In this task our group must come up with a promotional poster for our up and coming band. To start this project we needed to research into popular layouts and conventions of bands posters. To do this we used the internet, especially Google as the search engine has an images section which is perfect for what we need to further our ideas of what a music video should look like. We primarily looked at the Beastie Boys music posters to see how they have really given off a vibe that suites their style of music. Next we looked at popular bands that are around now to see how the music poster layout has progressed and developed. Through doing this research we learnt techniques that help us understand what it is that makes a great poster stand and be more attractive to the human eye.
I will now take an example of a very different music poster to ours to highlight the differences in campaigns. I found a poster for the singer Justin Bieber used to advertise his new single “never say never”. From the poster we can see only a side image of him, not showing all of his face. On the other hand our band probably would be unable to have a side shot of them as their image has not yet been released so people would find it more difficult to recognise them and this could even potentially decrease sales. The writing is in block capitals spread diagonally across the portrait showing hat this is the most important part of the campaign. The word “NEVER” is highlighted in purple, perhaps proving the colour choice is to draw in girls and draw their attention to the poster. This is backed up by the fact that Justin Bieber target audience is mainly girls from the ages of 10-16. In a smaller yet still fully visible text it tells the audience they can come and watch the show some time in February, potentially the uncertainty of the actual viewing date means that this poster was created way in advance to the actually shows, trying to create a buzz. Also, the simplistic layout and easily readable text could also be a method to attract people, it is a known theory that a page with lots of writing will deter people from attempting to read at it so perhaps this theory was applied to this poster.
After deconstructing other popular pop stars music posters we now have to assemble one on our own. As we took many pictures on the shooting day of the characters we will incorporate the most fitting shot into the poster and then write the bands name and their song name and perhaps even the first gig or release date. This is a very important part of advertising our band and we must make sure that the colour scheme, photo choice and style of writing will draw in the attention of our target audience. When first starting to talk to Alex about this we thought of many different colour schemes and pictures to use. We really wanted to create the idea of a fun loving, young and unique group and hopefully in doing this our target audience of 16-23 years old will enjoy and be able to identify with the band. Finally we decided which picture to use and tried out many different styles of writing. To do this we used an application called Photoshop and so we were able to play around with the lighting and writing position using a wide range of tools available on this programme.
We started editing our music video a few days after the shoot day was finished. We were given a time frame of 2 and a half week to have finished the whole music video, which Alex and I found very difficult, especially as our video had lots of special effects. Firstly, we separated the better takes from the unusable one by creating specific bins for each type of shot. Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers.
By laying down the track on final cut pro it made it easier so u to get a sense of the timeline and seeing how far into the song we could build up the aliens new found fame. A really difficult part of editing is cutting each shot to the beat of the song and matching up lip movements to the actual song. To find the exact beat you would first listen to a short section of the song where you knew the beat was, then once you think you’ve heard it you pres pace bar and listen to the song beat by beat until you find it. Very luckily our song had a very noticeable and dominant beat so it did not take too long to find it, whereas for others it we very difficult. As for the lip sinking, if you altered the magnification size of the timeline by altering the switch at the bottom left of the screen it gave you a much more precise indication of time. By altering the clip one second forward, especially for parts that needed quick editing e.g. repition of the last word in a verse.
Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. Before doing any of the editing we put the track down on final cut pro. We then put the first runthrough of the rap over it cutting it to the beat. Once this is done, the hard part comes when trying to layer other shots of the rappers over the top of it as we were only using smaller parts, maybe only a few seconds long. We only had a few shots of the rappers singing the actual song, so although we were limited in how many shots we could use, it made the process very simple with the selecting shots and inserting them, as we didn't have to go through many shots to find a specific movement or action we liked, as they were already in the shots we had due to good direction on the shoot day. We used shots from all of the runthroughs of the song, as well as the short shots of the rappers repeating the word from the end of each line. After we had got the cut we wanted with the performance, we added the other element of the performance, like the reactions to what was happening to the alien character, and the part where the ship starts to fall apart.
I think we managed this well, and were able to sync the rapping perfectly amidst the chaos of the scene. The final part of the editing process was to put the narrative strand in. This was much easier as the shots were all similar, and all we had to do was to select a shot that could fill in the spaces that we had specifically left for these shots, which matched a certain point in the song. Now all that had to be done was the after effects. For the bulk of after affects Alex and used the Keying technique using abode after effects. This is where you crop out the back ground to replace it with an image that is either made on Photoshop or found on the internet. This is a multistage process and is initiated by resized the image to fit the frame. Once this is resized, you must check the lighting, this is done by clicking effects then keying and finally key light. Then click on the button to the left of the green to select whether a green or blue screen was used. In out media product we used a blue background as the green would have clashed with the green alien. Once the combined matte was allowed, we had to ensure the background was fully black in comparison to the white image we needed to keep to put against the background, e.g. the aliens face. For the beginning sequence of the space ship landing we used a basic key frame animation. This is where we selected specific parts of the screen for the space craft to change direction and the computer fills in in-between frames. The start middle and end point were shown as circular dots on the screen.
Painting and co-ordinating the set was done on Friday afternoon, the previous school day before actually filming the footage. Our set really came together at this point; the painting and attention to detail on the plastic space-craft like panels truly made the set come to life. To give an idea of the set it was made from three silver painted walls in a rectangular shape, with three vent looking panel across the back walls. We also have a controls box of about four foot with painted knobs and monitors, on the other side there was another panel with many different buttons on it. We left school for the weekend looking forward to filming the music video on Monday.
Because we had many more lighting options on the day then we had previously anticipated, we took time to try out new styles. After applying many different settings we felt the slow flickering strobe teamed with dimmed house lights set the mood correctly. For the scene where the space craft experiences turbulence, we sped up the strobe and used dry ice for dramatic effect.
We positioned the camera at about one and a half meters away from the spacecraft set initially and found that the distance was too small to give the effect of a spacious set. So, to correct this we moved the camera another three quarters of a meter away and checked on the monitor that this was at a good distance. The position in relation to the set was altered only slightly once the boys started rapping to ensure all three of the rappers were in focus and could be seen.
The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. Alex therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we felt we did not have at the time. After a quick costume change and a bit of hair gel, Alex was ready to continue the practises. We then felt that it was time to start filming so we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations.
The confidence of the three rappers reached its peak after a few practises and so they were more comfortable trying out new things like playing tug of war etc. Also, because the studio was not very crowded, unlike some of the other music videos, this made the boys relax even more so which was really important to give a confident vibe to the audience.
When filming the video we adopted the professional lingo of words like “turning over” and “roll camera”. This gave the set a much more professional film and showed me how an actual music video would have been filmed and the language I would have to understand. Other aspects that made the shoot feel professional that we adopted were running to a schedule. In the real music industry, the shoot day would have to run very rigidly and there would be no time allowed for discussing which shot came next and so on.
I felt having Alex in the video at this point was a great asset to the performers as he knew what we wanted them to do and lead the way to getting there. With the initial mid shots done after three takes, the performers were instructed to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, they did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.
For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the for ground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it. After a few takes with excessive smoke and green flashing lights, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair.Using a blue screen was really exciting for me and Alex as we both hadn’t used one before. The blue screen was simply wheeled along like a curtain and a stage was set up directly in front of it. The camera at this point also had to be readjusted to the new set. We used a variety of shots like extreme close ups, mid shots and close ups to suite the varying backgrounds. The lighting was also altered at this point as the alien was not actually in the spacecraft in the video. The ideas we had of him walking down the street and being in pictures with famous people made us alter the lighting to make it much brighter for the picture shots and not flickering but dim for the walking shots.
The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went, all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.
Editing
Alex and I have now started the process of editing the rough cut into an actual music video. For our group in some ways this is very easy and other are very difficult. The best thing about the song we choose is that the beat is very defined and easy to spot, therefore giving us more ease when cutting two clips together. However, another area of editing we have not yet started is editing in backgrounds fro the blue screen surrounding our alien, as both neither me or Alex have used a blue screen before, making it very difficult and perhaps more timely to edit this in. Our deadline, the end of the winter term I am confident will be kept to ad hopefully will give us time to truly polish the editing of our music video.
The afternoon before shooting Alex and I were able to go along and help with the painting and putting together of the set. The set for our video had three main functions: inside the space craft, the outside of the space craft and the blue screen background. Our first shot of the day according to the shooting schedule was the rappers within the space craft so we therefore set up the ship to save time the following day. Apart from the initial painting there were other areas like ensuring the panel on the set were straight and which colours to use on the knobs of the control pads that took up a lot of time.
We felt that by putting in small details and paying attention to detail it would create more of a professional vide and ultimately make our video look better. One of the largest issues we had whilst set building was deciding what to do with the doors. Firstly we had decided to try to incorporate them into the set so they could be shown at all time and equally so the audience would be more aware that the alien was leaving the ship that had the rappers in, not that they were separate. But after a short chat, we felt that it would be more advantageous to not include the doors and have them separately and instead build up narrative of many reactions shots of the rappers from the actions of the alien. Now the only issue was getting the doors to open at the same time and at the same speed with people pulling them apart. This was very difficult, especially with lots of smoke and flashing lights but after around four attempts the doors were starting to move evenly and the monitor showed promising results.
Another issue we discovered on the day was that we were intending to use the green screen; however our alien had previously been painted green. Therefore he would not show up when in after effects. So luckily a blue screen was also available for us to use, otherwise our video would have been a disaster!
The reason for the attention to detail within the spacecraft set was to tie in with the music video convention of reality. We wanted to audience to feel as if the band could actually be in a space ship, making them feel, even more so, the quirky nature of the band. The more real the set felt, the bigger impression the band would have on the audience in my opinion. Equally, it would also high light their seemingly low socio-economic grouping, that they are in a fabulous state of the art space ship, yet they are lower classed. Specifically, the part of the set that ties the most into the narrative strand of the video is the control boards located on the left hand side of the set. This relates dominantly as there are parts of the video where the rapper are frantically switching the knob to help stabilise the aircraft.
We hope to build a replica of this set in the studio
We used this drawing to show to the media teachers how we wanted the studio space to look. By having a diagram with labels indicating colour scheme and taking into account the size of the studo, this will help them to visualise the set. For example the background colour was light silver, used as most of the other spacecrafts we looked at for a point of reference. The light silver colour worked well as a background colour as it did not detract from the performance element of the media product. Equally, we also noted briefly about small flashing red LEDS appearing as if they were buttons on the control boards which are evident in other sci-fi themed media products like Star Trek. We tried to make full use of the studio space we had available to us and space out the props accordingly but also kept in mind the fact that the rappers would be running around the whole et so we needed to ensure the right mise en scene was provided everywhere. There were only a few subtle changes to the set from out sketch to the set of the sctual filming including a different type of lighting and one less control pannel within the ship due to lack of space.
