that we share, a feeling intertwined
and every step we make, and every breath we take
is another reason why it's not yet time to die

the cars they all take turns as they turn around the bends
the headlights shine a smile, they're already friends
but the drivers shout and stare and others watch and glare
some comentate while i just speculate

you see a tiny fly flying too near by
it's just the flick of a finger to end its little life
while the soldiers load their weapons, a war's just dragging on
it's another reason why we've got to strike them down in time

and the cities keep producing, the atmosphere grows thick
it makes me wonder why we've got to ruin it all so quick
and why the others here before us managed quite alright
but we just topped them off with the submarines and flights

this is not for you

let's bring up all the aeroplanes, let's lift them from the see
and maybe then we'll get it, we'll finally be free
from worry on our minds and thoughts kept in the past
we'll do it while we can, we'll do it while it lasts

let's try and look less deeply, we're looking way too hard
the secret's there infront of us amongst the notes and credit cards
which all of us are using, no we don't have a clue
and these aren't just my words written down for

they weren't written down for you.

I can see the references to the environmental/social problems with the lines and the cities keep producing, the atmosphere grows thick' and 'the secret's there infront of us amongst the notes and credit cards'. Also the personal references 'is it comedy or tragedy as your eyes look into mine?' and 'this is not for you'.

Research into animated music videos

I've researched into some of the bands that have inspired Penny & Pound to find out if I could get some ideas for my music video. I found two really good bands that are classed as 'folk music' and the videos to both there songs I have given me a few ideas.

I like the way they have mixed stock animation and real live footage. Using cut out people and felt animals give this video a child like/whimsical feel. I think that animation suits the slow pace/acoustic music.

I love this animation very much, its one of my favorite music videos. Its very beautifully made, with the use of stock animation with plasticine models. I also like how there isn't really a narrative structure, and there isn't a story to the video. Its almost like just letting the audience just sit a watch random pictures.

From looking at the videos I'm ready to make a storyboard.

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.

Full animation is the process of producing high-quality traditionally animated films, which regularly use detailed drawings and plausible movement. Fully animated films can be done in a variety of styles, for example realistically designed works such as those produced by the Walt Disney.

Stop-motion animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement.

Puppet animation typically involves stop-motion puppet figures interacting with each other in a constructed environment, in contrast to the real-world interaction in model animation. The puppets generally have an armature inside of them to keep them still and steady as well as constraining them to move at particular joints.

Clay animation, or Plasticine animation often abbreviated as claymation, uses figures made of clay or a similar malleable material to create stop-motion animation. The figures may have an armature or wire frame inside of them, similar to the related puppet animation (below), that can be manipulated in order to pose the figures

Object animation refers to the use of regular inanimate objects in stop-motion animation, as opposed to specially created items. One example of object animation is the brickfilm, which incorporates the use of plastic toy construction blocks such as Lego.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation

Fly for a fly

Download Penny & Pound - Fly For A Fly

Music Video

After an interview with the band I got to find a bit more about there genre, style and look that they were going for in the music video. I also got to ask them about the lyrics for their track 'Fly for a fly' and what inspired them to write it. They were brief but explained that it was about environmental problems and also about things personal to them. I'm guessing teenage love? As the track I'm using sounds very innocent and whimsical I liked the idea of animating the video. I've started to draw out some storyboards which I will make into an animatic. When thinking about the music video I need to look at narrative, casting, editing, shooting, mise en scene, costume and my target audience.

I am now going to go on and do some reseach on different kinds of animation to understand ways in which I can get the most out of my animated music video.

Google Doc

As part of my course I need to find new media products that we can use in our Advanced Production. So I created an account on 'Google Doc' which has been only around for a year, but it allows you to create, edit and share documents over the internet though links.

Screen Shot

Thinking about my audience

From looking at Penny & Pounds MySpace I could see that a lot of their online friends were of the younger generation. So when thinking about my 'target audience' for the band and music video, I wanted to targeted at 15-25 year old. The band have a fresh/acoustic sound, with a quirky style I feel would appeal to that age range. However from looking at the bands which inspire Penny & Pound some are quite old folk bands from decades ago. So there could be a secondary audience that are older and enjoy listening to that genre of music. Although I would still like to find out if people of this age actually like to listen to the 'Folk Rock/Acoustic' music, so I'm going to send out a questionnaires to people within my age range.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO...PENNY & POUND

Penny & Pound describe themselves as a folk rock band from Bristol whose influences are the likes of Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan and MGMT. The band consists of:

Louis Borlase: Guitar, vocals, percussion, piano, keyboards, lap steel guitar, organ

James Worster: Guitar, Bass, Ukelele, Keyboards, backing vocals, Radio White Noise.
Joe Spurrell:The Drums

Penny & Pound are a school band that are currently writing, recording and playing songs and are recording an EP called 'Collection of songs'. There also serious about getting signed onto a recording label and making it big. They kindly agreed for me to base my A2 production on them and after listening to there music I felt very inspired. As its the kind of music I would normally listen to it helped me to understand what kind of look there looking for.

I'm going to interview them to find out a bit more about them as a band and find out what there 'look' is.

Bands MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/pennyandpound

LastFM page:

http://www.last.fm/music/Penny%2B%2526%2BPound

Creativity?

In one of our class discussions we talked about defining creativity. What does it mean to be creative?

An example which I saw suggested that creativity works like violence (Mark Readman OCR Media Conference 2009). I don't totally understand his logic, but i hopefully by the end of the course I will have more of an opinion on the subject of creativity.

Although on the same power point there was this, I quote from James Oldham 'For a great song...you need a great chorus, you need a great voice singing it and then I think you need to be original with the instrumentation, the arrangement. You just need to give people something different.' I see this as an inspirational quote that works like plan for my coursework and connects well with my musical project. :)

Draft Timeline

October '09

• Finding an ideal band to base my project around
• Research the conventions of a good promo pack
• Start planning a storyboard for my promo video
  

November '09

• Research into camera angles, lighting and other thing related to filming
• Begin production on the promotion video
• Look into marketing music

December '09

• Start planning the cover for the DVD
• Continue editing promo video
• Start creating the cover on Pages
• Research into conventions on music promo adverts in magazines

January '10

• Start production on the advertisement
• Finish production on promo video
• Finish production on DVD cover

Another year for me at Marlwood school doing media studies and looking at the OCR options for the brief has go me very excited. So for my Media Studies A2 advanced production I've decided to choose option 1 which is;

'A promotion package for a release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the band
• a cover for its realise on DVD
• a magazine advertisement for the DVD'

I will produce a music video, cover for the DVD and the magazine advert. I've chose this option because I wanted to take full advantage of my experience I had during AS on 'Pages', where I produced a cover of a magazine, contents and a double speared. This experience will help me to create the cover of the DVD and the Ad. Although I have never done a project were I have to film anything and edit it I have a lot of experienced guys which can help me out with that. I have also had Apple Mac training on the new 'iMovie' software which will come in handy when editing.

Now for the research...