social media posts

These are some screen shots that include posts on my production Instagram, starting from the top to the bottom they show a few stages of production.

(The last few posts were posted before I edited the digipak and poster)

Final Poster/Magazine advert

This is my final poster advert for my ancillary products.

Final Digipak

This is my final digipak design. 

Final Cut Music Video

This is my finished edited final music video for Quand Vas Tu Rentrer by Melody's Echo Chamber.

Magazine advert/Poster Production

For my magazine advert/Poster I used the same drawing I made for the digipak and paced it on an A4 template. There was a gap left at the bottom for text in which I turned to purple to match the image, however didn't think it matched so I changed it to a light grey after some audience feedback.
For the text I wanted it to link with the digipak, so I copy and pasted the song list then extracted and enlarged the letters I needed for the the poster text to create my own font. I coloured them orange so that they matched the text on the image, with some remaining black. I then used the vector I created for the record label and added it to the poster, along with additional information in small text.

This is the first version of my poster. 

However after feedback and thought I realised that it could be further improved, I did this by colouring the title in a brighter yellow to make it easier to read and stand out more.

I also changed the writing to be clearer and the size to give the words the correct importance, I used the align tool to ensure it was correctly spaced as well. I changed the record company vector also as it wasn't clear and near enough to the original image. I also made it more colourful to fit with the back ground. 

Digipak production

For my digipak cover and poster I used a still from my music video and traced around the face and the shadows to create a layered shadow effect, from this I drew a design around the head which incorporated a smaller rectangle reflecting the smaller screen in the video. I used a wavy style for the writing and which reflect the genre conventions and design behind the writing. 

 In order to use my drawing for a digipak cover I would need to turn it into a vector so I can scale it and it not become pixelated.
To do this I first scanned my image in an A3 black and white form and emailed a copy of it in which I downloaded and opened in Photoshop. From here I ensured the lines were crisp and the white was brighter by adjusting the levels through 'Image' - 'Adjustments' then selecting levels. After this I selected the image and clicked 'copy merged' to enable me to transfer it into Adobe Illustrator through copy and paste.
Once it was transported into Illustrator I needed to turn it into a vector, I did this by opening 'Image trace' within 'Window', once image trace was up I used the advanced settings to perfect my trace. 
For the advanced setting of 'Paths' I put the slider nearly all the way to the right in order to hug the lines of my original sketch and to keep it the same style to ensure the genre conventions were in place.
For the 'corners' slider I kept it mostly the same as it wouldn't have made a large difference to my curved image. 
I then put the noise slider all the way to the left so any small detail wouldn't get lost as they may be interpreted as noise. Finally I checked ignore white so that white background I pasted in from Photoshop will not be included in my vector. My final step in turning it into a vector was to click 'Expand' so that my drawing would turn into anchor points and paths. 

Now that I had my vector I wanted to colour the different components. I knew I had quite a few colour combinations to chose from that could fit into my genre conventions, so I now needed to experiment by filling in different sections with different colours. I started with applying a shade of orange to the waves with the detail and filling in the small blobs within the design in a yellow/green. The clear waves next to it I did in a terracotta colour. Then for the smaller rectangle I coloured every other thick wave with blue and the others with green. After seeing this I decided I didn't like this match and it wasn't bright enough to follow the conventions, so I then tried other matches such as the orange background with a pink box and then and orange and turquoise background with a box of different shades of pink. At this point I coloured the head in different shades of grey to show the shadows and coloured the title in a dark blue. After deciding that this colour combination also did not look completely how I wanted it to I changed the colour of the blobs in the waves to a bright orange and the title to the same colour so that it matched. 

I then scanned in the above image and transferred this into a vector using the steps above, This I used for the other sides of my digipak. For the back cover I wanted to carry on the same colours from the front, so I edited every other one turquoise and orange. 
I then copied and pasted it so that I had another one to colour in shades of pink and purple to reflect the smaller rectangle within the first design. This pink side will be used for the inside of the digipak. When I had all my components I opened my digipak template and scaled them to the correct lines. I put the background image to the blue lines so that there would be no white spaces, I also added an orange background of the to the front cover so it would have a boarder as my drawing was not a square, I then made the back cover on the outside of the digipak opaque so I could tell were to place the barcode, record label logo, and text.

