Font Analysis: Magazine Advert- Catriona

Font Analysis: DVD & Magazine Adverts.

The font used in both Chase and status' album and the tour poster, is the same, this is because they want to show the audience that they are the same band but they also want to further promotion for the band. the font is bold and in bright colour in order to stand out and be captivating.

The font used in both fall out boys tour post and album cover is again similar, this is again to reinforce the idea of the band, but to help to associate the audience with tis album being the main reason for the band touring. the band have chosen to use bold capital writing in white to help make the title stand out from the rest of the album which is more dark in colour.















The font used in both of clean bandits tour poster and album cover, is again the same, this is again to reinforce the band as a whole but to also remind the audience to associate that font with this band. they have gone for a clear black font which stands out infront of the image behind. they all have spaced the letters out evenly in order to make them more enticing.

CD Digipak Analysis

in this video i have include 3 different CD digipaks, they are by 3 different artists such as Chase and status, Rihanna and Katy Perry. these Digipaks all include, a CD but an additional booklet, these could contain things such as lyrics, or thank you notes to friends and family. these booklets sometimes contain posters, or photoshoots of the artist. all 3 have a booklet but some have extras such as a poster. this therefore would encourage more people to buy the bands CD if they would receive a special poster with it. when we make a Digipak, we will need to make sure to have the album cover and song list, but to also have extras this could be a poster, or even a photoshoot booklet form creating the video.

Magazine Advert Analysis:

Research into HMV of CD presentation.

CD Analysis- Catriona Morgan

I Googled the top 15 Drum and Bass Albums of 2015 and took screenshots of 5 randomly selected album covers which I will analyse below.

The first one I will be analysing is Tantrum Desire's 'Diversified' which came second in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. The cover is very minimalistic, with clear titling for the artist, as well as contrasting fonts used between the name of the artist and the name of the album. As you can see, no bold colours were used, however the lilac sky subtly contrasts with the grey of the mountain. There is obviously no picture of the artist, which is common theme throughout Drum and Bass album covers. I think this cover has quite a futuristic feel to it, which is appropriate as the type of music the artist creates is quite manipulated. Additionally, there is a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

The second album cover I will be analysing is The Prototypes' 'City of Gold' (which came third.)It is quite similar to the cover of 'Diversified' in that the main focus is the name of the artist, as the audience's attention is drawn straight to the top of the cover. Again, the font used between the artist and album name is different, which helps the audience to differentiate between the two. The colours used are quite dark in comparison to my previous evaluation, which I like as I feel it draws more attention to the name of the artist, as a way of the audience to focus on it without there necessarily having to be a picture of them, as it isn't typical of the genre.

This is Bensley's 'Next Generation' album cover which came fourth in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. I find it interesting as it uses similar colours as 'Diversified', with grey being the main focus, however there is a suggestion of colour towards the top, which could suggest that's what the type of music is like. For example, the songs could be meaningful, represented through the grey, but made interesting through the use of Drum and Bass, represented through the use of colour. Interestingly, the fonts used between the artist and the title aren't drastically different, however the size is obviously bigger for the artist, as the artist is being sold just as much as the music. There is also a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

This is Xanadu's 'Through the Oort Clouds' (which came eleventh.)  I find it interesting as it is completely contradictory to my previous research in terms of colour used. It also links with the title of 'Clouds' as it appears to be a seriously manipulated picture of clouds. Following closely to my previous research, the name of the artist is bigger than the title of the album. Again, there also appears to be a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

Finally, this is Fred V & Grafix's 'Unrecognisable' (which was number 14.) I find this cover interesting as it has obviously been manipulated so much that it is 'unrecognisable', which fits nicely with the titling. I like the use of colours as it makes it interesting to look at and similar to 'Next Generation', the font of both the artist and the titling is the same, however the difference in colour helps the audience to distinguish which is the artist's name and which is the name of the album.  

I have found this research very beneficial as it has enabled me to discover common themes among Drum and Bass album covers, those being:

• No visuals of the artist
• (Mostly) different fonts between the artist's name and the album title. However this wasn't always the case, which is something we could consider when it comes to creating ours.
• The use of colour was mostly grey/neutral/ dark colours, however not always the case.
• Often there was a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

As a majority of our video is black and white, I think we should stick to the common convention of using grey colours for our album cover.

We could then contrast this with bright colours for the titling, as this is common among the research I have done.

I think the change between fonts of the titling can be optional depending on the image we use, as it does not necessarily have to be different (however I feel it could be more effective to, to allow the audience to easily differentiate between the two.)

Finally, as unanimously there were no images of the artists for the covers, I think we should follow that convention and not include an image of the artist for the cover, as it is not typical of the genre.



Font analysis - Isobel Kelly

 Font is very important when selling a CD, they draw the audience eye towards the product and informs them who the product is by, and what specifically it is selling.
Here, Florence and the Machine has two contrasting fonts on her cover. The first, a thin, lower case font for the artist name, this swirly font reflects the singers style. With the capitalised title standing out to represent the songs name. The colour, gold also stands out among the black and represents fortune, winning and royalty, perhaps reflective of the song or artist.

 Bastille's album, 'Bad Blood' uses a black, bold, capitalised font that stands out amongst a neutral, light coloured background. The capitalisation is due to the artists theme and logo, with the triangular 'A', being the band's signature sign. The font is clear to read, therefore eye catching for anyone looking for this CD.

Rudimental's CD features the artists logo, of the name of the band written in a white rectangle. Although the white writing can be hard to read over the light background, as their logo is the bands name, they are easy to recognise for audience members looking for their CD. The white writing also contrasts the centre image of the CD design, which is colourful and central to the logo and cover.

Storyboard Changes - Anna Hester

Facebook Page- Update

This is just a quick update to show how beneficial having a Facebook Page has been as we are able to upload anything from a link, to a video, to pictures etc. and it's immediately accessible to everyone that wishes to view it. 

To begin with, we were able to pin our Survey Monkey Questionnaire to the top of our page, so that as soon as anyone viewed our page, the top thing they would see would be the questionnaire. This was done in an attempt to get as many results as possible to help us in the planning process of what would be appropriate for our genre etc. I think the page was very helpful as we manged to get a lot of feedback from the survey through the promotion/influence of Facebook. 

We managed to upload the first minute of the first draft of our music video which was beneficial as it reached 22 people, which is a lot more than we could have got just by simply asking our friends.

Finally, we uploaded the video of us practicing the projections. Again, this was beneficial as it reached 51 people (which is obviously a lot more than just showing friends/family.) We even got some feedback which was good as it enabled us to know that it was liked among our target audience, and we were able to then make the plans necessary to film some more projections footage. 

Overall the creation of the Facebook page has achieved everything we set out for it to, which was initially just to promote our work and get some feedback along the way.  

Alterations made along the way

Originally we planned on filming 50% of our music video in London and 50% percent of it in a studio. Although we were able to film the studio section, filming in London was quite a difficult thing to film, with locations needing permission and finding days and transport so that the necessary people could get there. Due to this we had to change our location idea and think of new ways we could incorporate cities into our music video. With one of our members visiting Paris, she took videos of city transport and landscape, to intersperse into the singing in our music video. We then also developed our projections idea (projecting images onto the artists face) and created the Paris videos in to projections and trialled them onto the artist. This worked well, and we are happy that although we couldn't film 50% of the video where we originally planned to, that we incorporated similar ideas into a more original and effective idea.
 We also found that some shots fitted better in the video than the ones originally made on the storyboard. Shots such as silhouettes in tunnels, didn't highlight the miming of the artist as much as we had hoped for, after experimenting with a green screen, we realised that this shot wouldn't work as well as we hoped, and the green screen wouldn't give the same effect as envisioned. Replacing this shot, we now have close ups of the artist who is sat side on, to replicate the original positioning of the artist in the tunnel, and we also have long shots of cityscapes, to fulfil our urban feel from the original storyboard, as we didn't want to loose what our original aim for the piece was, which involved contrast in locations from city to studio. As we already had the studio shot, we thought it would be a shame to loose the contrasting cityscapes, so we managed to incorporate these also in the music video, as planned.

Importance of Facebook messenger when making the music video

Facebook messenger, was a huge importance when making our video as on Facebook messenger we managed to organise when and where we were going to film, and who was going to do what. Facebook messenger was also a place for members of the group to give opinions and ideas of what we could include in the video. this is where the idea of projections, which we used throughout the music video arose.

Digi pack inspiration

Inspiration for our Digi pack came from the single and album of chase and status. We liked the way the artist had used the black and white theme whilst adding colour. We thought that this would be a good design idea which would match our video. We believed this because our music videos main colour is black and white, and seeming the chase and status are a drum and bass group. We could therefore relate our music video and our Digi pack.

Importance of vlogs drum and bass genre

Whilst researching the importance of vlogs, I decided to look more specifically at the drum and bass genre. whilst researching I came across the band Pygmalion. this band had exhibited a number of different vlogs on YouTube, these included there recording sessions. Pygmalion are a German band who's Facebook page, is solely based on advertising to there country however, whilst researching vlogs the vloggers tend to have a target audience. this means that pygamlions target audience would specifically be there fan base, which is based in Germany as shown on there Facebook page. #


another vlogger I found was john O'reily. who based his vlogs on how he makes drum and bass music. this therefore allows the audience to see how drum and bass music is made, but it also allows him to gain a fan base whilst showing off his talent.

Interim Evaluation 12/11/15

So far I think we have solely worked well as a team to come up with different ideas for our music video. I think we all managed to find a balance, and using all our different skill sets managed to set a basic outline of the video. we may of encountered a few problems and disagreements along the way. however these were all quickly solved once we had sat down and discussed all our different views and then decided how we would move forward. throughout the planning and filming process we managed to work well as a team, with all of us contributing different editing techniques or different ideas for shots to use in the video.

Interim Evaluation

I found and booked the location of a studio at UCA Farnham to film our music video in. Then Anna, Cat and I went on 21/10/2015 to film. When we arrived, we all helped set up the studio and lighting and Anna and Cat who were cinematographers worked out suitable angles to film from whilst I worked out suitable angles for me (acting artist) to be located in. We then followed a table of shot types of the shots we needed and filmed everything within the 2 hour time slot that we had booked the studio for .
When we got back to school we uploaded the footage and Martha and Anna began editing in different ways to see which way could work best. Cat and I continued planning other film dates and shot types with the storyboard. 
I think we're working well as a group, but as we need to work individually to get the video done perfectly and quickly, it can be hard to translate ideas. So I think it would help if we come together as a group and look at the piece as a whole so that we can really re-evaluate what works and what doesn't.

Music Video Inspiration (update) - Anna Hester

Since shooting the video and having started editing it, its be a long time since reviewing drum and bass videos. So to jog our memory I have found some music videos that may help with editing to achieve the type of video we want and also to help keep it in the style of drum and bass.

          
          
                                           


From this selection of videos there is a range that were all made in different genres. This has helped to see how drum and bass music videos have evolved. The most inspirational out of them all is probably Rudimental - Powerless. It starts slow like our song and then when the drum and bass kicks in movement is prominent. This feature is very important as it shows a contrast between the slow and fast pace visually. Hopefully we can portray this in our video. 

The video is also in black and white and features city scenes, we have been doubting our video because it was in black and white and didnt think it would fit the genre. But watching not just this video but others similar that effects like this can work for the drum and bass genre. 

 

Location (Paris) - Anna Hester

For our urban location we have decided to choose Paris. We decided the French capital because non of us could reach London at the same time, and Anna had an interview there so it was a convenience. The types of shots and things we can got in Paris will really benefit the videos theme and genre of music. We were able to get higher shots looking over Paris which allows our video to have a different aspect compared to other music videos. Some of the footages locations were ...

The arc de triomphe

The gare du nord station

 

... other Paris streets and more.

Planning changes (location) - Anna Hester

Since we were never able to go to our second location in London and were running out of time, I had an idea. I was going for an interview in Paris, so when I went I decided to film for our video, this was good because I was able to get more urban scenes. This footage would also be good for projections, that we could experiment with using later.
To get the right footage I analysed lyrics to the song and used the ones that were used the most e.g. signs, so i filmed French signs. I also took my steadicam with me to get movement as this was a key concept that we wanted, this was handy when walking as it made the footage smoother. 
Unfortunatley I was there when the attacks happened on the 13th so I wasnt able to get as much footage as I would like, being there at the time and using Paris scenes I only think that its right to dedicate the video to the people of Paris.

Interim Evaluation 8/11/15 - Anna Hester

This is just a quick update of our work progress so far ...
Over the half term we have recently filmed our first location for the music video. Me, Izzy and Catriona all headed down to UCA to use there photography studios. This was a great benefit as we had the opportunity to work with professional lighting and backdrops, which helped to create very effective shots. Izzy was the model, I was the director and cinematographer and Catriona helped set up.
When we got back to school I finished the storyboard, created an animatic and made a time-lapse of our time at the studio. Izzy, Catriona and Martha uploaded our footage and started editing.

But I think that our recent problems so far has been communication. We all seem to be doing our own thing and not working as a team; I feel like I'm the only one that seems to know the true idea behind the video. For example we still haven't scheduled a time to film our second location, and I believe we are running out of time.

To resolve our problems I think we need to work more together, discuss ideas and be more honest about how we feel. This is why I think its best that I film the second location in London by myself. I'm up there all the time and it would be a lot faster and easier to produce our vision of the video. I also think that we should edit two music videos once we are finished filming. One that doesn't follow the storyboard and another that does, enabling us later on to compare as to which has the best outcome. I will edit the one that does follow the storyboard as I created it.

Audience Feedback from our 'Projections Practice' Video- Catriona Morgan

Projections Practice and Audience Feedback

This is a video condensing all of the clips we got whilst practicing to see what having videos projected onto Izzy would look like. This was time well spent as firstly, we were able to see that the projections not only worked, but also that we liked the effect they had. We then got excited about how we could incorporate this into our music video. However, we need some potential audience member's feedback, which we got, and has been analysed below: 

Projections Peer-Audience Evaluation

Animatic Storyboard - Anna Hester

Here is an animatic storyboard, it an animated storyboard. Boards are brought together in an editing program and are cut together with the correct timing and pace of the film. They include basic sound effects and dialogue recordings.
We did this because it allows us to see whether our plans and ideas work well in a sequence. It also is a good visual for what we hope to produce for our final video.

Further Location and Production Images - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

These images were taken on 28/10/2015, when we went to UCA Farnham and used a photography studio to film our music video.

 

On the day of shooting we arranged the studio to fit our needs and the appropriate effect that we wanted to create for our video. So we used a white backdrop and softboxes to create a softer effect. We then shoot the whole song using different angles and heights. Some we had of Izzy dancing, sitting, standing and more as she lip synced to the song.

Inspiration for music video.

for the music video we decided as a group to go with the aspect of the video being mainly in black and white. however, we also needed to make sure that it accurately reflects the drum and bass genre. an example I have found of a black and white video, which as manages to reflect its genre is lay it on me by rudimental. I think that in order for our cideo to work, we should maybe follow certain concepts from this video such as maybe adding groups of people to reflect the idea of partying or enjoyment into the chorus.

Magazine Advert design- own idea

for the magazine advert, i designed it to be brightly coloured with other objects associated with the drum and bass genre such as the boom box. the magazine also includes the picture of the album which is soon to be released. i stated the title with urban concept as thats the name we as a group decided for the album, i also added how it is now available on itunes.

What is a steadicam ? - Anna Hester

What is a steadicam ?

A Steadicam is a stabilizer that you mount cameras on. It mechanically isolates it from the operators movement, creating smooth shots - even when moving quickly over an uneven surface. It was invented by cameraman Garrett Brown and was introduced in 1975.

These are the three major elements of a professional steadicam :

1. An articulated, iso-elastic arm
2. A specialized sled that holds the camera equipment
3. A supportive vest

In the diagram, you can see how these elements come together. The camera, along with a battery and a monitor, are positioned on the sled. The sled is attached to the articulated arm, which is attached to the vest. The arm and vest configuration works to isolate the camera from the body of the cameraman. The sled's job is to provide optimum balance for the camera.


For our music video we will be using a steadicam to create theses smooth movements, rather than having amateur tracking footage that shakes and wobbles as you move. Although the cost of a professional steadicam is out of our budget, so we settled on a handheld one that does just the same as one you may find on a movie set. Here is what ours looks like ...