Thursday 31 March 2011

Detailed Synopsis

As an extension of my initial synopsis for the 'Lights' pop promotion, here is an extended, more detailed and definitive version.

Our ideas have changed quite a bit since the first stab at a synopsis which is a good thing because I feel like everything's been thought out more realistically and the stylistics involved seem much more captivating than they previously were. Our ideas now are also much more within reach and thought through much more logically and work well.

The pop promotion will begin with the infamous out of focus lights panning around layered over footage of Kira and myself which gives an instant visual of the band and automatically builds a star image. Following this, Kira's verse kicks in shortly after the musical intro so naturally, the focus will begin on her in the studio with a range of shots edited in continuity. We will layer the out of focus lights on top of parts of this footage as well as shots of Kira posing to the camera to break her verse up slightly before transitioning into the narrative.

We will begin the narrative through the 'viewfinder' effect we filmed during the Christchurch park shots where we put the SLR camera's viewfinder against the lens of the DV Camera. Hard cuts of Kira walking will work with the pace of the song before the narrative really opens up into the story. The effect of the SLR camera will enforce the feeling of scrutiny and being watched and judged which is why we're going to move onto Kira running now, being followed by a panning shot before cutting to myself snapping pictures of her. This will fade back into the studio where the chorus approaches.

In the chorus, I'm then introduced to the piece in the studio using the same range of shots used in Kira's verse - a lot of different angles and shot types using continuity to merge them. During the chorus, the chase scene over the bridge will be featured, using hard cuts to the beat and lyrics of 'calling calling calling me home' which will add some pace to song and define the mood and tone.

In my verse, the cuts quicken slightly now in the studio shots and we're going to make much more use of the out of focus shots and layering - this is where the editing gets really interesting. Kira will also be seen in my verse, posing to the camera a few times as the bokeh lights layer over her face.

In the last chorus a breakdown of the song, we are reintroduced to the narrative, showing Kira getting increasingly distressed and hinting at the fact that I'm the one taking photographs of her in an enigmatic manner. The range of angles here strengthen the image that Kira's being watched and observed carefully before she runs and finds the box. While this is happening the pace will increase further using hard cuts that coincide with the beat but also follow continuity to the audience aren't left confused.

In the final chorus, the pace remains quite fast and we make use of the really energetic studio footage, featuring shots of just Kira and just myself but also shots where we're seen together. The out of focus lights and shots of us dancing completely out of focus can be seen here as we make our dramatic entry into the instrumental outro, finishing with Kira and myself posing to the camera. The piece will finish will the panning out of focus lights before the 'viewfinder' type shot returns from earlier. I can be seen making my way up the camera and peering in rather mysteriously (the lights from the studio can still be seen at this point) before I walk out of shot and everything fades to black.

This sounds rather confusing but the finished product, which we're shortly to start work on soon will illustrate everything I've just mentioned and will speak for itself; this is just final detailed description for Kira and I so we know which direction we're taking the video in. If it ends up looking like it does in my head (if that makes any sense) then I'll be absolutely ecstatic.

Updated Final Album Artwork and Promotional Material Idea

Please click images to expand
After critically looking at my ideas for the promotional material ideas I produced (which can be seen earlier in the blog), I wasn't happy with a few things so I decided to amend them to give us a better visual representation of what the final product could look like. I'm much happier with these and think something resembling the above would be really effective as they reflect what GLITTERKNIGHT is in terms of look and feel, is concordant with the music video and has the album cover and print ad are easily recognisable brand-wise to the consumer.

Firstly, and most visibily, I've changed the colour of my blazer. In my opinion, the grey against Kira's white white dress looked dull and and pulled the rest of the artwork down, making it look a bit dull. Now, the contrast between our outfits not only differentiates us but also makes the promotional material a bit bolder and brings out the colours in the background and text. Now, the colour scheme seems more thematic and is in line with the rest of the costumes we've used in the pop promo. It's just more visually appealing to the consumer now.

Secondly, the text on both, but most notably the magazine ad, is completely different. I felt as though the logos for 'GLITTERKNIGHT' and 'LIGHTS' looked very grainy; the colours and typography were just off. It didn't look very professional and wasn't visually appealing, nor did it represent the look and feel of the band very well. Now, the typography is plainer, but easily readable and the glow and wash of gold gives an accurately cohesive branding of the band. I've also added more information to the magazine ad. Now, a release date is featured and so is the record label logo. The fact that these were missing on the original ideas is a mystery; I don't know why I wouldn't include them on an advertisement for album! My mistake..!

Finally, the positioning of Kira and myself has changed on the album cover to the left hand side instead of the center of the cover. The angle that the photograph was taken and the position I was standing in at the time made the side look very flat and awkward. For some reason, Kira's hand look extremely large on that side too so these are against the side now. I think it looks so much better and more visually appealing to the consumer which is essentially the purpose of album covers and print ads- they need to work together and attract an audience.

I've also been playing around with colour in general with this final idea, intensifying some aspects and toning down others. Overall though, I'm extremely happy with this and think it would be in our interests to strongly consider a lot of aspects of this idea for our final finished promotional material.

If you want to view my original artwork and my comments on them (some of which still apply to the above ideas) then click here.


Post by Ben Halliday
Artwork revised by Kira Knight & Ben Halliday.

Final Treatment for 'Lights' Part 1: Music Video

Since writing my initial treatment, our ideas have changed slightly. Here is an update.

Mise-en-scene:
The mise-en-scene for our music video has to be really powerful in order to express the desired look and feel of not only 'Lights' but also the band GLITTERKNIGHT. This 'look and feel' of our pop promo will be quite natural but with a contemporarily edgy twist, utilising technology, meticulous thematics and clever lighting to achieve what we've envisioned and refined.

First of all, costume is absolutely key to building
a star image and defining the look and feel of the band. In a previous blog post, I have detailed the costume we're using for the pop promotion with an annotated Polyvore Set. That blog post can be found here. Make-up will be used appropriately; powder for hot studio lights etc. though this will be extended, as mentioned in the costumes post, to Kira's pop of red on the lips and smokey eyes.

The lighting, illustrated below, will include out of focus bokeh style lighting. Aesthetically, this is a really effective technique to build the mystical quality we're looking to achieve with this video but also, it illustrates the song's title; 'Lights'. This lighting effect is the key focus to our pop promo and will be used throughout our promotional package for the album cover and advertisment.


Additionally, the lighting in the studio is also extremely important. Ultilising three-point lighting, we'll achieve a well balanced level of light on the band with just enough shadow to add dimension to the subject without looking harsh. The backlight will ensure that we're pulled out from the bokeh lights in the background and will ensure that things look slightly more three-dimensional whilst adding a sizable flare into the camera lens which I think, visually, will be a really interesting addition.

The props we need for our production are minimal. An old small, vintage looking box is needed for the narrative shoot that light will burst from upon opening (the light source is my iPhone 4's LED flash). Also, an SLR camera will be featured in the video, representing the fear and scrutiny reflected in the lyrics. A massive amount of fairy lights are also required for the studio shots in order to create the main focus of our piece; the bokeh lighting.

The studio at college is the perfect set for our external shots. Setting this up to accommodate our needs will require us to set up the lighting (mentioned above) and cameras. Luckily, we have access to a lot of useful features here including an intricate lighting rig, copious amounts of space and mounted cameras. When everything is in place, we're hoping for a dimly lit, golden tinted set which is full of various types of light beaming into the lens of the camera. If done correctly, this mystical feel we're hoping to create will set the tone of our pop promotion and will be perfect for our overall look and feel. Similarly, the second location is within reach and gorgeously suitable for our production. Christchurch park in Ipswich has forested areas, a quant bridge and a dark tunnel which will all be put to use during the narrative. The latter will be crucial to executing the shot featuring the 'light box' that I've mentioned earlier.

Cinematography:
Through research, we've had to really stop and think about our approach to cinematography when shooting our pop promotion. As we're showcasing the band and constructing the star image, a lot of shots (particularly close ups) are going to be needed and to ensure seamless continuity we'll be using at least two cameras for every take. This will not only save us time but will guarantee that we have enough footage when it comes to editing. The diversity of shot-types and angles is very important to us as this is what's going to make the video interesting to our audience. Camera movements will also ensure this but will also add much more depth to the continuity; for example, cutting from a panning long shot to a fixed close up of the same action.

As we're out-ruled green-screening the background, depth of focus is also going to be
something we really need to grasp for the studio shots in order to make sure the lights in the background are out of focus with the band crystal clear. We will position the cameras accordingly whilst adjusting the aperture and depth of focus accordingly, letting just enough light into the lens to create the effect we need to follow our theme.

Editing:
Editing techniques for our pop promotion will seem simplistic but it will be far more than I've been used to in the past. I aim to colour correct every shot to gain the golden, mystical feel we need (especially in the narrative shots), I will also add various effects such as a glow to some shots to make certain aspects, such as the lights, really stand out. The out of focus fairy lights will also be layered on top of other shots to build a really nice visual style to the video.

The pace of our piece will coincide with the pace of the music and lyrics; we will cut according to this in order to create the right tone and pace of our music video. As I touched on earlier too, we will use continuity editing to ensure that there is clear order to the video; a range of shots will be placed together accordingly though to shake this technique up a bit for interesting viewing.

Lyrics will also be synced up in the piece, with lip-synching matching the music perfectly to create a diegetic effect.

Sound
The sound for our pop promo will obviously centre around the song 'Lights'. We will edit the piece accordingly to reflect the lyrics, pace and tone of the song and all lip-syncing will be synchronized effectively, giving a diegetic effect to the obviously non-diegetic music.

Post by Ben Halliday

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Test: Strobe Lights in Box


The video you can see above demonstrates the box we used in the narrative of our pop promotion. Underneath the box, is a small hole that I managed to make, allowing light to pass through into the box.

When we thought of the idea to have a 'box of light', no-one knew how that was possible. Even with editing techniques I didn't know how to go about that in Final Cut Pro. We played with the idea of digging a hole in the ground on location and maybe putting a torch in it covered by a bottomless box but our idea wasn't looking hopeful and we started to give up on it which we were really disappointed with.

After we'd forgotten the idea, thinking it was impossible, I thought about an App I used to have on my phone which made the screen flash as if it were a strobe light so I looked it up on the iPhone App Store and there was one which used the LED camera flash on the back of my phone called Flashlight for iPhone 4 which looked as if it would create the perfect amount of light and effect we were looking for and was small enough to hold under the box without looking too obvious. So I tested it out at home (which you can see above) and it worked! I think the fact that when the box is closed you can't see any light is really effective. I'm so relieved we managed to find a way to make our idea work as I think it adds something different to the video, gives it a mystical feel and looks extremely effective!

Video and post by Ben Halliday.

Test: Green Screen


Originally, when Kira and myself we manifesting the video for 'Lights', we wanted to express our ideas in the form of a massive production with green-screens, perfect lighting and gorgeous bokeh style lights behind us. When reality hit and we realised that we could film a smaller scale version of what was in our minds with budget in mind, we started thinking about using green-screens cleverly to produce something close to our vision.

We set out to the studio and set everything up; lighting, the backdrop etc and positioned our model (George) in frame and started to film a short amount of test footage. It looked brilliant on camera and we were sure that green-screening the background for our video was the way forward- that was, until the edit. The green-screen it's-self didn't register very well on the camera and upon uploading the footage looked more like a 'lime-screen' with uneven lighting.

After applying the chroma key, there was a large amount of green pixelated fuzz around George. Adding other effects such as an additional chroma key and a colour smoother, the results improved drastically but we realised that the subject looked far too detached from the background and although realism wasn't the goal, the overall result looked very fake.

Since, we have decided that green-screens, although a glamourous idea, are not to be used during our pop-promo and we're going to shoot using tactful depth of focus in order to create the gorgeous out of focus lights effect whilst keeping the subject (the band) in crystal clear focus. Hopefully, this will result in a much more put together, realistic effect that has a very warm, intimate effect for viewers.

Above, you can see the before-edit and after-edit of the green-screen material. I think our second idea, though involving more work, will work and look a lot better which, overall, is the important thing.

Post by: Ben Halliday
Video by: Ben Halliday

Saturday 19 March 2011

Pre Production
We started by recording the track we needed to make our music video. We used Ben's music studio at his house, using his Korg synth and his MacBook and the Music editing software. Once the recording was all done we started to look at other pop promos so we could get inspiration for our own. Using things like Youtube and MTV. To find things that were really popular we could see what people were talking about at that current time. This also helped by the questionnaire we gave out at college. Asking people around our college was great because the age group is vast from 16-25. From all the collected information we finally starting writing down all our ideas,planning out filming times, costume and props and locations.

We checked out our locations and tested out some shots that we wanted to use, including green screen. We made collages of our outfits so we could get a theme we needed pinned down. we bought all the props we needed and after that we were ready to film.

Filming
We had Set days for planning. Different days and different locations. All in all it took about four days worth of filming to get all of our footage. We had to make sure we kept continuity on makeup and hair (unless they were meant to be different) In our first shoot it took us about an hour to set up our studio shoot. We had to connect up all our fairy lights and tie them together on a big frame. Then we had to make sure the lighting was perfect creating an golden, warm glow. We took about twenty minutes doing hair and make up and making sure our costume was perfect. On our outside shoots, we had a harder task, lighting wasn't something we could change, so we had to wait until certain times of the day to make sure we had the perfect lighting. We used our props of the antique camera and box.

Post Production
After we had all of our footage, it was now time for the editing. We fed our video through firewire to finally get it all edited on the Mac, using final cut pro we cut up all the video we had filmed, synced up the backing song to our lips. After all was in place, we got rid of all the shots we didn't like, keeping the ones we did, giving our video a good structure. We then edited the colours added in fade ins, dissolves and cross fades and other transitions where needed.

After that we added in our final pick up shots to make the video interesting, adding in narrative and other pretty shots we had. We also had to start thinking about our CD cover and advertisement,( though that was also in our minds at the time of pre - production, but now we could finally focus on it fully) Looking at other pop promotion packages to get ideas of what things they have to include and how they attract audiences.


Group work written by Kira Knight

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Update on Post Production

Now that we have everything shot, I thought a quick update was in order to let you know about how the post-production process is going for Kira and I. We're at the stage now where we can confidently say that the music video is near finished and the promotional material is taking shape nicely and shouldn't require too much work to get it looking great! We've been using Final Cut Pro on the Mac Pros in the editing suite at college to put together our music video. The software, once you know your way around it, is really easy to use but effective too. I've really enjoyed taking on the role of editor and have learnt so much about the software, editing techniques and effects.

This year, I think the post-production on our work has gone a lot smoother and the quality just isn't comparable to my AS year; we've come leaps and bounds. Though the edit for our 'Lights' music video is one of the biggest edits I've done, I feel like I've learned the most from it.

We've achieved everything we set out to do regarding the edit; all techniques, effects etc. but having really good footage from the shoots to work with makes my role a lot easier. This year, every single shot is colour corrected which makes a huge impact on the quality of the piece as a whole and polishes it well.

Techniques such as syncing diegetic sound with non-diegetic sound of about 8 different shots and lining them all up in the timeline was one of the hardest things about the pre-production and took quite a lengthy amount of time but I feel that without taking the time out to do that, the whole process is made significantly harder.

Overall, our edit has come a long way from a bundle of footage in the 'bin'. Kira and I are really proud of it and it only needs a few tweaks before it's debut on the blog! We showcased the video to an audience last week and the feedback from them, though mostly positive, was really helpful and constructive - it definitely told us what needs to be changed in order to make it appeal to an audience and idealistically (in the real world), the consumer.

As far as the album cover and magazine advertisement go, I'm really proud of these too. They really represent GLITTERKNIGHT well and build up a star image nicely. Previously studying graphic design, I'm quite experienced in photoshop and know my way around the program well which helped us a lot with being able expressing our ideas accurately and Kira's learning really quickly; the graphics she produces for her media blog and general technique are getting really strong.

You can see from previous images and ideas on my blog that we've utilised Photoshop CS3 to keep the look and feel that was created with our music video regarding the band. We've shot the photographs using a digital stills camera and they're looking lovely. We've cut around ourselves using the 'lasso' tool, feathered it by a few pixels and layered it onto the bokeh styled lights featured in our pop promotion. The typography, with the glows look really effective too.

We've had a few bumps in the road in our post-production, such as Kira's inexperience with Photoshop and my reluctancy to sync all takes up at once in the timeline in Final Cut but we've moved past these, made decisions as a group and either found alternatives or worked through the problems until a solution was clear. I think Kira and I work really well and the post-production of our task proves this really well.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Album Artwork Idea

This mock-up artwork for our CD Digipack displays the basic framework for what we are trying to achieve. Concordant with our ideas for the pop promo, the colours, styling and images reflect a clear and easily distinguishable image for our band.

We have furthered the theme of bokeh lights that we're using in the pop promotion as well as the glow around the subjects (Kira and I). The typeface is easily readable and the size makes the text pop- particularly in the logo of the band name; GLITTERKNIGHT as I have applied a subtle golden glow around it.

Obviously, as this is just the bare bones of what we're trying to achieve with the artwork, there are many factors that need to be modified in order to create a (much) more professional looking graphic. Most importantly, the silhouetted figures are to be replaced with photographs of the band members so the consumer will easily recognise the band, promoting an easily identifiable star image and the artwork as a whole will be sharper. The typeface, though nice, does look like a student creation so we're looking into better typefaces that look more professional and easier on the eye, maybe making more use of the glow featured on the band logo (above).

This artwork was created in Photoshop using images from Flickr as a rough demonstration. In our final graphic, not only will we use our own images (for copyright reasons) but also, a full digi-pack design will be made including inside the Digipack and a design for the spine of the pack.

Overall though, I'm really happy with the direction we're taking the promotional material and with amendments, has a good amount of potential.

Artwork credit: Ben Halliday (Myself)

Sunday 13 March 2011

Promotional Package Analysis: Britney Spears, 'Femme Fatale'

Following my post about the promotional materials used for Britney Spears's Circus album, this is an update of sorts. Her new album Femme Fatale, out later this month (March 25th) features a much more cohesive, thought out theme and promotional package. The methods of this promotion are also much wider. New media such as social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud) have been ultilised, 'inviting' Facebook 'friends' to online music video premiers, posting snippets of new songs on SoundCloud, and advertising everything from this to premium editions of the album on Twitter as well as frequent updates from Britney herself and her manager.

Britney Spears currently has close to 7.5million followers - That's 7.5million people receiving promotional information about the new album. In this age of social networking and, it's only natural that promotion for album releases will utilise this new media cleverly.

Above, I have posted the promotional image for Femme Fatale. The poster features Britney herself, placed prominently in the centre of the image, looking directly into the camera provocatively positioned. Also featured are the fonts of both her album title and first single, her name/logo, and, much larger than everything else, the album title. The text and typefaces used over all promotional material give a strong sense of branding and build Britney's star image for 'Femme Fatale' - particularly as the styling of the typefaces reflect the qualities of a 'femme fatale' - very smokey, mysterious, monochrome colours and very in-your-face.

Promotional images, marketing for Britney Spears's 'Femme Fatale' and first single from the album entitled 'Hold it Against Me' directly refer to eachother by the similarity of the photographs used for the covers. The colours on both covers are virtually identical and feature the artist's face in roughly the same position making it easy for the audience/consumer to link the two together as part of a package or brand ('Femme Fatale').