Reflection on New Dance Footage

Unfortunately, after preparing for filming and getting completely ready, I was told by a security gaurd at focus that I wasn't allowed to film here as it was private property (apparently I had been lucky that noone was around the first time I filmed). Luckily, I had planned for this and so we used a different site which was only a couple of minute walk down the road and it worked out just as well.

 

 

My friend that did the dancing for me this time was such a good choice. She was a great dancer, looked great in the clothes and meant that I could move about the whole time I was filming to get some great tracking and panning shots. Even though I used the tripod last time so that I could position the camera how I wanted it, by holding the camera and being able to reposition it when filming my friend dancing I could get the precise framing that I had origionally wanted. This is an example below of one of the moves I wanted but in the video of myself, I had accidently cut my feet out of the shot but made sure I got them in when filming my friend as the point in the framing was to have a whole body shot.

From looking through the clips now I can already see that they will work better than the videos I had of myself dancing but I only realised these weren't exactly what I wanted when putting them into Premier Elements so I am eager to try them out.

THEORY REFERENCE
This section of footage worked perfectly for me. It helped my video meet Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory by showing a girl dancing and strutting around, a chance for the audience to enjoy her beauty and appreciate it. It also challenges Angela McRobbie's theory that women are always portrayed as being weak and quiet because this shows her as being confident and powerful, and aspirational image to attract the target audience of young girls and offer them a role model. The opposition of this footage against the shots I have of my artist singing fits into Laura Mulvey's theory that women are shown either with the Virgin image or Whore because my artist is shown in delicate, elegant clothes, peacfully enjoying her music where the dancer is dressed seductively and shown just as seductively dancing.

Reflections on New Song

After practicing with my sister with the new song and seeing how well she could remember the words, I eventually went back to the orgional song, On a Mission, as she has already become very used to the lyrics of this and will only need a few takes to get it all right.

I just need to make sure I cover every word of the song so I am not left with unneccisary gaps. I will be making sure that this time she moves a bit more and looks more comfortable as you could tell she was nervous in the first shoot from her stiffness.

Poster and Digipak - 1st DRAFT

Whilst deciding whether to change my song or not, I got started on my Digipak and Poster using Adobe InDesign. I was already farmiliar with this software from using it for my AS magazine project so found it easy to create what I wanted to. These were the first drafts I came up with in an hour to roughly plan what I want them to look like.

 

The Digipak I am the least happy with. I don't think it is lively enough for my target audience who I think would like bold colours and shapes from looking at Cher Lloyd's Swagger Jagger which has multiple shapes, colours and designs and the straight white box with black text doesn't fit into this effect. I am also considering changing the photo as, by using this one, her face is mostly covered by the text. The text was origionally supposed to frame her face in the bottom left corner but I haven't been able to do that with this photo. I like that in both photographs, my model is facing to the side, as if looking off into the distance. It gives the view of these images a sense of voyerism as they study and appreciate how pretty she is. 

 

 

I don't think I need to change much on my poster as I managed to acheive the effect I wanted. The stripes of text across the bottom of the screen frame the photo well. Similarly to how Vampire Weekend's poster highlights the model's face, mine highlights the top half of her body which includes a bare chest and beautiful face so again adds to the voyerism feel of the photograph. I chose this colour scheme purposely as the yellow matches the wall, blue matches her top and pink is girly so come together to look "pop"y professional, along with the professional pose and styling which come together in this poster to be exactly what I was hoping to acheive.

Reflection on Editing

Realising how difficult it was to make my sisters miming sync with the song, mainly because she didn't know the words, I decided to change the song to one she may find easier to memorise.

KATY B - EASY PLEASE ME

The one I have chosen is by the same artist so that the style remains the same and the target audience. It is the same tempo of song so I can use the same type of video, the same styling, the same digipak and poster ideas. I will be able to use some of the clips I have already taken that don't include her miming any words because I am still using the same idea. This will also give me and oppourtunity to film more clips of her in my favourite outift that I wished I had more shots of her in. By chosing this song which is a bit livelier than the first, it even more accurately fits the theme I wanted associated with my aritst.

My new song choice

Reflection on Premier Elements

The first time I used Premier Elements was when putting my video of my pitch together which gave me a chance to get used to the programme and practice cutting the different clips.
It was a completely different story when I then started editing my video as I then I had to take into account alot of other things, like it being in time to the song, the most difficult part being the syncronising of the lips to the words. I also then had to consider whether things looked good together, what order to put things in, what clips to choose over others, and regardless of the fact that I believe myself to be creative and know exactly what I want my video to look like, it is very difficult to make decisions about what to do next!

