AY: Print work so far

 

Above is an image of my print work so far however I am planning on adding in the album name and a possible date which promotes the release of the album.



Group Reflection Post 28.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Today Alex and Dan continued with their print work, Dan imported a new image to use on the inside cover of the digipak of a residential street. In black and white the photo looks very visually arresting, and is a representation of the band name 'the neighbourhood'. Alex continued with her print work, she darkened the back image and continued using the burn tool to import her 'alter self'. Harry continued with editing using the Active Camera effect on adobe premier to create a slow zoom on the 'head wobble' shot, this was really effective and makes the shot look more interesting which was part of our feedback from our rough cut.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

The music for the video keeps cutting out, it plays at points however it doesn't play all the way through which is a continued problem when it comes to editing the footage to the music.

Group Reflection Post 26.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Today Dan continued with editing, making alterations after our feedback from our rough cut he altered the final reverse sequence as well as the scream and the final shot of the text. We discussed as a group potential ideas for the scream shot to make it more interesting, we came up with a number of ideas such as an 'X-ray' colour effect on it or a zoom out of the face if we have a zoom in on the shot before it. Harry continued with blog work. While Alex continued with print work, finalising her spread and using Photoshop CS3 to alter some new images and ideas.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

We had problems with premier as we wanted to make the text at the end bigger however at a certain point it disappeared and we don't know why,

Group: Rough Cut Analysis

 

Rough Cut

 

 

Feedback:

- Some of the shots are too long, they need to be edited tighter
- For the reverse sequence at the climax we should choose more precisely the shots we use, the lip syncing for example doesn't look right in reverse
- Something else needs to happen with the scream, its too long and there needs to be some movement or action
- The bench shot in the second chorus should be shorter, its not visually arresting enough
- The shot at the house when Dan walks out the house needs to be cut, he lingers at the door for too long

Solutions:

- We will go back through all of our footage and re-edit to make it tighter and more professional looking
- We will put in more filler shots to break up some of the longer footage, this will make it more visually interesting
- The 'head wobble' shot before the scream will have a slow zoom on Dan's face to keep the footage moving
- We have a number of ideas to improve the scream, we are thinking of putting an X-ray colour effect on the shot or maybe having the face shatter after a zoom out
- We have cut the shot where Dan coms out the house and have lengthened an earlier shot which we really like

AY: Printwork Process - Combining two images



After removing the background from the image of myself facing the camera, I scaled the image down to an appropriate size and blurred over the image using the blur tool as shown to the right. As well as this I added a dark glow around the figure and a drop shadow to make it look more real.

I then took the original image and pasted the layer into the other document and put it underneath the layer of the lone figure to make it look like they are staring at eachother.

DW: Digipak Photos

The two above images I took this weekend and intend to use them in the digipak. The first image will be used as the back cover. To edit it, I selected an area around the sun using the lasso tool which was feathered at 250px. I then inversed this selection so that I could change the lighting of the surrounding area with the curves. Then, using the channel mixer, I put the image in to monochrome and then edited the RGB levels.
The same technique was used for the tree image, except I purposefully lowered the levels of blue in the image as the sky was too powerful. This image may or may not be used for one of the inside covers; at present another sunset shot is being used in its place but, seeing as it is a screenshot from one of our filler shots, it would be better to have a full quality image such as this.

Here is how the digipak looks with these two images applied:

Group Reflection Post 21.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Today Dan was absent so Harry and Alex continued with the print work and editing process. Harry continued with the print work for the magazine spread using Photoshop CS3, he added some text to the bottom using our common font for all the print work. He also added the bands logo to the bottom to make it seem more like a magazine spread than a poster, to do this he used the screening effect on the layer to make sure it fitted with the background. Alex continued with the editing process adding jump cuts to the post - chorus section, as well as using time stretching.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

We had a couple of technical problems accessing the hard drive within the computer however this was soon sorted. Harry had trouble finding the correct font to use so that our print work has some uniformity.

