Production Diary #39

Now finishing all of my task I am extremely happy with the result. Having a few little touches added to my music video and exporting it on a higher quality I have found that vimeo HD displays my work as how I wanted. You can see that all my texts link up and come together as one as I have specifically created it for that.

Production Diary #38

After some very hard thinking and feedback from my teachers and close target audience I have relaised that the colour theme I had of purple was not working out, as well as me being unhappy with it I had now changed everything to a blue colour theme. Closely asking my peers for advice on this they then told me it was much stronger and appealed largely. As the purple colour felt too girly, the blue really did keep the same feel and themes I wanted to explore but in a more masculine style, it having boyish connotations.

Proud of what I can now call my final piece, I can say that I have put more effort into my final print sections as I am fully happy with it. Not changing much to the poster but the colour, I have kept the Alone Tonight typography consistent within each text so now they are more linked and relatable. As with my digipack, I have actually created what will be on the CD as it is now stronger and stable.

Production Diary #37

Deciding to post a few of the tour diary videos which the band have made on my blog was to show their close interaction they have with their fans, showing them bits and bobs off tour which will help them paint a better picture for my music video.
This gives my audience more of an insight to the band and what they are like and also by providing entertainment. Just three short videos which are packed with a tour lifestyle conform to an additional elements which is found in the pop punk genre.

Production Diary #36

With the final feedback that I have got from my target audience, I am very pleased with the progress I have made. Already taking this into account, I have now added these minor details within my music video to further strengthen it and make it appealing for my audience. With the help of my friend, I managed to colour correct the video, making a distinguish between their tour life and off tour life, for my genre to be fully explored. I will soon be uploading my final music video shortly.

As with some of the original footage I had, I have decided to make a Bloopers which is kind of like a tour diary style video however it's just random footage which I found funny which would add and show the whole band tour lifestyle.

Production Diary #35

Finally completing my final draft of my music video I am really happy and satisfied with the outcome of it all, with then waiting for feedback from my peers I am not worried at all about it as I, myself can only see a few minor errors in which I need to change which can be easily done.
Going to spend a week on this, I will look at my feedback first and then alter my video according to it to please my audience but also get some of their insight to what they want to see.
Already showing the band, they're comments were nice and phrasing towards me as they really did like it, making me even more proud of myself and satisfied.
I plan to still re shoot and improve my digipack as I am having some problems with my models, however I will make a change to this before the deadlines!

Production Diary #34

Spending the majority of my time dedicated to my music video I am pretty happy that it is going along well and to the stage where it is nearly done. However I still am not as happy with it as I wanted some effects in which I've seen on other put onto mine. I have searched youtube and not found out how to do this yet. Reassuring myself I have then again gone back to watch the previous videos in which inspired me, most of them don't  have any effects and lack some elements I have included.
Looking back on my story board I have seen the massive progress in which I have taken in order to improve and change my video, following these guidelines has helped me structure my video however I have realised that the cuts need to be much faster and sharper.

Production Diary #33

After completing what I hope to be my final magazine advert, I can say that I have worked very hard on it. Satisfied more with the landscape version than the portrait, I still feel like I need to improve that one.
However I have added a few more details than the draft had which were just minor, for example star ratings, links and social networking sites, record company and distributor, and an overall filter just to make it even more polished.
Asking my teacher for feedback along side this, she has given me some good advice in which I should change, as the portrait one looks more like a film poster, I can now edit this to either get a new image or move bits around.
This is just minor little things I can easily do before the deadline, as now I am going to put my full focus into my music video.
As you can see I have completed my first proper draft of it and I am pretty pleased.
However I did overcome more troubles with the exporting part.
Better than last time, my video still needs improvements as the resolution is not as clear, there are black bars along the top and bottom and it feels like it's moving slowly.

Production Diary #32

Finally completing a finished version of my drafts for my digipack and magazine poster, I feel even more relived now that it's out of the way and I can fully focus on nailing them to get them spot on. I am warming to the pictures I took and think they would look great for the poster, however I did not plan the shoot well as I thought I was only taking digipack pictures so shot in landscape.
Now that I have more time I can also re shoot in different locations to get the best pictures, I am planning on doing this in the holidays.

Aslo getting advice of friends along the way, this has helped me a lot in seeing what my target audiences want to see.
Looking at some of the construction evidence, I have noticed that I haven't really got a script but a loose one, so I decided to talk about that in a powerpoint, along with the basic structure of my music video.

Production Diary #31

 Last night I wen't up to London to get some pictures for my digipack like I said I would.
My friend had told me about a perfect place to go, South bank as the Christmas market was being set up and the view of London would be perfect.