From this practice, I found that it would be a lot easier to already have chosen the best clips so that all I had to do was order them. I made folders named "Dance" for the clips of my dance shots, "Lyrics" for the shots in which my actress mimed words and named each clip after the words she said, and "Time Fillers" which mainly included shots of my actress walking which I will be using to fill time in which no lyrics are said and a dance clip has already been used.

I also learnt that I should have saved my video at various point along the way, naming them slightly differently when I thought what I may do next may completely ruin the video so that I could go back to the last saved point.

Poster Photo

Whilst filming, I also gathered some images for both the digipak, which were landscape, and the poster, which were portrait. My favourite photos for the poster are underneath but I was struggling to decide which to use so I weighed up the reasons for each.

 

 

The one in the middle was the one I chose to use. This is because I thought that the one to the left, although had the right composition with space to the right for writing text, looked more like something from a magazine. It was more personal, like a behind the scenes shot, but the poster is supposed to look professional. I loved the one to the right because I thought my model looked really nice but this had no particular composition and didn't leave the space I wanted on one side for the text of the poster.

The photo on the left, I think, would be better suited to a "behind the scenes" type of page, maybe an interview with the artist as it has a more personal feel, her feeling comfortable and relaxed as she talks to the interview and, in turn, the reader who may be one of her fans that are getting a chance to find out more about their favourite singer, this photo giving them a glimpse of what she would be like in every day life. The photo on the right may also work for this reason but I think looks more like a photo for a clothes shoot.

 

I think that the photo in the middle was the right choice as my model looks cool and calm, her clothes look fashionable, her face is pretty, and all of these elements add towards the image of the artist and her reputation of being an attractive young girl and give the target audience, which in this case is young girls, a role model or inspirational woman to look up to and aim to be like which is what this age group like to have. The leg against the wall adds attitude and works well with the video and digipak because they are all done in the same setting. The colours are vibrant in the background and match the greens, whites and yellow tints in her clothes, giving the photo a colourful, cheerful feel.

 

I am going to edit this photo to make it brighter and bring the saturation of the colours up so they are even bolder. I am going to airbrush her face to make it look clearer and more professional and also the wall behind as there are some large dirt marks. On top of that, I am going to change the composition by making the wall blurred in the background and slightly darker than my model to bring more attention to her and express the glow that I want the audience to feel coming off her, as it does in the video with her beautiful clothes contrasting to the ugly setting.

Initial Digipak Ideas

After seeing this album cover I decided this was the effect I wanted for my own digipak. It makes the artists name so bold and easy to read whilst at the same time also including her face. I think it looks so modern and matches her style of music which is punk, having a font that makes an impact and looks professional. The colour against the black and white photo makes the colour bold and therefore the album title "Pink" Friday stand out more.

 

I would similarly like to have the text overlapping a photo of my artist that is translucent so that you can see the image underneath. I am not going to have my photo in black and white as the key point of my branding is the many colours included and I would also like to have the text in various colours to add to this.

 

 

EXPERIMENTING

These are a few ideas I came up with just after looking at Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday album;

I was experimenting with the ways I could include a heart in the word. Origionally, as you can see in the top left corner, I wanted to use the heart instead of a B as I think that when it's tilted to the side it resembles the letter but when I asked my classmate what they saw, they didn't argee. Although my favourite of the 4 at the moment is the one in the bottom right corner, I don't think this one is the best idea as the line cuts through her face, making her fall even further into the background. But all in all, I love this general layout and the way the colours work together to acheive the exact look I was aiming for.




After reviewing these 4 ideas, I decided I wanted all the letters to be different colours instead of just pink. One reason for this was that I couldn't match the colour of the heart and the letters which, although looks good in number 2 because otherwise the heart would blend in, I don't like the effect it gives in the others, especially number 1 where the heart is supposed to be considered a letter too and therefore should be exactly the same colour. So I tried all of these 4 layouts again but instead used 3 or 4 colours and I think these were alot more successful and suitable because I wanted to include more colours in the first place, this way the image looks more vibrant and girly like most of the other digipaks by pop artists which are attractive to young girls who like them. I will be improving upon one of these ideas for my final idea.. which one it will be? I haven't decided yet..