Group: Refelection Post 20/11/13

In the lesson today, Harry experimented with curves, the channel mixer and the gradient tool, alongside refine edges of selection to place a second image within the image. Alex continued her draft of the printwork, trying to combine two images together in preparation for the actual shoot. Dan continued editing the video, editing the chorus and some of the pre-chorus elements.

HW: Mock-Up Analysis

Group Reflection Post 19.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Today all of the group worked on the print work analysis, improving or tweaking certain aspects of it. We found that our analysis lacked depth and critical theory so changes needed to be made. As well as this Dan continued with the editing process, working on the chorus sequence with the re-filmed footage (now in focus) and the new concept idea. We also added the new footage onto the timeline from our most recent shoot, Dan added the scream and the 'head wobble' sequence which are a great improvement from our previous attempt at this sequence in the drama studio. Overall we are making good progress with the editing, we have all the footage shot and we have about half of the timeline filled. For the rest of this week we will continue the editing and make sure we have our print work finished.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

Our print work analysis wasn't detailed enough so that had to be edited. We also had problems with the 'head wobble' sequence, the lighting made it difficult to see Dan's face behind the other faint shot. We overcame this problem by lowering the opacity of the clip on top, it was easier to see Dan's face once we had done this. 

 

AY: Printwork Process - Removing the background

To isolate the image of me facing the camera, I opened it up in photoshop and created a mask of the layer by dragging it onto the icon circled below.

I then selected the brush tool and ensured that it was drawing with the black colour selected so that it would remove the background when I drew around myself.







AY: Magazine Advert - Mock

DW: The Neighbourhood Tour Posters

Whilst looking online I managed to find some tour posters that already exist from previous NBHD tours. Thought they may be of interest:

DW: Digipak Mock - Analysis

 

HW: Shoot 4 Reflection Post

What Did You Achieve?

On Saturday 16th the whole group filmed the rest of the footage required to finish our production, the shoot went well with perfect lighting and filming conditions. We initially re-shot our footage for the chorus in Grosvenor park using the same two benches we did before, however we are altering our idea for those sections so we changed what we filmed with Dan in different positions and places than before and also made sure that it was focused properly. After that we went to Brenchley to film the rest of our footage, in our alleyway location we filmed a number of fillers and shot the final section of the video where the character slumps down onto a wall and sees his other self approach into focus. We also filmed the progressive zoom out of Dan holding the board with the logo on it, for these we decided to use of number of jump cuts using pictures rather than actual footage except for the final shot where he says the lyric. With the road location and the lighting the shot came out very well, we took a couple of pictures to use for print work using the signature logo and Dan as the main character.   

What Problems Did You Encounter?

We had a couple of problems with SD cards, we had to borrow a 2GB SD card as Harry forgot the 32GB one for the Grosvenor shoot. This 2GB card kept on stopping filming due to unknown reasons so we had to work around that. We also had a number of obstacles for our slow zoom out idea, we originally wanted to use chalk or spray paint on a wall or the floor however the chalk didn't come out well enough so we decided to revert back to our original idea of Dan holding a wooden board with a spray painted logo (as seen above).

 

Group: Reflection Post 18.11.13

In today's lesson Harry continued with his print work by editing the pictures that we took on our shot on Saturday. Unfortunately our main computer which we are using for editing continually crashed whilst we were trying to load our footage onto Premiere and as a result of this Dan was un able to edit any of our footage from Saturday. As I have had less experience with the Photoshop programme, Dan helped me to edit my image and showed me the tools to use to achieve certain effects. This was really useful and means that when I come to edit our real photograph I will know exactly what to do. Our targets for next lesson are to get our rough and annotated drafts of our print work onto the blog and collect more images which we could use for the print work. Below is a screen shot of my image being edited on Photoshop.

 

 

 

AY: Rough Draft of Magazine Advert

 

 

 



Above is a rough draft of our original idea for the piece of print which would run as a magazine advert to promote the bands tour. The absence of the band members is in keeping with other examples of print work related to the band as they usually have abstract images and shapes. I have kept the colour scheme as black and white as it is a common theme throughout their music videos and print work alike. Having said this I would like to use photoshop to change the colour of a single object for example the girls hair or t-shirt to try and create connotations with the band image. The location used in the above photograph is very authentic and natural connoting the bands artistic attributes and also creating the idea of freedom. There are many links to the video both visually and conceptually for example the girl in the picture seems vulnerable as she is alone looking out over an empty field much the same as the man in our video who is driven mad by his loneliness. The establishes ideolies linked with mental disabilities and is a portrayal of how these people 'suffer in silence' and are sometimes looked down upon from the puiblic.

Group: Concept Development

We have decided to, instead of using a board for the logos in the slow zoom out sequence, use chalk and draw the logos on the floor - one for each section we intended to use the slow zoom. On the final, the camera will tilt up and Dan will say the final lyric of the song. This will change our digipak front cover, in that now instead of the one used on the mock up, it will be a photo during the drawing of the last logo, the house. The reason we decided to do this, is that it had been noted that a broken zoom can frustrate an audience as they spend the entirety of the video wondering what the outcome of the zoom is going to be. Also having the logos drawn there and then is more visually interesting and then when played in reverse once the video is through, the logos will disappear having connotations of a lost mind.

Group: Rough Chorus

Here is one of the choruses shot today; it's rough and perhaps a little out of sync but it gives an idea on how it is going to look.

DW: Magazine Advertisement Idea

Although doing the digipak, whilst walking home I took this photo and added the text as a possible ad idea. I shall bring all the images in so a group decision can be made; but I think this may work.

Group Reflection Post: 14.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Without Alex present, Dan and Harry continued with the editing process. We worked on the sequence for the chorus which included layering shots over each other of the character in and around a bench. However we were unable to collectively work out how to do this in premiere, it can only be done in after effects and is a very time consuming process. So we decided instead to have a number of matched cuts and have the character sitting on the bench in most of the sequence but we cut away to him sitting at different points of the bench, this gave the impression of mental instability and also portrayed the idea that he had been at this location for a long time. This is different to the original plan however it is just as visually compelling and wont take away from the overall aesthetic and look of the piece. As well as this Harry worked on the blog, highlighting key terms and generally formatting the posts to create an overall uniformity.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

Our primary problems lay with trying to layer the shots over each other, we tried using a sixteen point garbage matte however this fell apart when he walked through the clip as he covered the other character on the bench and the idea didn't work. We tried a number of other techniques including altering the opacity of the clip but none of these were ultimately successful so we had to change our idea. We also noticed that our sequence of clips in the other bench location were noticeably out of focus, so we have decided to re-film these clips using a manual focus rather than auto focus to get the sharpness that our other footage possesses.

Group Reflection Post: 13.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Without Dan here Alex and Harry continued with print work for the first stages of the lesson, Alex continued to get feedback for her print work which included a band aesthetic magazine spread. Alex looked at lots of magazine samples to get inspiration for her own print work, and continued to develop her piece using Photoshop. Harry continued with the editing process, working on the chorus sequence and inputting various filler shots and edits.

DW: Digipak Draft

Above is a draft version of the digipak we wish to use for The Neighbourhood's album, I Love You. Aside from the logo's and the back cover image, everything is our original images. The front cover is taken from our animatic and replicates the final frame of the slow zoom out section we are going to break up throughout the song. It has been edited using the quick selection tool, channel mixer (in which it was made monochrome and the RGB levels altered), curves and the paintbrush to reimburse some of the original lighting levels around me. The top right image is a screenshot taken from one of our filler shots. It was edited using the lasso tool feathered at 150px to select the sun, this selection was then inverted so I could use curves to darken the foreground and the sky; I then used channel mixer to make the image monochrome and again edited the RGB levels, and finally I used the gradient tool to further darken the sky. The top right image, although using a copy of the band logos was designed by myself, using the gothic paintbrushes in white, I could create a rugged looking base for the logos which, for the final piece, I shall make from scratch. For the back cover, I used one of the default fonts and used the darkened sky to place the bands name and album title on; then for the track names, I drew a black rectangle and then lowered the opacity so that the image came through without making the track names impossible to read.

Overall I am happy with the overall look of the digipak; I think the concept works well and it fits the bands aesthetic. However I believe it will look even better when all the proper images are used which, we hope to capture by the end of this weekend.

Group Reflection Post 11.11.13

What Did You Achieve?

Today we continued with the editing process, Harry finished the entire first verse sequence which involved the character going towards his house and looking into the window and then running away whilst his alter self opens the door. For this final shot we used a 16 point garbage matte to match the lighting of the two shots so that we could layer them over each other. Alex also continued with the editing process for the second verse which involved our reverse walking slow-motion shot, this came out even better than we expected and works very well with the track. Dan also continued with our digital print work which included our digipak which he has made using Photoshop, he also continued with our poster print work.

What Problems Did You Encounter?

We encountered a few minor problems whilst editing, when Alex was doing the reverse walking shot we had problems matching Dan's walking pattern we cut from a LS to a CU of his feet. Eventually we had to cut the shot of Dan's feet and we put in a different LS from the front of Dan which works better in terms of continuity and mise-en-scene.  

AY: Location Idea

 

 

 

To the left are some images of the wall which we could use for the bridge of the song. I took this picture at about 6:00pm so the lighting is very poor but during the day time it is still quite dark due to surrounding trees. Unfortunately the vegetation is very overgrown limiting the amount of wall which can be seen however I think that it might still be a useful location. Also it is a relatively narrow pathway so it may be difficult to get a long shot directly in front of the subject being filmed.



AY: Shoot Reflection 3

Where did you go and what did you achieve?

On Sunday 10th November, we went to Harry's house  in Pembury to film footage for the first verse of the song and then to Maidstone to film the filler shot of Dan moving forwards with the public walking backwards and the second verse. At Harry's house we used the track and dolly to create smooth tracking shots of Dan approaching the house which we assume to be his. We used a mixture of long and mid shots to capture some interesting visuals whilst ensuring the mise-en-scene was appropriate for the scene. In Maidstone we collected lots of short shots of Dan moving backwards through a crowd of people so that we could reverse it when we came to edit the footage. We also captured the 'seeing self' sequence which also required the track and dolly.

What problems did you encounter? 

During our shoot at Pembury we had to be careful not to get unwanted reflections from the windows that would ruin the shot which meant that we had to take a few takes for each shot. In Maidstone we had a number of difficulties shooting on Fremlin Walk. We were approached by an official who said that we had to get permission from all the stores that were going to be in our shot even if they weren't in focus. To overcome this we were able to find a small back street with arches and non-commercial shops and cafes. This meant we could film here without having to get permission from any shops. The only issue with this location was that it was very quiet and there were virtually no people walking down the street. We also had trouble with casual passers - by; the idea was for them to be in the shot as part of a crowd however they would often avoid or duck out of the shot when they saw that we were filming. Another small problem was keeping an eye on the daylight hours, we had to finish our filming before it got dark which limited our time frame.

What did we learn in regards to improvements on the next shoot?

In regards to our next shoot we have learnt to get permission from every store that will be in the shot, whether in focus or not. It might be an idea to pick somewhere less commercial where we wouldn't encounter this problem as much. We should also consider starting shooting earlier so that we can get more daylight hours for filming.

Group Reflection Post 7.11.13

What did you achieve?

Today we carried on with the editing process, we had to re-do one edit to get it in time with the music and we added some new shots to the timeline. We also added a blue screen key to enable an absolute black background, as well as an eight-point garbage matte to make the layered shots more accurate and precise. We did this to change the blue screen background to a black one to suit our colour scheme. As well as this Alex created a mood board on prezi for the magazine ad for our print work.

 

DW: Shoot Reflection 2

Where did you go and what did you achieve?

Today, we filmed in the Drama Studio within the school, and we planned on filming the first pre-chorus (the scream and the moving heads), the slow zoom out to reveal the bands logo which is broken up throughout the song and also the final main sequence (the part with the over exposure or shallow focus). When we got in to the Drama Studio, we set everything up and filmed the scream and moving heads part, in front of the blue screen so we could key out the background and make it absolute black, a few times so we could then choose later on in Premiere. Because of the restricted framing, we were able to hide the rest of the Drama Studio and also focus the lighting to be slightly behind the camera which meant the orangey light that comes off the lights didn't affect our filming.

What problems did you encounter?

When we had finished the screaming and head moving shots, we realised that the Drama Studio wasn't an apt location for the other sequences we had planned on capturing. This is because the mise-en-scene wasn't as good as we had thought: the flooring was the wrong colour, the walls were not a solid black, it's fairly cramped and the lighting isn't suitable for the monochrome colour wash we wish to apply in post production. Therefore, we are working out where we could film these sequences, and have decided we should use an external location, whether this is a quiet road, a deserted house, or a rural area, any would look more suitable for our aesthetic than the Drama Studio.

What did we learn in regards to improvements on the next shoot?

Having had a dramatic change of idea for location today, I think we have learnt something we can apply to the whole project: we have to be flexible in order to produce the video in the quality that we want it. It has also proven that we can adhere to the aforementioned, we made a snap judgement and that sometimes you can only tell if a location is right when you actually come to film there.

 

Group: Concept Development

Today we had some problems with the editing software, Premiere, that we were using. This meant that Harry was unable to do much editing in the hour that we had. Having said this, Dan and I continued to design and develop ideas for our print work which was very useful as we were able to carry out research into the band and previous art work that they have produced.
We are hoping to film later today in the drama studio to capture some of the pre-chorus shots of Dan screaming and the slow track out from Dan's face to reveal the album name.

Group: Digipak Idea (Part 2)

Here is the second half of the digipak concept we are considering using. We like the idea of making it as simplistic as possible but also visually interesting. Therefore we will use the bands logo's and a shot of a sunset which we will probably take from one of the filler shots we intend to use in the video.

HW: Call Sheet and Risk Assessment for first shoot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Group: Concept Development

Today we loaded all of the footage that Harry and Dan shot on Sunday onto the computer and  begin selecting the shots that were most successful and put them onto Premiere. We also discussed which shots we might need to re shoot however in some cases we can use after effects to get rid of camera shake in specific shots. Finally we agreed another day which we are all available to film on. This is Wednesday in the lesson and Saturday the 9th November.

DW: Shoot Reflection

Where did you go and what did you achieve? 

On Sunday, 3rd November, Harry and myself went to Grosvenor Park in High Brooms to shoot the choruses and some of the filler shots for the choruses - we also filmed the very first shot of the video as well. For each section we used a different bench to change the mise-en-scene; the benches look different, the trees are in alternate places, and the lighting is slightly different - but the framing for both choruses are as identical as possible. The shots we filmed to overlap the main shot of the character sat on the bench where the same ideas for both choruses, whilst seeming repetitive we believe it supports the seeing self idea - in that he sees the same things over and over just in different places. We got all the shots we set out to achieve and we think it will look better than we anticipated when we come to edit it. 

Later on, we went by my house to film one of the filler shots - the landscape one - and then the alleyway shot for the second pre-chorus, which you can see above - please excuse the swear word, it will be masked in the final piece. The lighting for both was apt, especially the alleyway shot where the street lamp came on as we turned up. Considering it's a single shot sequence, we were worried it was going to be quite boring, but the camera shake adds drama to the shot and makes it more visually interesting. 

What problems did you encounter? 

In general, we thought the shoot was very successful; we worked well together and we set up quickly and got the shots we needed. The only problem was the people walking in the background for the chorus shots; normally this wouldn't be an issue but because we are layering shots over each other, any difference in background would ruin the effectiveness of the sequence - therefore we spent a while re-filming certain parts. Whilst travelling to the location it did rain, which we thought would ruin the shoot, but it stopped and the benches were more or less dry anyway, which saved us having to come back another day.

What did we learn in regards to improvements on the next shoot?

We left it fairly late in the half term week to actually do the filming, due to other commitments within the group, but the main thing is we got what we need to begin editing at school. So, generally we need to be more organised in sorting out shoots in advance so that we can dedicate ourselves to the shoot and get what we need done. We will hopefully be filming the rest of the external shots next weekend (9th November) and most of the internal shots on Wednesday (6th November).