We had 3 options to choose for our ancillary tasks; a magazine advert, a DVD cover or a web page. Upon discussing the options we decided to go for the magazine advert and the DVD cover, we chose as we had an idea to produce to collectable colour schemes for the band, one that we already use, which is a deep purple and gold, or one that we chose which is a slightly more sophisticated. we got this idea from researching album covers done in the past and realised JLS had just done and similar thing, which of course if you have one colour scheme then encourages the consumer to buy the rest of the range, meaning bigger profits of the band, we added this colour scheme, not only onto a Magazine advert and DVD cover but also onto the actual CD and DVD.
We also looked at the 25 best album covers as voted for my Rolling Stone readers, something we noticed is that none of the covers are to crowed, they are eye catching, understated and quite a few use silhouettes, we chose to use one of the picture we had taken on the swings of the band, we edited the photo in photo shop, cutting the picture out s there was no back ground then put the four band members on swings next to each other, but we had them posing at all different heights, so it also made the cover a little more interesting, we then switched the colour scheme, added in some text and a date for the album.
For our DVD cover we kept to the same two colour scheme, but changed the pictures, we were originally going to use the same eddied photos, then we were going to use one of the band on a see saw, but both of these covers looked to familiar, a little boring and un professional, so we chose to use two pictures, one on the front, and one on the back. The front one was more classic of the band on a green screen posing and facing the camera, that we then just edited the green to be black or purple, and then added the picture onto the cover, using the band’s name above and the song title below the picture. We then chose to use one of the final photo’s we took of the band, of them walking away, we liked this photo as it makes the DVD cover look more interesting. One of the biggest problems we had was using the purple for the colour scheme, as we had to match the shade the band chose, to the DVD cover, magazine advert, CD and DVD, we used to different types of software to create our ancillary tasks, so obviously we couldn’t just use a standard colour, so I ended up creating out on colour scheme and saving it to the hard drive. This then made the whole project. I liked these ideas as they were simple but interesting and also look professional.
Starting editing
We decided each to take a main job within the project, I was to digitise and edit the video, and Bobbi was going to do the Magazine cover and charlotte was going to help us both. So I started digitising, editing and cutting and Bobbi started cutting out the photos of the band on Photoshop, using a magnetic wand. We decided to run these tasks simultaneously as it was only practical for one person to take on one task at a time and although every one can give input, we thought it would be more practical to multi task, do our own project and help others and advise when they needed it.
Our first evaluation
Once I had finished editing the basic footage and aligning the chorus I then started fine tuning the editing, making the cuts sharper and adding dissolves and effects, as well as filming the title shot. Once I had done all of this, I thought it was basically finished, so I burned a copy of the music video onto a DVD and then decided to show it to a range of people, male and female, ages; 14- 20 and 20 + this post editing feedback gave me a much needed outside view, as I believed it was not yet quite up to standard. So upon showing it to 6 people the main feedback we received was “it doesn’t look professional enough” “it take you a while to realise that she is cheating on him, it’s not predominantly evident” “its missing something” and “the middle bit, where they are giving her gifts is a bit boring” so taking these comments on board with 14 days to go I started spending all my free time editing the music video, I added filters, playing and adjusting the gamma, RGB balance mix, adjusting the light levels and using dissolves, and cube rotations, which made it look more professional, and made the middle bit more interesting. I then burned this version onto a disk and showed a few of the same people and a few more to get more feedback on the changes and any further ideas. The comments that came back where “it looks more professional” “I like how the middle part spins, it makes it look like it’s doing four rotations of a cube” “I like the band being darker, it seems more impressive” but we also got a few comments saying “it’s still not very evident that she is cheating before the first chorus” and “so is she cheating on him” which isn’t a good sign.
Seven Days to Go
So with 7 days until the dead line I re evaluated the story board and brain stormed idea’s, I came up with concepts like; the girl doing the same thing with each man, for instance waking up with both of them, but thought not only is that very similar to the second verse, but also not entirely appropriate for the younger fans of the band, I also came up with an idea of having the words “Cheater” flash up in different parts of the video, but then thought that might make it a little un professional and also messy looking as well as even more confusing to the audience and detrimental to the flow of the video. The other idea I came up with was using technology, so I decided to re shoot the first verse, and mapped out a new story board showing, once she had left the room, she open a text, from ‘tom’ saying “hey sexy, waiting outside” this obviously contrasted better as we have just seen her say good bye to her boyfriend in the bedroom. We then kept the next shot of her walking down stairs and out the front door, up the driveway, but then instead of having her just get in the car with Tom, we shot her walking down the road a little more, being a little more hesitant, and looking more nervous than checking around for people watching, then getting in the car and driving away, instead of happily bouncing in to the car and driving away, which was the original idea, so upon deciding this firstly checked with the rest of the group to make sure they were ok with me changing it, which they both agreed was the right move, and liked the idea’s I came up with, I then finalised the plans, props, contacted the set we have used previously and managed to get a slot for the next day, called my sister (the actress) and managed to get her to be available tomorrow, booked some last minute equipment out, and then got ready to film the next morning.
Six Days to Go
Once I get into school, I collect the equipment, then quickly ring round my group to see if any of them are around to help, unfortunately they are both busy, so I took the equipment, planning documents, collect my sister, then head of to the set, it was a very productive morning, as it was only the two of us though, it did take a little longer, so we stayed until lunch time, then dropped her back then came back to school, with the hopes of being able to digitise the footage that afternoon and evening, unfortunately on way out of the media room I fell down the steps and sprained my ankle, so ended up being sent to hospital, which wasn’t very productive. So didn’t manage to finish digitising the footage.
Five Days to Go
Luckily it was only a sprain, so I managed to get back in the next day and carry on digitising the footage, I only had one hour’s worth of free lessons on this day so I finished digitising during that period, then started ruff cutting and editing in the evening. I spent 3 hours after school working on this, but then had to go home so left it ready to be finished in the next few days.
Four Days to Go
I spent every free second I had cutting, editing, laying the sound over, aligning, filtering, adding dissolves, matching colours and lights. But finally in the evening managed to get the new first verse into the video and run the whole thing smoothly, so I then burnt a copy of this version on the video onto yet another DVD and took it home to show a few people. The comments I got included “much better, it’s so much clearer and easier to watch” “it looks really professional, and entertaining” “o wow that’s so much better” which all these comments made me think that it was easier to understand, especially as I showed it to someone who hadn’t seen the previous versions and they understood the plot straight off. So I was pleased with the result, now just to finish touching up the ancillary tasks.
Three Days to Go
Once I had shown the changes to the rest of my group, who all agreed it was much better. We finished working on the ancillary tasks, Bobbi had almost finished Cutting out the Band members, so I took one of them and so did charlotte, and we managed to finish cutting them out in the next hour, so we then added in the back ground and put them into the magazine advert, Bobbi then added the titles. Then I started on the final ancillary task, the DVD cover, this was fairly easy and managed to add in the colour scheme, photos and text.
Two Days to Go
With two days to we managed to finish the DVD cover and Magazine advert quite early on in the day. So with a few hours to the deadline, after checking everything I decided to create a design for the CD as we had check and double checked everything and had a spare few hours. We made the back ground colour purple or black, and then added a picture of the band, and the song title.
One Day to Go
We finished the CD design and did a final run through of everything. Once we had made sure it was all complete and of a high standard, we put all the ancillary tasks in to a folder and exported the video into QuickTime, ready to play and load onto you tube etc.
Exporting the footage
Deadline Day
We handed in the finished pieces on the deadline, but I was very pleased with the standard, and think it was well worth the extra effort to make it of a higher standard. I’m pleased with the quality and the tenacity in which I worked, and proud of the final product.