Going for the first time, she helped me with the camera settings to take a few pictures, I ended up taking  alot just in case however I did forget to do some in portrait for my advert. Despite this issue I came out with a few decent sots which I really like and will use for my digipack as they look the part.

The second image proved best to be on the front cover, it matches my draft however I wanted her full body in but felt it looked better this way, positioning her by using the rule of thirds.

I am happy with how they came out, however I do feel that I need a variety of scenes and would need to get some more of signs and streets so I would need to revisit this.

 Here I took some I Camden at Primrose Hill, it was really dark so I had to keep changing the camera settings and found the slower the shutter speed the better they came out. Using the night time setting I got this really cool picture of the lights all blurred like little hearts which was rather cute and interesting.

Production Diary #30

After finishing my rough cut I can see that there is a lot of editing to be done to make it look polished and finished, for example I would need to have a few different transitions rather than just cuts, as looking at other music videos constantly I have picked up on little edits they use and want to incorporate them into my video. For example the scratchy, movement from one clip to the next looking though as it was done in one shot. Like shown in the videos below, I want it to look something like that in the finish.
I am happy about the footage I have got and used as they all work and link in which has made me more confident in, however I have noticed there is hardly any shots of the band looking directly in the camera, which could be a weakness.  However I did say that at some point in the song I wanted to stop it and add in a funny scene which is slightly different I am yet to play around with this to see if it will work because so far it doesn't seem so.

Production Diary #29

Researching previous magazine adverts and digipacks, I have now a very clear idea of what I am going to do. Most of them follow a basic theme and colour theme throughout, in which I have with being in a city alone at night. I will take this idea and place it into action, as now I am going to take pictures at various locations to see what works and what doesn't.
I haven't forgotten about my music video yet as I am working on the editing, right now I am just playing around with the colour correction to see if it will all fit in or if I should add filters to make it look neat.
I plan to start my draft this week.

Production Diary #28

I have just finished doing my draft for my digipack and magazine on the computer. It had been really fun to do actually and find the pictures for, I found that tumblr proved the best for this as I found the best pictures which suited my advertisement the most, but now is the hard part in actually taking these pictures myself. I already have my model who is my friend who will come down and find locations with me. I was thinking of Northolt hills, as they are very high up and show the scenery of the busy motor way, as well as the city. Primrose Hill in Camden, as it shows the beautiful view of London and would be magical at night. Camden lock as its always busy and lit up with lots of colours, this could be used as well for signs for the back of my digipack. I just can't wait to go and actually take these pictures.

Production Diary #27

I have just had a brilliant idea on what to base my digipack and magazine advert on.
Today I was coming home from a gig pretty late and decided to take the bus back, whilst on the bus it broke down a few times and the traffic was hideously large, so I found myself sitting there thinking. I then looked out to see I was in central London, where I saw the beautiful view of shops and buildings and cars all lit up in the dark sky, it was so beautiful to look at. It then hit me  that this would be perfect to use for my music video coursework as by band is called Alone Tonight, in which i had felt, the album being called "A Long Way Home" ties in well with the music video as they are constantly on the road, traveling from one city to another, being a long way from home. The music video also does have the theme of travel and cities at night, in which I think this advertisement is going to be very strong indeed.

However the only trouble now is putting these thoughts into pictures, I am going to do a draft and try to find a picture which matches the thoughts I have.
So excited and can't wait to try this out, I hope it all goes well!

Production Diary #26

Now it's time to take a loot at all the legal things I need to consider. I have got my band to sign the sheets in which allow me to have their permission to use their song and them in my music video in order to avoid copy right and illegal claims against it. Also taking into account of good consideration of the health and safety factors, you will find posted recently on my blog, I have looked at them and found ways to avoid any harm to the band, people around me and also myself. Whilst filming I have used this helpful table in avoiding harm, as it has actually been useful, pointing out each thing to the band, making sure that they are aware also.

Production Diary #25

Reviewing my footage and just cutting small parts up into a short taster of what I have done and what I want to use in my actual music video. You will find this in the 9 minute video below, by doing this It has given me more ideas as to what to do in my video and how to make it interesting, I have previously reviewed a shot list you will see below which is pretty detailed with what type of shot, and what happens at what part in the song, this will then also match my storyboard, however you will see that there are some alterations in each, as my ideas have expanded and broadened whilst making each one. I now have a clear idea on what I am doing and plan to stick to these plans if all goes well.

Production Diary #24

As you can see that I have made great progress in the final edit of my music video. I have now chosen the exactly clips I want to use and how long I want to use them for, in the video above you will a few clips of my footage that I have taken, this is just a rough idea on them as my overall footage goes over to an hour. It was hard to cut it down at first but then I realised that I had a lot of repetitive scenes which I could replace as easily.
Also you may have know I had a bit of trouble choosing the song, as I was torn between two of them, I finally put it to a vote, asking my target demographic via social networking sites such as twitter, facebook and tumblr. I then made a tally for each vote and found the "Lullabies & Alibi's" song to get more votes, I also liked this one better and finally landed on that. Each song had good elements about it, so I had to weigh out the pros and cons and see which one would do an overall better job for a music video.

Production Diary #23

Before starting my edit to the video I have made sure that I do in fact have the right to use the song, as spoken about before with the band they have allowed me to use any one of their songs as they currently do not have a video for any. Which is great for me, as it will be original and also if they like it they can use it for their own commercial use. I am happy that all of my filming has been done, but sifting through it I have found that I have filmed way to much, I have over hours of footage but this is not a bad thing, it just means I am more prepared than I though.

I was also thinking about making another scheduled as the first one I had stuck to well and everything had been completed, the only reason why I want to make another one is because I have quite a lot of other gigs lined up, in which I could possibly film some more footage, as you will find from the last date of my scheduled I have tried to put this in, but there are no exact dates as yet. I am feeling even more confident now.

Production Diary #22

As you can see, I have just recently been collecting all my footage together and presented it back to show you what I have done and where I have been, because I got to film so early, all of my planning has been completed, but I still need to add to it, I will be regularly posting bits from my planning work up day by day, as soon as I've finished editing with it as some have changed due to my filming.
You can see a brief glimpse of my footage shown in the raw location video, and also the pictures of where I had shot at in three different locations, Sheffield, Newcastle and Guildford. I had also got some scenes from Camden Town which may be of interest to include.
But I just thought I would update you and tell you that I am well ahead as to what I had originally expected and am already picking out bits from my footage which I think can go into the final music video.

Progress report

Summer is now over, and i've had a 5 week holiday to do all of my research work. I was pretty happy that I got all of it done because it gives me a lot more time to focus on my filming and actual planning of my music video.
I finished all of my research then started to think about filming. At the start of the summer I knew that I was going to film the main part of my music video as my band will be going on tour however, the band I originally had backed out after a few weeks so I then had the trouble to find a whole new one in such a short space of time, at this

point I wasn't worried as it was still the summer and I had enough time to get a new one. Looking through my facebook wall, I found a band called "Alone Tonight" who I had seen live before a year ago, I also noticed that they were going on tour this August and thought it was a perfect opportunity to get a new band as I could just go on tour and film throughout.
So I messaged them and they replied almost imminently and said yes, I was glad that they were so on-board and keen to film. This gave me a week to make sure everything was in set, I planned to go to three of the tour dates as they were all in London or near and easy for me to access. However I found the London date was an over 18 show which I could not attend, and the one after that was on results day. This just set my schedule back a bit but not by too much as there were still four dates of tour left. I managed to attend the Guilford date on the Friday, and had prepared what I was going to shoot before hand, I had a rough storyboard of what I would do and would stick loosely to it, as gigs don't always turn out how you expect them to, anything can happen.

After I had filmed I got home and started to look back on my footage, with most of it, I was highly happy with the quality, shots and angles I got, however I felt that it wasn't enough to fill the whole video. So I spoke to the band again, and they told me their last date, which was their home town would pull a massive crowd, so I decided it would be in my best interest to travel all the way to Newcastle to film the final part. Before going I made a list on my phone what shots I would get and how I would get them to make sure that I got everything for this show.

It was perfect, as going all the way to their final show was so worth it! I got a solid 10 minutes of footage which was perfect quality and acceptable to use for my music video, the problem now was I just had way to much footage, but more is better than less. I shifted through all the footage and deleted any irrelevant parts and selected the ones I liked the most that I could use.

Now I am back at sixth form and starting year 13, I have a few goals in which I hope to achieve by November.
Within this month I want to have completed most of my planning in order to proceed forward to my music video editing. I want to finish this and also start to edit my music video, play around with the software and get used to it.

Production Diary #21

I have nearly complete all of my planning except the last few bits on the tick sheet, and It feels good to be ahead and prepared now that I am approaching school, it makes it easier for me just to focus on one bit at a time and that would be editing my final music video. The stress of filming is now gone, which gives me relief that I have my main footage all together, however this month I am going to be attending a lot of gigs, so I figured just in case I will bring my camera along to film, if I get any extra shots or ones which I can add in, but mainly of the crowd as I feel I may need a variety of shots with them, this gives me plenty of time and extra footage I may or may not need but I may as well try film just in case.

Because one of my main focus are on a crowd, I am going to Sheffield in two weeks time for a very live home show gig, and I know that Sheffield crowd's are always live and vibrant, so I'm going to film some of the HXC dancers and moshing, in which I can add to my music video, as I currently lack in. I'm looking forward to going back to Sheffield again and hopefully getting these shots I need.