Filming - 2

I have checked the weather report for this weekend, and it's looking sunny which means i will be able to get my filmimg finished. I need make sure i have my cast together as the last time i went filmimg i struggled due to casting issues. Hopefully this weekend i will get the introduction shot again and the second verse.

I am keeping in mind that light is running out around 4 o'clock these days, so to successfully film i will need to get an early start. This is a problem for getting the cast, so i think i will get the cast to stay round my house the night before so i can get started quickly the following day.

I am going to film the opening scene again, because although i had all the shots for the opening sequence, they were too washed out and didn't look good enough to use.

Digi-Pack + Poster

Creating the Digi-pack

Whilst creating the digi-pack, I had to keep in my mind the genre comventions for my track and how i could translate that into a digi-pack. I first set about on the task of coming up with ideas for the front cover, drawing inspiration from similar artists, or just other covers that really stood out to me.

I liked the 'white denim - D' album because of the colage effect contrasted agaisnt nothing, i thought that was quite a good, slightly abstract idea. I was planning on doing a similar image, instead with bumber stickers, signs and words.

I loved the fatboy slim cover for it's simplicity, and the sunglare effect which has been theme in my video. Yet again there is a  sharp contrast, which i think I am planning on using.

I really love the idea behind The verve album cover, and at the same time provides a interesting image to look at at. An album cover should reflect the album and the band in some way, send some sort of idea or feeling out.

Trying out the colage effect

I attempted creating a similar effect to the white denim album cover. I used skate stickers, signs (road and warning stickers), and general images. I collected these images in a bank.

These were the style of images i was going to use to hopefully build up a 'retro style' colage. However when it came to piecing the images together I came across a few problems. The images, download from the internet, tended to have a border round the outside of them, and cutting around the edges of each image took a fair deal of time. When it came to adding these together colour clashes occured and i found it was hard to put text over the images. So before  I fully comitted to the idea and process lots of images, I decied it would not be effective and their were other, more efficent ways of conveying a similar feeling.

Photos

I decided to take a camera, out into the forest on a warm ( orange coloured ) evening and take some photos of the leaves and general nature. I came across a pile of leaves, threw them up against a sunlit background and managed to captuure a single leaf in the centre of the shot. Using an out-of-focus effect to blur the shot.

I processed this image through the online editing software 'Picnik', to add more warmth to the shot, and to soften the background. This is what i ended up with.

This was the image than i chose to represent the album, and became the album cover.

The poster

 For the poster we have been asked to create, I am debating whether i should used the same image from album cover however slightly edited, or use a different image completely ( mabey a image of the band.) I'm personally more inclined to use the same image to keep conituity and to keep a running theme through the project, as it gives the album and the band a image.  Something that when people see the picture they will instantly relate it to the band/ album.

Updated

I sat down to have a think about the poster image, as i thought, although keep continuity between the poster and digi-pack would be effective. However I felt I should really get another image, which also conveys the orangy, autum feel. So once again i ventured out into the wider world with a camera, and with no real general direction, apart from the idea of capturing this 'feeling' i set off. I walked around taking photos of the silouette of trees and other various kooky nature stuff. Untill yet again I came across a pile of leaves, and took about 5 photos.

That sort of stuff. After returning to school, I decided to take the second photo listed through, to the editing stage. And it turned out abit like this......

Updated - again
As I started to add Writting and images I came a across a few probelsm. Due to the different shades and colours of the leaves, there were only select areas where I could add text where it would be clear to read.

As you can see, there are select areas where text would work. In the end to add the 'The courtiers" I added a banner to help highlight the band name . I thought this actually added a new layer to my poster, in the sense of an 'extra something' .


 

Band Name

So, I would of course have to come up with a band name. Although this sounds relatively easy, especially for a musician, coming up with band names is something i do struggle with. It's a weird one, because any name after a while, once you get use to it sounds okay , but it's still the thing that people may see first before listening to a track , and form a name, they can start to form an opinion, of the what the sound that follows will be, or the members are like in the band.

First ideas;-
I flicked through a dictionary , allowing my finger to drop onto random words..... 'Toaster' , hmmm perhaps " The toasters" , no that was crap. Most of the subsequent words, followed suit with equally disappointing names such as " The Fez's" , "Treehouse".... "revision" ! Not a lot of gems there really, so the dictionary idea didn't work entirely, but i thought concept was interesting.

Ideas continued;-
I was trying to keep in mind, the connotations of the name and how it would relate to my tracks genre, Folk. I started browsing the web, with no real direction just hoping something would jump out at me. Words such as "Cabanas" , "Caphs" , and " waves" jumped out at me. However the more i was looking, the more i began in my mind to associate the letter C with my track, until it only felt right to start off with the letter C. I again returned to my orginal idea of the dictionary, this time being around 95% more specific. I searched again, jotting down a couple of names in my media class on a piece a paper, one in particular came up ..... " The Courtiers". In the following lessons in that day i had history and during that class, that name came up as part of the history lesson, so i decided on that coincidental  basis that i would stick with that name.

"The Courtiers"

CD front cover shots

This is a shot i took of the sunset in burley. I used the Piknic photo editing software on the interent to bring out the shades of black, to give a dramatic contrast with the sun like on the 'Fatboy slim'  album cover. I love this shot for the wamth incapulated within it. I am not too happy with the framing with this shot, although the sun is centred, i think there is too much of the trees (right) and the bush  ( bottom) in the image.

This shot provides a different feel,  with heavy empahsis on the balck shades of the trees. Contrasted yet again with the sun, this time however i didn't empahsize the orange/yellow of the sun , instead i added brightness to the sun area and then changed the contrast to give that white in the sun. Although there is abit of lense flare, i feel this almost adds something extra to the shot. In comparison to the first shot, i prefer the framing of this shot, but because of the patches of black and white, i feel this would be harder to make into a front cover due to the spacing for the writting (Band name + album name).

Filming - 1

The first attempt at filmimng didn't go entirely to plan, to be honest most things went wrong.

I planned orignally to film the first main scene, parts of the second verse and the last scene. However problems with the weather meant i could not have a fire ( a focus point of the last scene ). It was too wet and windy for the shots to take place for the second verse. Another issue, wasat my video needs about 13 people in the last scene in the correct enviroment to get the idea across. The situation on the night of filming, was basically the opposite. Not enough people turned out so the shots just were not possible, even the opening shots with three characters  I couldn't do.

This means I'm am going to have to rethink my video, as now the weather is deteriating i wil have to come up with a new setting for the last scene, which in turn means i need to change everything apart from the opening scene.

I may put in more performance than orignally planned to fill the gaps. This will alter my video, so i will have to have a rethink of whats now possible.

Shot location

Opening scene

For the opening of the hitchhiking scene, I would ideally like to have the sun faced down a long road. the place I feel that would be best for this is a road named, Lyndurst road. It is a long straight piece of road in the newforest, and at the moment in the sun for an hour so is in the center of the road. This is going to be my location for the opening scene.

Second verse + Final scene
I will shoot this scene at mill lawn in burley, as it has open spaces a river, which i intend to use as part of my video , and of course forest. Making it an ideal place shoot the second verse which is the characters traveling to the camping scene at the end.