For these things I took an image off of the internet and converted it into a vector. For my song list however, I tried using a ready available font, but I didn't think that it fit the style or linked with the hand drawn title. So I drew out the song list on an iPad using adobe draw so it was already a vector and exported it onto adobe illustrator on the computer, I then scaled it down and put it on the back cover. 
Finally I added a shade of grey to where the CD would go to balance out the colours and link it to the drawing on the front. 


This was my first final digipak before editing: 

Update:

I decided that I could improve this, I also wanted it to link to my video in a more direct way so I decided I needed to add a photo of Hannah my actress, but include effects to still link with my genre. Firstly I transferred my photo into Photoshop and used the curves tool to heighten the shadows and create contrast. I then made it black and white so the effect I used will be extenuated. I then transported the image into illustrator so that I could add it to my digipak and edit it accordingly. To make the wave effect I copied the purple wave design and used the eye drop tool to select the colour of the waves and transform the black into the same colour as the separate sections so there are no black lines- as I thought they'd distract from the image. I then added it to the photo on a low opacity so you could still see the photo. I mirrored the image to reflect my music video and added lyrics to link with the song. As I wanted to make it look as professional as I could I placed the text in a specific way by making them different sizes, I also chose new courier font to fit with my retro genre and put the opacity at 20% and changed the transparency to 'screen' to make it translucent so you can see the colours through, and create a softer look.

I also wanted to address the title as it wasn't the easiest to read on my image so I decided to increase the size and the edges slightly, and make it light yellow to stand out.

I also cleared up a few details such as adding a spine and flipping the top images to ensure it contains all the digipak conventions.

This is my final product:

Technical aspects of filming

For my filming I used a Sony Alpha 85 DSLR camera, along with an extendable tripod. Firstly I had to work out which settings I wanted to use in order to get my desired effect for my inner narrative frame, I wanted a certain grungy look that could fit in with the conventions of my genre I have chosen. This would mean filming in low light. To make it work without being too dark I had to do some test footage in which I set the white balance - I found that automatic white balance worked well enough for this. I increased the aperture to let more light in too but still show the time of the day, this was also done with the ISO, I found that an ISO on 400 worked best.
Once I took my footage I realised it appeared more grainy than I would have wanted however it still fits with the genre as other videos in this genre don't have a crisp studio look.
When using my tripod the side tilt function was used frequently to ensure my footage was level with the surroundings. I also extended it to height I needed to aid with different shot types.
For the shots in the outer frame I wanted them brighter so I used different sttings for these shots in which I used an ISO of 400 - 800. 
I wanted to also film in a controlled environment, these shots consisted of the food colouring in water. For this I obtained a large jar of water, and food colouring and set it against a white background. I ensured it was in direct sunlight before shooting. I kept the camera steady and ensured it was focused on where the colouring would be.

Editing

I wanted the inner frame with my actress playing the singer to appear as the vocals are heard, so I moved the outer frame to the bottom and had the inner narrative in the main story line section. I still wanted the outer frame to respond to the music so I cut sections when the beat fell and tinted it a separate colour to the background.


For this section of the video I wanted the inner frame to reflect how the music picked up, so I split the screen in time with the beat in the song. To do this I copy and pasted the same inner frame clip to ensure I had the same length for all then I used key frames in the scale and location under 'Transform' to get my desired effect. I started by placing the slider at the beginning of the clip and key framing it to my normal 60% scale. I then moved it to the section where the beat hits and individually placed where I wanted each frame to go and then placed it finally back to its original shape so that all the frames would hide behind each other making  it look as one frame.
In this section I wanted the inner frame to flash in time to the beat of the song, so I cut the shot where each frame fell and reduced the opacity of every other one so that the shot would still play but flash at the same time.

For the ink in water shots I used a kaleidoscope effect in oder for it to fit more naturally into the video because of the style.
In this screenshot you can see how I added a transition so that the inner frame wouldn't disappear as harshly and aid a softer ending. 

Rough Cuts

These rough cuts show how my video developed over time. The first one shows the basic import of footage and trying to arrange it into a cohesive video. My second video is the edit without the additional effects that make up the video.
Rough cut 1

Rough cut 2

Photos for Digipak

I would like the design of my poster and cover for my digipak to be the same, for this I have decided to create a drawing in the similar style to Melody''s Echo Chambers' tour posters. As a starting point I took photos of my actress to copy from in the drawing.




Although dark, these images were taken so that I would have an image to create my drawing from. In this drawing I need to accentuate the shadows for the style of illustration, so these images should be helpful, however as I don't need the quality to be high because I won't be using the direct photo, I may also use a still. Such as these ones: