Poppy's/Artist Reshoot

Today after school Aaron and Laxmi did a reshoot with Poppy for the artist, as the previous shoot did not go as well as expected and had a yellow filter over the footage. Before the shot began Laxmi was styling Poppy the she wanted her to look and portray and highlight she is a Pop artist. This was done through the use of make up and accessories, this can be seen in the footage as being effective to what we wanted her to look like, however this was probably the best outcome. When shooting instead of using one camera that we have previously done, before the shoot we discussed using three camera so we could get different angles but all from the same shot. However they only had accessibility to two cameras for when we needed to shoot so they overcame this and still had a half decent shoot.

Laxmi and Aaron feedback back to us in Wednesday's lesson the night after the shoot, they told me and Hayley that although the shoot went well for what it was worth that Poppy still was not a believable artist/performer and her acting/miming still looked faked and put on. We believe this is mainly down to her still not being able to learn the whole song so we cant do one take for the whole song making it easier to get in character. The song, 'Battlefield' is an emotional and passionate song about love and the pain and war it brings, and the performance when we went watched it back did not convince us of these feelings. The option we have considered is recasting for the artist, even though this is a situation we all feel uncomfortable to do but is seriously needed to meet deadlines and make this music video the best it can be.

Feedback on Second Screening

In Wednesday's lesson we presented are second screening of our music video so far  to the class and Sean. Before coming into the class we knew we did not have a lot of shots and that some of the artist (poppy) lip syncing was matched up right with the song. In addition the animatics was in the background of the video when it was playing. We also knew a prior the screening that we need to do some serious work on getting the video to best standard we can do, by shooting a lot more and spending my time on the video.

We got some feedback from Sean some of our fellow classmates on the video, here are two examples:

 

Planning the shoots



As in today's lesson we made a shot plan of when all of us could film in a week and when are two actors Poppy and Grace would be available. Laxmi did a colourful brainstorm of what specific days each individual could do, as a group we decided that for filming footage that there should be a minimum of " members of the group at the shoot alongside one of the actors. All of shoot times are based around when Grace and Poppy are available to perform/shoot.

 

In addition we made a production of log of when we are going to shoot in a calendar so we can easily write in who we are going to shoot and what day, so everyone can clearly see it. It has also been colour coordinated, so Grace's shoots are in yellow and Poppy's shoots are in pink. We have only planned the log up to end of January because we will not know that  far in advanced when people are free because of other commitments.

 



First Filming Session - Poppy

We planned are first filming session after school on a Wednesday. he plan was for to be with us so we could film parts of the artists section, which was of her miming to the song lyrics from the song, 'Battlefield'.

The media staff room we used to film the footage as we could not access the gallery in photography of drama hall because of other exams taking place. To control this situation affectively we used a white screen put in the staff room we could still film the footage needed. In addition we had a DSLR camera, 2 camera lenses, tripod and a studio lamp. Poppy was dressed in all white for her costume for the artist to connote white to innocence an purity of her being a young artist, also the clothing was tight fitting to create a sex appeal,'voyeurism'.

Laxmi was off sick when we filmed this first footage but she knew what we was planning to do and given ideas prior to this. Me and Hayley were directing Poppy on how to perform and telling her lyrics to sing at the right point. Aaron was controlling the camera and what different shots to take. The scenery for the shot was not ideal for what we had planned and we all knew the footage would not be included in our final video, it was just purely test shots so we could develop and learn from this experience.

NEW DIGIPAK

After the feedback from my previous Digipaki knew I wanted to create a theme for my digipak using the woodlands pictures of the artist.

 I began by recreating my digipak by uploading my front cover image of the artist as this is still my favourtie on to the digpak template, this was a starting point for me. Also i found one other blank white wall photo shoot portrait of the artist to use as an extra panel image that fits in well. The struggle I had was finding 2 pictures that i wanted and would work within the digipak that were from the woodland shot, however i found 2 that I believe are beautiful shots and amplify the genre not as obvious as the first digipak but more low key and less in your face. The pictures still show innocence because she is a young artist but they also have a sex appeal because of her facial expressions she is pulling. Furthermore you could relate the digipak of the autumn theme with the soft pink colours to the Pop genre.

In additon I personally liked the extra social media links and the setting out of all the typography so i kept the layout of it the same but i wanted a new font. In addition I had used, 'Da Font' for my previous text for the artist and the album title etc, but I wanted something my delicate and girly, I found one called 'Piedrita'. I believe this really works well with my theme for the digipak and i kept the colour pink and white scheme for the typography as same as the original. 

The 2 CDs for the album have been similiary designed to the original digipak with the CD having the autumn leaves on it then that being the background for the bonus disc and the same again etc. I believe that the autumn leaves works with the leaves in the backgroudn of the 2 woodland shots with the artist in.I have yet still to make a lyric booklet but i have the front cover of it on the digipak with Isabel's face but i know I am going to have the pink watercolour background with the lyrics in white writing over it in the same font as the rest of the digipak.

Second Draft of Digipak

This is a few images of my first experiments of my first digipak draft with the new pictures we took of Poppy for our artist, Isabel Beau. 

I have aimed for the theme for the digipak to be pink and black to keep with the Pop genre conventions of a female being related to the colour pink. Also the images are mostly close ups and mid shots which are included on 4 panels of the digipak. I decided to use two sets of photo shots combined into this one digipak to see show her outfits and her with make up and no make up. I believe that this works well with the two outfits which is stereotypical for a female Pop artist to be fashionable. Furthermore the typography from, 'Da Font' for the artist name and the album title i downloaded on to photoshop and used it, 'Roboto' and 'DaddysGirl'. 

I decided to add pink and black glitter into the digipak to make it more appealing and fit with the Pop genre conventions, i used the pink glitter for the album CD and the black glitter for the bonus CD cover. Also this co-ordinates with the colour of the typography for the album. I decided to add social media links on to the back cover of the album and a website link for Isabel Beau, this is so she can connect with her fans and people can get to know her because she is a young Pop artist. 

In addition I added black and pink glitter to the background of the CDs and switched them over to keep the co-ordination going on between the two colours. I changed the light pink typography to dark pink so it would stand out against the panel pictures more clearly. Throughout the digipak creation process I struggled to decided on the spine colour I begun with pink glitter, however I finally went with the choice of black glitter for the spine. I changed the album name, 'Uncovered' from black to white, so this would be more striking on against the black glitter and would make it able to work. 

      

My Own Photo Shoot

For my photography I am doing my current unit on portraiture, I believe some of the portraits i took would work well for my digipak. The photos are still in a studio set with the white backdrop, however the costume and the make up are different showing a more vast range of looks of her. Also this abides by the Pop genre conventions of the record label wanting the artist to be clearly seen and of what they look like. 

Furthermore I believe the natural make up in these photos work better so I don't have to edit her skin to much like the other photo shoot photos. I am going to use 2 photos from my original photo shoot with her and then 2 photos from this shoot. Also I think these pictures show her innocent and young side more showing her personality clearly to her fans and the public. Where as the other photos with the white lace top showing her in a sexual light, voyeurism to appeal to a male audience. 

First Draft of Digipak

This is my first draft of my digipak, it is a basic digipak with just the pictures included. These pictures are from the first test shoot we did for our digiapk before we changed our artist. I selected my favourite images that I believe had the best quality and fitted the Pop genre the best, I then added this to a internet template of a digipak. 

With this digipak draft I wanted to see if I wanted my digipak to be either in colour or in black & white. This is because one of our main influences Pixie Lott has one of her albums in black & white, but in general pop albums are usual are in bight colours. I wanted to make some link to our music video because this can be seen in albums such as Rihanna's 'Loud' which has a similar design to her song released from the album, 'Only girl in the world'. With all this in mind looking at this digipak i will most likely just have the album all in colour to connect more to the Pop genre and appeal to the target audience so it stands out and attracts the young female audience more. 

In addition I am not going to use any of these images in my final digipak design because of us changing our artist. However but from creating this has helped me know what type of poses and shots I want to be included on my digiapk. Also when I take the photos I can be more refined and specific with the shoot.

Feedback for Pitch

We got mixed feedback from our pitch presentation last Wednesday but the majority was positive. Some of the positive feedback back was about:

• the video has potential
• who the artist is
• use of terminology

However we also had some constructive criticism on our pitch but we took this positively and now believe as a group we can build on this and focus on certain parts to improve them as much as we can. The bad points were made about:

• the narrative being slightly confusing
• no storyboard or mood board ( even though we had them finished - forgot to use them)
• no animatic
• what the artist look liked

These are a few of the feedback sheets our fellow classmates and our teacher Sean filled out during our pitch and what we are using to improve our artist and music video.

New Artist Digipak Photo Shoot

Friday after school we planned a digipak shoot after school to get some photos of our new artist who is modelled by Poppy. We need to get some basic pictures to show who are artist is in our audience profile and some ones to include on our digipaks. I believe some good shots were taken, however the costume for the shoot us as a group believed didn't not amplify the Pop genre that we wanted. This is due to the costume being mostly black and black connotes dark and evil feelings which would fit with more a more Indie artist than Pop.

We came up with two options to recertify this the first being, to edit the clothes in Photoshop to bright colours such as pink etc. Also we have now planned another photo shoot to do in the gallery to get some more simple background shots for the digipak. This will be alongside the digipak photos we are going to take in Greenwich. 

New Location/Reshoot for Digipak

When looking to do a shoot for our digipak at Notting Hill we didn't really have any idea how to get there or how long it would take. After researching where about specifically it was we found it out it would take us over an hour and a half away from where we all live in Welling. It would be awkward travelling with the tripod and paying for travel for Poppy to come along with us to do the shoot, we found from our teacher that in Blackheath which is 20 minutes maximum away there are pastel coloured houses there also. 

We have made a final decision to do a photo shoot for our digipak at Blackheath, Dacre Park in the next coming weeks so we can also begin to create our digipak. This also has various coloured houses but not as many as Notting Hill, however there are more benefits to shooting here, such as : travelling and accessibility. With it only being 20 minutes away from where we all live it is a perfect location to use for our digipak. I believe with the right day scheduled where there will be bright sun and no dark sky we can get some really high quality and interesting photos. 

These are some street view screenshots of, Dacre Park where we are going to set up our shoot for our digipak. Also if these photos don't turn out the way we want them to with have a last option location which is in Greenwich.

Script for The Pitch

In today's lesson after Laxmi created the script for us to read alongside our PowerPoint presentation for our pitch on Monday, we decided who would be reading certain parts of the PowerPoint with the hand out to read from.

I have three slides to talk about we all divided the pitch up separately so everyone has an equal and talk about our artist and digipak. My first slide to talk about is the concept for the digipak this going to give our fellow students and teacher who are artist is and some brief information about her, such as: fashion, career so far and the reason for her album. Also the second slide tells the audience the narrative for the music video. Finally my final slide of the pitch that I am sharing with the audience is about why we have chosen that certain narrative and how it will connect with her fans/target audience.

Storyboard - Music Video

In Wednesday's lesson me and my group started to begin our storyboard for our music video. We had the music video up for the song so we could listen to it while creating certain scenes and shots, also we had the lyrics up also. This was because we were using Goodwin's theory of their being a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this is not in all parts of the music video but in some shots. Also we used the song playing alongside so we could match the beat of the song to create emotions and build up.

We finally finished are first draft of our storyboard for the music video with annotations and drawings. In addition we have used timings slot from the actual song found next to certain shots/parts of the music video, this is so we know when we want specific things to be shown, start and end. The lyrics to relate to the visuals on the screen are also included on the storyboard.  This is only are first draft for our music video so the drawings are very basic and some parts of what we are going to include in the music video are still a bit faint, however we have a structured narrative for the music video and know what we want to show the audience, through the young ballet dancer and the artist performing in the video.

Test shoot for Digipak

Through are group chat using the social media website, Facebook with planned a test shot to take place at a local park which was close to all of us, Danson Park. More specifically we wanted to take the digipak test shots in the 'Rose Garden' within Danson Park which is a small garden with pathways and a range of lowers and trees that are well looked after. We believed this would make a perfect and ideal setting for our test shots because of the colourful flowers and beautiful backdrop. Also prior to turning up on location I sent images of outfit opitons to my group of what I should wear and we agreed on this outfit(right) to be the outfit for the shoot. However we decided to change the heels for converse, this was due to that we felt the converse made her more young and appeal to our target audience more.

Whilst the shoot was taking place we all had roles to fulfil, my roles was to be the artist, Isabel Beau for her album, Aaron was mostly in charge of photography but also Laxmi took some shots. Hayley and Laxmi were the stylist for topping up make up and thinking of poses for the different photos. We took over 300 photos in different locations and different places within in the 'Rose Garden' these included: closes up, mid shots, wide shots and long shots etc. In addition whilst showing her to be a young and bubbly Pop artist we also wanted to create in some shots, 'voyeurism' for men to appeal to look at her because this is seen in the majority of Pop albums such as: Rihanna, Beyonce and Pixie Lott.
Below are some of my favourite images from the shot:

 

Production Log

We had 4 categories to plan for for our photo shoot for our digipak photos
which were: location,actors,costume and checklist. Also in half - term this is when when we actually will be taking the photos to included on are digipak.

Location

1. Drama Hall - We can use the drama hall which is big black room based in our school to use for our photo shoot because there is access to lighting equipment which we can make spotlights to keep with the theme for our music video of dance. On Monday after school we have decided to go to the drama hall and do a test shoot of pictures and concepts we can use for our digipak.
2. Gallery - In addition another location we can use for our actual photos is the, gallery which is a white room with natural lighting and we can use are own in the space. This would enable us to take pictures of the artist against the white background, so the primary focus would be on her which is genre characteristic of the Pop genre.

Actress/Artist

• I have been chosen to be the actor for the photo shoot this is because when we need to go to shoots and plan we don't have to comprise as much, given us more flexibility.

Costumes

• As a group we are unsure on the specific outfits we are going to use for the various photo shoots but I am going to get some outfits out go ether that are bright coloured and girly, which is stereotypically of the Pop genre. I am then going to bring the pictures of the selected outfits in on Monday and share them with the group and then chose the outfits from what i have.

Green Screen - Katy Perry Digipak Analysis

In Friday's lesson I filmed and uploaded my green screen of me verbally analysing Katy Perry's digipak(Pop genre) from the power point i had previously created. Also from learning how to work and produce a green screen I feel i have gained another skill and I think this will be helpful in some aspects of our music video when producing it.

This is the original recording of my digipak analysis that i did with my group i only decided to speak about Katy Perry's digipak as i felt i a lot to say about it and the comments i made were of a better quality than the others from the Pop genre.In addition after uploading this recording i uploaded it to Final Cut Pro were i began to edit the video and place a picture of Katy Perry's digipak as the background.Moreover l had to move myself into the bottom right hand corner as the picture covered the whole background and i was covering half of it. I ave learnt for my next experience with using a green screen that i need to position myself more to the side of screen and put the camera at a further distance.

Idea for Music Video

We had a group discussion today with a new addition to our group, Aaron we started to speak about the song and the majority of the group including myself did not think the song would work well in creating a music video because of the lyrics. The first idea for our song choice was, T-shirt by Shontelle however now we have made the change to,Battlefield by Jordan Sparks who is still a female pop artist from this song change ideas started developing for our music video.

Moreover the main concept for the narrative of the music video is to with a ballet dancer,which also keeps with the genre of pop that most videos include dancing. The idea is that a young girl who loves ballet uses her dance to overcome from her battling home life where her parents constantly argue and are upset and dancing is her escape to be free from all of this. Also it will include shots and scenes of struggle from the young girl when she is at her dance shows and rehearsal and her parents don't attend and this shows in her dancing. In addition it will be set in various locations such as: a dance studio,theatre,bedroom and street views this will create a raw emotional video that shows her story which is also told in the lyrics of the song.

This is our song for our music video, Jordan Sparks - Battlefield.

In addition we looked at 2 music videos that went with two songs by Pixie Lott who we believe are artist, Izabel beau is similar to, first of all by the songs they write and produce but also their look and style. The two songs are, Gravity and Broken Arrow which both include dancing in them, this also supports are choice to include dance as main theme of our music video. 

Analysis of Jay-Z's '99 Problems' Music Video

In lesson we looked Jay - Z's '99 Problems' music video and looked at 7 categories to look at when watching the video:

Textual Analysis: Music Video

• Summarise denotation - use of performance,narrative and other visual elements
• Genre characteristics - Goodwin's theory
• Cinematography
• Mise-en-Scene
• Editing
• Notion of Looking
• Inter-textual referencing

99 Problems - Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter, known by his stage name as Jay-Z, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists in America and his smash hit single, '99 Problems' was released in 2004 which really began his career as an artist.

The hip-hop genre that Jay-Z is related is usually seen to be a 'thug life' and this is shown in the music video. The images of graffiti,police,criminals,baseball caps and baggy jeans are all stereotypically items and the way they dressed are all closely associated with rap artists given them their style. In addition, the black and white edit of the video represents a ghetto style like in old New York films, however in this video it is opposing the usual romantic connotation of black and white film because the video is more street based and stereotypically to the Rap genre.

 Moreover the derogatory treatment of women be referred to as, 'bitch' and the close up shots in the video of women dressed in bikinis is typical of a rap video of making women something to be looked at in a sexual way, 'voyeurism'. However the word the 'bitch', can be seen to refer to the dogs in the video, when the dog fighting is taking place.  Also the setting of the video is set in Brooklyn,New York which is known for it to be run down and associated with violence and break/street dancing and this is shown also in the video and in the lyrics Jay - Z raps.

The wide angle and close up shots in the setting of the record shop are repeated throughout the video, it shows the old school music style he might use and his music and the musical integrity in his lyrics and also shows this through the scenes in the video.
In addition the low angle shots of Jay-Z give him power and authority because the viewer is looking up at him to show he has gained this through his music. Also the fast pace editing of music video supports the  beat of the song but also the narrative that he is trying to create of it being a story to tell and a lot has happened for him to be at the position he is now. This can also be seen at the beginning of the video when the camera is from his point of view when he walks up the stairs but never gets there showing his story of how he got to the top.
In the video there is inter-textual referencing to,'Rick Ruben' who is included alongside Jay-Z in the video because he is the founder of Def Jam Records and produced this video. Moreover the recurring use of 'diamonds' seen in jewelery shown in the video is reference to, 'Roc Nation' because he is the found of 'Roc Nation Sports'.

Major vs Independent Record Label

In today's lesson we looked at Record Labels.This is a PowerPoint identifying what a record label is and the difference between a major and independent label.

Moreover when thinking about our female pop artist, i believe they would be signed to a Major Record Label such as, Universal or Sony Music. I believe this because the music they will produce will be mainstream and this is the type of music major record labels produce and support. More specifically i think they would be signed to a division within Universal Music Group which is, 'Interscope Records' because the type of female artist we are aiming for is similar to Pixie Lott and EllieGoulding which are both signed to this label.