Album Cover Research - 20/01/12

Album Cover Research

Today's Lesson - 14/12/11

Today's lesson was very spontaneous as our teacher was off so we had to work on our coursework. We were meant to film yesterday, but due to the poor weather conditions, we have had to reschedule the filming for another day after we come back in January. These dates will have to be arranged around my teachers paternity leave.

As my group couldn't continue to film today due to many reasons, we decided to continue to plan our video and decide when, where and who we are going to film. I found this useful as it allowed us to really focus on getting the right things filmed. We planned out what shots to film in what order as we know all the shots wearing the same costume and make-up needs to be done at the same time so that we have continuity in our video. We created a brief brain storm of the information (locations, cast and filming dates) so that we know for definite who we need, when and where we will be filming when we come back after our Christmas break.

This is our narrative shot list of where they are being filmed and the order in which we will film our video.

This is our brief brainstorm showing the information we need, i.e. locations, cast and when to film.

Banner Creation - 02/12/11

This is a screen grab of my web page banner. I think this is good as it shows an image of the girls in the band, singing behind the microphones. This is good as it gives the viewing audience an image of what the site is about. They can clearly see the band they have just visited, doing what they are known for. The Pure Orbit is how I wanted it to be. I have stuck to my iconography that I decided on earlier, as I am still using the colour of red, and I said that I will use an earth inside the 'O' of 'Orbit'.

After looking into existing girl band websites, I noticed that the banner appears on all of their pages. I will feature my banner on every page of the site. I quite like the idea of The Saturdays web site as the home page features a big banner of the girls and the band name, and then on the other pages, it is a smaller banner with the name in a different place. I might use this idea as I think it looks quite effective.

Below are some screen grabs of the websites I looked into:

This is the Pussycat Dolls' home page. It shows the banner with the black silhouettes and the Pussycat Dolls' heart.

This is the Pussycat Dolls' news page, showing the same banner as the home page did.

This is the Girls Aloud homepage which shows the banner at the top of the page with an image of the girls and their band name.

This is the Girls Aloud news page which shows the same banner at the top of the page as the home page.

This is The Saturdays homepage which shows the banner at the top of the page with an image of the band members and their band name above the image.

This is the slightly different  banner which is on every other page at the top. This has an image of the band members and to the left of the image is their band. I am going to use this idea of slightly changing the banner so it makes it more appealing and varied for the viewing audience.

Banner Creation - 25/11/11

In today's lesson I had to create the title banner in gimp. I used my logo idea to create the banner for my web page.

I went onto Google and found this image that I was going to use as my content marker for my banner.

I imported the image into Gimp and then began to edit it and move things around.

This screen shot looks the same as the one above, but around the silhouettes are flashing dotted lines. This is where I used the wand tool to make the white background invisible so I could put it nearer the Pure Orbit words and not have the white background cover it.

This is the final piece I created in Gimp. It shows the woman as silhouettes for a content marker and the Pure Orbit name. 

This is my final title banner. I have included the words content marker so people who look at it for now knows that I won't be using the black silhouettes as I will be using an image of our performers singing in the studio or a normal photo, but for now, the content marker shows where the picture will eventually go.

Permission Request To Girlicious - 23/11/11

This is a screen grab of the permission message I sent to Girlicious to use the song 'Here I Am' for our music video.

Editing Test - 23/11/11

This is footage of a shot we would use in our music video. The idea is that the girl (in this video Sean) would look into the mirror and see someone else looking back (Armani). This explains connotes that the girl is unhappy with the life she is living to fit in with society, and looking back at her is her true self and the person she wants to be in everyday life. We didn't know if this was possible, so we tested it out by filming the two people looking into the mirror, and then editing it on Final Cut by cropping the image so the two different pieces of footage fitted together to look like it all happened at once.

Creating a logo on Gimp - 18/11/11

This is my idea for the band's logo. I have been using Gimp to create the logo, I had some difficulties loading the images and putting the earth behind the 'O'. Once I got help off miss, I then worked out how to do it and continued to create the logo. I think it looks good as the Earth in the Orbit looks effect and relates as the Earth orbits the solar system. I think the font looks effective and it works well together.

Web Page Design - 11/11/11

Web Page Design

Final Music Video Idea - 09/11/11

These were our three main ideas for the storyline behind our video. We took small elements from all of these and we have come up with our final idea:

A girl is very popular in school and has a lot of friends. When she goes home she lives a different life and her persona and clothing changes. She tries to fit in with school life and the way the other students act and dress. In the mornings she has to get dressed up and ready for a school day of being a different person from her true self. During one of the mornings when getting ready, she see's the fake person she has to be in a mirror. She doesn't like this and smashes the mirror. The audience will see her leaving the house as the fake identity although the viewing audience know she isn't comfortable with this persoality, but when she arrives at school, she will be her true self and not be the fake person everyone wanted her to be.

