Creating Print Artefacts

Over the last few lessons, I have been creating my album cover and magazine advert.

Before coming up with my final idea I came up with three different album covers as I wanted to make sure it was as successful as it could have been. In this case I wanted to make sure the colours I used were suitable and that they worked together as well as making sure the images I had selected worked well as a cover. 

My album cover.

For the front cover I selected an image I had taken of Max, Chloe and Jack stood in the road. When taking this image I had used a slow shutter speed, which meant the light going into the camera would be captured as well as any movement. As I wasn't using a tripod, the slight movement of my hand allowed me to create the blurred effect I now have which I think has worked well. As well as this, the cover is visually attractive and it makes you stop to work out what it could be, this is something I had to think about because in a real life situation the album cover would be the thing that appealed to the audience of the band when on sale in a shop.



For the back cover I then chose an image that showed Max, Chloe and Jack to be positioned at the opening of the alley. Here Jack was stood leaning up the wall out of the way, whilst Max and Chloe were in the foreground of the image. When editing this image I made it black and white and then added a filter layer to it which enabled me to add grain to it. At first I had only put the bar code on the image and had it centralised on the page. Then realising I had more to add if I wanted to follow the codes and conventions, I added the track list for the album which you will see in the middle of the image and I later added the record label and copyright information to the back.


For the third image, I used another photograph that I had taken with a slow shutter speed, but changed this to black and white. I then copied the lyrics to the song and pasted them on the left hand side of the image. This was then accompanied by screen shots from my video which I have placed on the bottom right hand side of the image, showing both Chloe and Max.

For the inside of my album cover, I decided to stick with the black and white colour scheme as I think the images I have chosen to use look more effective. When deciding on what images to use, I looked at using screen shots from my video however they were blurred and didn't work well together. From the image below you will see that I have used two images and a piece of text with a plain background. One of the images shows Chloe to be stood to the right, looking off to the left and the other shows Jack and Max. The text I have used here is information on the album which again I think has been quite effective   as I am giving the audience more of a background story to the album, which if released would be interesting for a fan.

I then went through a similar process when deciding what photos to use for my magazine advertisement but in the end I wanted to make sure the images I used were familiar but at the same time effective. When creating the advert, I joined the image of both Chloe and the boys together. I then added a layer to both of the images and this allowed me to posterize the image. When looking at the text you will see that I have included a quote from Rolling Stone Magazine and the name of  the album and band. I have also added the price of the album which can be found underneath the album cover image. In the top left corner I have also included the iTunes logo as this is where the album is available from and in the bottom right hand corner I have added an image of the album so that my target audience knows what it would look like.

Filming day 6

18th November 2013

On Monday the 18th November, I went out and re-filmed the beginning and end to my music video. The reason I did this was to make the video fit together more as there wasn't really a story to why both of my characters had started to fight. In my lesson that day I was trying to come up with an idea that would be able to explain why a gang appears in the video at the end and from watching a variety of TV programmes the idea I had was to tie this group in with drugs. From looking at stereotypes and how this idea would work, I have been able to look into people like Al Capone who was a well known criminal in the 1920's, leading to him being investigated by the police at the time for the illegal sale of alcohol. Expanding on this I was then able to see that my video could work.

The first scene we filmed that night was the gang scene. This went well as I was able to take photographs for my album cover as well as filming the ending to the video. When filming Danny and Lewis who made up the gang stood off to the side and spoke to each other, whilst Jack took the lead along side Max and Chloe. The idea here was that Max was trying to stop Chloe from getting herself into trouble, ending up with it being him fighting for his life. Even though I think it went well, I want to get some more shots of Max and Chloe at this point, so I will be arranging to film some additional shots including just the two characters, but it the same place.

A screen shot of the fallout.

The other scene I had to re-do here was part of the start where both characters fall out. This worked a lot better this time round as there was more of a story as to why they were arguing, in this case it was the drugs Max had seen Chloe with. I also liked the fact it was more natural this time around due to both characters interacting when Max came into the house. In this case it was with each other and with the dog.

Original image.

The photographs I took were also successful as I only had to direct one person at a time once they were in position. From the image you will see that I had to make sure Max was looking away from Chloe when she was looking at him. And I had positioned Jack in the background as he wasn't the main focus, however he can be seen.











This image later became the back cover to my photo album.

Filming Day 5

11th November 2013

Tonight I filmed my final scenes for my video, but it didn't go to plan due to the fact I was missing Max as the lead. However I still managed to get some footage as Chloe was there and I had managed to get a group together to play the gang.



The footage I collected shows Chloe to be walking back towards her house, to then show three people walking out of an alley to surround her, to then showing one of them to kill her.

My final scene.

There were some parts that worked here, including the death, however it wasn't as successful as it should have been because no one really seemed confident in what they were doing and I think the story really needed Max to be present for it to make sense within the video.

My first take on my album cover.

From saying this, having everyone together that night gave me the opportunity to try out album cover ideas. For this I had Chloe positioned in the foreground looking off to the right, while Kirsty, Lewis and Courtney were stood in the background all grouped together. This image worked well as the lighting was just right and enabled you to see everyone. It was also successful as the photograph was taken in the same setting as the filming, allowing the viewer to make connections between both.  But again it was unsuccessful as Max wasn't there, but it means when he is, I will be able to take the photograph again.

Filming day 3 and 4

Tuesday 5th November 2013

Taylor.

Today I filmed the performance part to my video. For this I was trying out different camera angles and camera positions to get the best shot of Taylor who I had asked to perform the song. Using the green screen, I first asked Taylor to stand in the middle of it so that he was centralised on screen. Then as he was singing I asked him to perform towards the camera which worked quite effectively.

I then stood to the side and asked him again to perform facing forward, however in the next shot he stood side on again looking to the camera but this time he was positioned to the left of the screen leaving space to the right. The reason behind this was for editing purposes so that I could put the footage of the actual characters on the screen next to him.

As Taylor didn't know the lyrics we had to have the original track playing in the background. This wasn't an issue at first but when I was listening back to the footage you could hear the track in the background taking the focus away from Taylor. Other issues I also had was when I was Trying to put Taylor's voice over the original soundtrack so that you could hear the music, this again didn't work as Taylor was out of time with it. This is when I decided I would try a different way of recording the track.


Friday 8th November 2013

Before filming again, I decided to download the backing track for How To Save A Life so that I could use the music with the only voice being that of the performer. As Casey has performed the song before and Taylor's recordings didn't work, I decided to ask her to help me during my media
lesson so we went and filmed in the music rooms.

During the editing process I added a lens
flare to the clip making it appear brighter.

After her practicing singing along to the backing track I was trying to figure out where I wanted to position the camera so for the first take I was stood to the left looking at Casey from the side. This didn't really work as you couldn't see her emotion, however in the next shot, this worked better. In the next shot I positioned the camera in front of Casey and had her performing to it, this worked well as you could see the emotion in her face.

When editing this footage with what I already had, it didn't all fit together. So I have decided to record more of the performance aspect to my video with Casey in a different setting. But I am also going to try to shoot from many more positions.

Filming day 2

Filming Day 2

After filming for a second time, I feel that it has gone better as I was only working with one of my actors for the first few shots that I needed. The footage I collected here shows Chloe to be looking through her photos of her and Max. This worked better as I consulted with my storyboard more, sticking with the story line I had already created which was again better as I knew what I needed to achieve and I knew what I wanted.

Wide shot showing both characters in the frame.

One of the scenes that I think worked well was when you seen both characters together at Max's House. I think this is because both Chloe and Max knew what I wanted to get out of the shots and they actually listened to what I had to say.

From the screen shot on the right you will see that Max is pulling Chloe back towards him as she was leaving. I think this worked as Max was annoyed and with the way he felt this was put into what he was doing, making the shot look more realistic.



Filming the memories also went well as there wasn't acting involved in the scenes and the only thing they both had to do was not look at the camera. The only bad thing here is the fact that they both looked a bit uncomfortable and it was like they didn't really know what to do when they were sat together and this is why I decided to use guitar and drums from the game Band Hero as it allowed them both to interact with something other than the two of them. When editing this footage I decided to change the clip to black and white so that it stood out from the rest of the footage as a memory.


The downside to this is the fact I haven't been able to stick to my filming schedule.