Bloopers

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Magazine Advert Construction

Final Cut Construction

Constructing the final cut of our music video was the longest part of the whole process, once we had done our filming we took all of the footage to our computer and looked through it all, we organised it and named all of the shots that we wanted to use and this was a long process which took us about 3 hours. Once we had finally decided what shots we were going to use we imported them into Final Cut Express so that we could edit our final music video.

 The first shots that we put in were the verses, this is because we wanted the verses to have a lot of shots of the whole band so that you could see them all contributing and you could see the lead singer miming accurately to the words. We didn't want to just have one shot of the band throughout the whole of the verse so we also put in close ups of the guitar and the drums to make it more interesting. When we found it hard to fill a part of the song we left it blank, like shown above, this is so that we could get as much done of the video as we could then we could go back to the blank parts later and fill them in with appropriate shots that would fit in.

 A really tedious part of the editing process was waiting for the shots to render, this really slowed down the whole video making because we would have to wait for 5 minutes per shot usually, as well as this, if you rendered a shot, then decided to make it a tiny bit longer or put a slow motion effect on it would would have to AGAIN wait for it to render, this meant that we were spending about 6-7 minutes per shot making sure it was perfectly placed in the sequence.

 Another part of the process that we found difficult and time consuming was the testing of shots, we could see exactly how the shot would look against the song until we actually put it in final cut and placed it, it was only then that we started noticing things in the background like doors so we would have to either delete that shot or make it short, if the lip syncing was even a second off then it was really difficult to edit it into the song so when filming we had to make sure it was perfect and if it wasn't then we re-shot, we ensured that out lead singer knew the words and wrote them on a white board and put it behind the camera just in case he needed prompting, I think that it is for this reason that the lip syncing in our final cut is so much better than what was in our rough cut.

 Once we got about half way through making our video, we decided to put in the ending before finishing it, this is because we could then see how our video was going to end so we could build a climax at the end of our video leading up to the finale so we planned what shots we were going to use accordingly.



Once we had done the verses and put in the ending we filled in the chorus', we wanted to feature the majority of our close ups in the chorus' because we feel like that is when our song was the most exciting so we wanted to use the close ups to emphasise this so we used close ups if the lead singer, guitar being played and the drums being played, when editing we made sure that the instruments fitted in well with the song and looked like they were actually being played so that our music video would look more authentic.


 Once we had finally finished our music video we converted it using quick time conversion, we did this so that our music video would be in a format that could be uploaded to Youtube and then put on our blog as opposed to just posting a link, converting our music video took a really long time, about an hour, so when it was done we were anxious to just put it on Youtube and get it posted onto our blog.


The next, and final step was to upload our video to Youtube, this as well took a really long time and we had a few moments when we thought that it just wasn't going to work and we would have to find another way to put it on our blog, however, thankfully it eventually uploaded and we were able to get the embed code and post it on our blog.

Album Cover Construction

This is the raw photograph that we have taken for the front cover of our album, we knew that we wanted to cut around the outline of our model - using the magnetic tool - and put her on a completely different background so we didnt worry too much about the surrounding area of the photo. We chose this outfit for our model because we thought that the simple black and white colours would not distract attention from the main feature of the photograph which is the lightbulb head.


After cutting out our model and placing her on a different background (a temporary background which allowed us to focus on getting the image of the person just right) we added an effect which made the photograph look as though it was painted, we rubbed out her head and replaced it with a picture of a lightbulb which we also added the effect to. We hope that this effect makes the image look as though it was painted which would add more of an artistic element to it, and seeing as a lot of album covers feature artwork we hope that it makes it look authentic. We replaced our models head with a lightbulb to compliment the title of the album which is 'torches,' we plan to carry on this theme throughout our other three panels and feature different photographs of different sources of light

 We experimented with a variety of different effects to see which would look best on our picture, and when we settled on the 'paint daubs' effect we tried our different strengths to see which would look the most effective. We didnt like the strenght that is shown here because we think it takes the 'look like its painted' element away and you lose a lot of the details of the photo so we lowered the strentgth.

 We changed the background to a simple beige colour and then added a border so that when we moved the overall image onto the black background, there would be a barrier between the two squares. We first tried the border in white but when we put the whole image onto the black background you couldnt really see it very well so we changed the colour of it to burgandy.

Once we changed the colour of the border, we linked all of the layers together and moved the image onto a black background and centered it, we then added the writing onto our cover, the name of the band at the top and the title of the album at the bottom. Luckily, when we went onto the website 'dafont.com' looking for a font and we found a font called pumped up kicks, so obviously we used it because it is exactly what we need to make our cover look authentic.

If we compare the final front cover of our album to the flat plan that we produced, you can see that we have stayed true to our plan and they look exactly alike. The flat plan has helped us figure out what we were going to do which made actually putting the cover together easier and quicker than it would have been without the flat plan.



Inside Left Cover...

This is the raw photo that we have used for our inside left cover, using the magnetic tool I cut around the hand so that I could transfer it onto a black background, the aim of this picture is to follow the theme of humans as sources of light, not literally but metaphorically, we want to add artificial light to different body parts so that if compliments the name of the album.

Once I transferred the image of the hand onto the black background, I added an effect that would make the image look like it was drawn, the effect was called 'rough pastels,' I made the strength of this effect quite high so that it can be seen easily that it is supposed to look drawn, I centered the image in the frame so that it is the main attraction of the picture.

Next I used the magnetic tool again to cut round the flame of this photograph that I took, once I had done that I added the same effect that I had put on the picture of the hand so that the flame would look as though it was drawn aswell, I then transferred the image onto the file with the hand and positioned it on top of the index finger so that it would look like there was a flame coming out of the hand.

Once we had added the flame onto the finger all we had to do was position it and add a drop shadow so that it looked like it was actually coming out of the finger. I added a film grain effect to the background of the picture because the flat black made the whole image look like it had been edited where as the slight effect to the background makes it look more authentic and like it could exist in the real media world.




Back Cover... 

  To create the back cover for our album I simply got a black background on Photoshop and used the text tool to add the track list onto the background. I chose to do the writing in white so that it would compliment the background and because the writing on the other panels of the album is also white so this reinforces the house style of it. I also used an image of a barcode and put it in the bottom left hand corner to make it look authentic. As well as this, i used the text tool again to write the Foster the People website and put it at the bottom of the case, this is conventional of album covers; the majority of them feature this. The font that we used was the 'Pumped Up Kicks' font, we used this because it is the same font that we have featured on the cover of the album.

I used this logo of 'Star Time Entertainment' and put it next to the barcode at the bottom of the cover. This makes the overall image look like it could exist in the real media world because it has the logo of the publisher. Without having a logo on the cover it would take away the professional element that we have aimed to achieve when creating our digipak.
 






 Creating the spine of the cover was actually quite easy, all we needed was a black column that we could add the band name and the album name to as well as the catalogue number.

Equipment

Final Cut Filming Schedule

  We learnt from the filming of our rough cut, that when we filmed our final cut we needed to be more organised in order to get the shots that we needed quickly and easily. We have made a list so that we can tick off when we have filmed certain shots so that we leave knowing that we have all the shots that we need and havent forgotten anything. We have given a copy of this list to our actors so that everyone knows what we will be shooting and when, we have two cameras so that we can film more than one person at the same time.

This is what we plan to do and when, we have borrowed lighting from our friend so that our video will be professionally lit. We have allowed time for our band to practice what they are going to do, get dressed and look over the lyrics again so that the miming is perfect, this allows us to go into our location and get filming straight away.


I have planned how our video is going to be edited exactly so that we can go into the filming knowing exactly what our video is going to look like from the footage that we gain, this also allows me to make sure that we get all the shots that we need.

The schedule and editing list has allowed us to be more organised with our filming - which admittedly we weren't when filming our rough cut. The list of where all our footage is going to go in our video and how long the shot will be will allow us to put all the footage on the timeline easily, almost like knowing where all the pieces of the puzzle go, and just having to actually fit them together.

Rough Cut Construction

We did the first but of filming for our media video yesterday, and are currently in the process of editing our video, we shot the performance part of our music video and here are some pictures of how it all went...

We used a projector to put the 'Foster the People' image onto the back curtain, we were going to buy a white bedsheet and paint on it but we figured that it would be cheaper and more effective if we used the projector because it would also light the stage a bit

We have used Final Cut Express to edit our video, we have used the speed control to add slow motion in our video and used the desaturate tool to make some of our footage black and white. Final cut has allowed us to ensure that our video is precisely timed and all the cuts are made on the beats and the miming is believable.

We borrowed a drum kit, microphones, a keyboard, a guitar and wires from the music department at our school and set them up for our music video, we used coloured lights that shon onto the stage which, we think, made the band look as though it could have been playing in a club

We asked our band to do a practice run before we started filming - especially our drummer - because he is an actual drummer so we wanted him to get the beats so that we could match them with the song easily whilst editing our video

The desaturate tool allowed us to make the middle section of our video black and white. We did this so that it would clearly separate the performance side of the video and the story side, this is the only 'story based' element of our music video and doesnt last very long but we wanted it to look like they were turning up to the venue.

 To create what we have of our music video we used:

• A tripod
• 2 camera's
• A projector
• A drum kit, guitar, keyboard, microphone and speakers
• A sound system
• Final Cut Express
• Youtube