Throughout the video we will show clips of this narrative, and then at other times we will show clips of the band recording the song in the studio as an element of performance.

Music Video Ideas - 03/11/11

As a group, we have narrowed the ideas down to a few different ones. Our main theme and idea is that a member of the group is different from the rest and they have two different / hidden identities. Based around this idea we thought about other things we could do...

1. Different colour person:
         This idea was created as the person who is a different colour could be the odd one out. They might come from a different social background and they are finding it hard to fit into the group, or they might just not be liked by the other members and therefore being singled out. This idea will show how they fit in with different social situations and different people.

2. Film someone filming a video shoot:
          This idea was a bit mind troubling at first, but once we discussed it, it was quite a good idea. We decided that the audience could see a video shoot being filmed. This would allow the audience to see the band creating the video, but also show how the one member isn't connecting with the others properly and how they are different on stage than in normal, every day life.

3. One member of the band wears a mask and has different faces for different emotions:
           This idea is again about hidden identity and how people are trying to 'mask' their selves. This allows them to hide behind what society and other people want you to be like.

4. Film the song being created within the studio:
            We thought about basing some of our video in the studio with the band creating and acting like they are writing the song. With this, the odd one out would be sitting back and not really getting involved unlike the other band members.

5. Film a member living their everyday, but different life:
           This idea would be based around two different stereotypes. The singled out band member would live a home life that is very different from the life they live with the band members and onstage. For Example: they might listen to pop and dance music when with the band members, but when they get home they might listen to emo music and be a very depressed person. That situation give you the idea of what this fifth video idea would entail.

Mood Board - 02/11/11

This is the mood board of images I created based around our chosen song and artist. It shows a variety of different feelings and emotions, but some of the main ones in which I have picked out are the isolation, sadness and the sense of feeling alone. Many of the images are sad, where people are sitting alone, standing alone and where the sky is grey and dreary. There is a similarity of dark skies, and cold, rainy weather. This could be a thing to consider when creating our videos. But on the opposite side, there are pictures of happiness and love / couples as there is a couple facing a sunset and a rose petal in the shape of a heart. There is a sense of trying to stand out with the 'orange' person being different and the arm with 'I want to be free'. Being together and as a unit is also apparent, by the two aeroplanes flying close to each other, the couple cuddling on the beach and almost the image of the sunset and moonlit sky belonging together.

From this, I feel we should use the darker skies and loneliness ideas when we are displaying our 'love lost' narrative, but then use the brighter and happier couples theme when the song picks up and all is sorted and okay. I think the sense of standing out and being different should also be very clear within our music video. I think that we almost need to show two sides to the character we are portraying in our video, as if they have a secret identity in which they hiding from society, but now trying to reveal and release their inner self. This relates to the image of the bright sunset, along side the dark, moonlit night as there are two different atmospheres working next to each other.

From looking at my other group member's mood boards, they have also picked up images of the sunset and couples being happy. This could be used as a strong theme for our video. There is also an old vintage kind of texture and a sense of hiding themselves through masks or not seeing their whole face. There is also evidence of sadness and isolation throughout the groups mood board.

Benefits and Risks of using the internet as a promotional tool - 14/10/11

Production Company & Band Name Ideas

Web Page COnvention Research - 14/10/11

Music Iconography - Logo & Font - 05/10/11

Music Iconography - Logo & Font

Music Artist Iconography - 30/09/11

Music Iconography Research

Genre Iconography - 30/09/11

Genre Iconography

Music Video Analysis

This is my Prezi Presentation I made today.

Representing the band - 22/09/11

Today the group looked at creating the portfolio and image for our band. The name was a problem at first as we couldn't think of a girl band name, but in the end we temporarily decided on Pure Orbit. We also decided that the group would have a smart casual look; either in jeans and t-shirts or casual dresses. Each member will be unique and they will have their own independent personalities rather than being 'one unit'. We decided on very neutral colours such as beige, cream, browns and blacks. These were decided as we feel they fit in with the slower, emotional song we have picked.

Music Video Research - 21/09/11

Today our group were looking at existing music videos by similar artists to the girl group we have decided to use; Girlicious. We looked at artists like The Saturdays, Destiny's Child, Pussy Cat Dolls, etc. We found out that most of these artists use similar conventions within their music videos. These common conventions were:
- Narrative (some kind of story within the video)
- Performance (this was mainly shots of the band rehearsing and performing)
- Dance (the girls in the videos were all good dancing and most of the moves were catchy and erotic)
- Slow Motion was used in most videos
- Very revealing outfits (we might challenge these conventions to stand out from the existing market)
- Walking towards camera (the artists were all seen walking to the camera throughout the videos)

This research helped us to decide whether we will challenge the conventions, but also what went into the typical girl band music video.

Using the YouTube statistics, we found out that the core audience for these music videos were Females aged 13-34. This helped us to realise who our core audience would be and therefore how to market and create our music video.

This is the track we are using for our music video: