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.