Saturday, 21 November 2015
First draft, Music Video
This video was my best attempt at making a draft of our music video. we are missing a lot of the shots we need, as this was only one of four locations we will be using, however it gives a good impression of what the video will tonally end up like. There is a lot we want to change. For one, the actors didn't seem expressive enough and we still had stability and noise issues, although reduced. we fixed most of the noise problems by using better equipment, and tried to reduce shake by using a stabilizer in the car and by skateboarding for the walking shots. Because of this we want to try to re-film these parts.
Monday, 16 November 2015
Website Drafts/ideas
After referring to our survey, we began sketching our rough ideas for the website. Naturally, we will be restricted by the tools provided by the Wix website designer, so we kept our ideas rough and subject to change.
As most people considered the aesthetic design to be the most important part of their appreciation of the site, we put heavy emphasis on creating a sleek, appealing look. As the most popular designs were that of XYLO and James Blake, we looked to these for inspiration. We ended up producing for rough sketches, all using a dominating main image, sands serif font and social media links in the form of icons. Because, as our survey revealed, social media is now the preferred way of keeping up to date with the band, we made sure these links were prominent in order to easily provide them to those who have little further interest in the site.
After discussing the options we felt that this design was our favourite. Its simplicity is in keeping with the ethos of our brand, and the uncluttered design makes for easy navigation. The central placement of the text and information enhances the aesthetic appeal. It also allows for the photo to have a more interesting and unusual appeal, with its focus being shifted to one side instead of central. this unusual presentation is likely to appeal to our target audience as defying conventional ideas is something that the subculture were appealing to appreciate. The photo will be the bands front-man, which connects it to the music video. It will be monochrome in order to keep it from distracting from the text too much.
As most people considered the aesthetic design to be the most important part of their appreciation of the site, we put heavy emphasis on creating a sleek, appealing look. As the most popular designs were that of XYLO and James Blake, we looked to these for inspiration. We ended up producing for rough sketches, all using a dominating main image, sands serif font and social media links in the form of icons. Because, as our survey revealed, social media is now the preferred way of keeping up to date with the band, we made sure these links were prominent in order to easily provide them to those who have little further interest in the site.
After discussing the options we felt that this design was our favourite. Its simplicity is in keeping with the ethos of our brand, and the uncluttered design makes for easy navigation. The central placement of the text and information enhances the aesthetic appeal. It also allows for the photo to have a more interesting and unusual appeal, with its focus being shifted to one side instead of central. this unusual presentation is likely to appeal to our target audience as defying conventional ideas is something that the subculture were appealing to appreciate. The photo will be the bands front-man, which connects it to the music video. It will be monochrome in order to keep it from distracting from the text too much.
Saturday, 14 November 2015
Test Shots: Driving
We gathered these shots for the driving sequences to see how we could improve.
The most obvious issue is stability. We want to try to help this by using stabilizing equipment like mounts or rests, although it will not be easy. As I have discovered, premier pro's warp stabilizer makes the footage look too strange. This means we will have to stabilize the shots as much as possible. The other issue was how noisy the footage is. The solution is to adjust aperture and ISO settings, as well as using a more advanced camera and lens, something we have already arranged with a friend.
The most obvious issue is stability. We want to try to help this by using stabilizing equipment like mounts or rests, although it will not be easy. As I have discovered, premier pro's warp stabilizer makes the footage look too strange. This means we will have to stabilize the shots as much as possible. The other issue was how noisy the footage is. The solution is to adjust aperture and ISO settings, as well as using a more advanced camera and lens, something we have already arranged with a friend.
Test Shots: Walking
These shots we got in the Al-Hitmi area and show the concept of walking scenes in this area. We have an idea for how effective the shots are and what certain lighting looks like. The quality of the footage is not up to scratch, so we are going to try and get a better camera and lenses to correct this. Stability issues are apparent, and so we will have to find a way to film with more stability for the piece.
These shots we got for the same reason, to test out lighting conditions in West Bay Lagoon. These did not come out as nicely as we hoped, so we dont think we will focus as much of the video here, as the Al-Hitmi area provides more diversity in lighting and atmosphere.
Wednesday, 4 November 2015
Costume and props
Although our costumes and props where essentially limited to what we had available, we still did our best to make costumes an extension of our characters. This is especially important as there is no dialogue in our music video, so characteristics have to be conveyed entirely visually.
Our initial idea was to use the imagery associated with films our target audience enjoys, like drive and Nightcrawler. In these films, the characters wear distinctive unusual jackets, and we thought about trying to emulate this as to refer to something our audience enjoys. However, we felt that it would most likely just become distracting and messy, and in only 5 minutes would not acurately portray our character.
In the end, we chose to portray him in a stereotypically 'cool guy' way, as a visual short hand for his characterisation. He wears entirely black, reflective of his dark character, but also reminiscent of 80s action heroes. Overall, his look calls upon cultural touchstones of what 'cool' and 'hero' characters look like, in order to give the image of him as fitting into this set of people; even though his actions in the video go against this. He wears the classic biker jacket, a symbol of youth rebellion since the 1950's, and such a cultural accepted symbol of 'cool' that esquire made a list of the 11 coolest leather jackets in film, and this style appeared 3 times. The boots also call upon this look, described on the caterpillar site as 'Exuding classic charm, the Orson captures the era of James Dean'.
His hairstyle furthers this characterisation, being simple and classic, tying his whole look together as being someone who presents themselves in a cultural accepted way, but to a point of aggressive determination that comes off as insincere and try-hard.
The props he will use throughout contribute more to showing his self destructive tendencies. The cigarettes he smokes are a reference to James Dean type characters and the rock n' roll Zeitgeist of the 1950s, but to a contemporary audience come across negatively due to the cultural shaming of smoking. He will also be seen with a beer and a bottle of Jack Daniels, exemplifying these tendencies.
Our female protagonist mirrors the males design choices in order to visually comment on their similarity and to show that they equal each other. We link them visually in this way so that the audience understands immediately they have a connection of some kind. like the male protagonist, her dark colour scheme reflects her own personality, eve with a dark red shade of lipstick. the jacket she wears is slightly more distinctive, and we chose to do this to show that she is more comfortable in herself than he is, and more confident to present her style the way she wants to, whereas he is trying to present an image of himself. the dyed blonde hair also builds into this, as it mirrors her ability to change and move on. the darker roots are to insinuate her personality of not maintaining any specific look, showing her character as much more free and uncaring.
Our initial idea was to use the imagery associated with films our target audience enjoys, like drive and Nightcrawler. In these films, the characters wear distinctive unusual jackets, and we thought about trying to emulate this as to refer to something our audience enjoys. However, we felt that it would most likely just become distracting and messy, and in only 5 minutes would not acurately portray our character.
In the end, we chose to portray him in a stereotypically 'cool guy' way, as a visual short hand for his characterisation. He wears entirely black, reflective of his dark character, but also reminiscent of 80s action heroes. Overall, his look calls upon cultural touchstones of what 'cool' and 'hero' characters look like, in order to give the image of him as fitting into this set of people; even though his actions in the video go against this. He wears the classic biker jacket, a symbol of youth rebellion since the 1950's, and such a cultural accepted symbol of 'cool' that esquire made a list of the 11 coolest leather jackets in film, and this style appeared 3 times. The boots also call upon this look, described on the caterpillar site as 'Exuding classic charm, the Orson captures the era of James Dean'.
His hairstyle furthers this characterisation, being simple and classic, tying his whole look together as being someone who presents themselves in a cultural accepted way, but to a point of aggressive determination that comes off as insincere and try-hard.
The props he will use throughout contribute more to showing his self destructive tendencies. The cigarettes he smokes are a reference to James Dean type characters and the rock n' roll Zeitgeist of the 1950s, but to a contemporary audience come across negatively due to the cultural shaming of smoking. He will also be seen with a beer and a bottle of Jack Daniels, exemplifying these tendencies.
Our female protagonist mirrors the males design choices in order to visually comment on their similarity and to show that they equal each other. We link them visually in this way so that the audience understands immediately they have a connection of some kind. like the male protagonist, her dark colour scheme reflects her own personality, eve with a dark red shade of lipstick. the jacket she wears is slightly more distinctive, and we chose to do this to show that she is more comfortable in herself than he is, and more confident to present her style the way she wants to, whereas he is trying to present an image of himself. the dyed blonde hair also builds into this, as it mirrors her ability to change and move on. the darker roots are to insinuate her personality of not maintaining any specific look, showing her character as much more free and uncaring.
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