Production Diary - Week 15

We have mainly been focusing on starting the production of our digipak and advert this week and have created multiple first drafts for our advert and an intial draft for our digipak. These will still need redrafting before being a finished product but I think that as a start they work quite well. Before actually editing these together we had to think of song names, album names and create logos to use which were appropriate for our artist. I originally wanted to name the album 'Pillow Talk' however I think that the title 'Beyond Colour' is much more effective in presenting our genre and relates directly to our music video and our artist so I am happy with the name that we chose. Despite our main focus being on these two products we have not neglected our music video and have been improving it by adding the shots of the pillow fights and playing around with different transitions and colour effects to see which ones are most effective. It is close to christmas and so we will continue to edit these products when we get back in January as we do not have the facilities to do so at home.

Advert 1st Drafts

We have created 4 different drafts to begin the production of our advert. 

 

Above is a very simple draft that we created. We chose to use the photo that we had edited using PicsArt with the filter Holga 1 because it shows the audience our artist having fun with her friends and has direct synergy with the digipak. We used the same fonts for 'Beyond Colour' and 'Sasha' as we had used on the digipak to also make this stand out and create synergy. We could improve this draft by adding more detail and following the conventions more closely.

Our second draft was also very simple and followed the design of the front cover of our digipak. This would be more recognisable to the audience to associate with the digipak however we do not think it represents the fun side of our artist as well. To improve this we would also need to add more detail about the album and follow conventions further.

Our next draft is much closer to looking realistic.  We added conventions such as a website, production company logo and featured tracks. We chose to use an image that is used on the digipak but added the Holga 1 filter so that although it is an image the audience will have seen and will associate with our artist and the album it will also be new to them. We used the colours white and gold for the main titles to match the colour schemes within our digipak but used Red and black for any other texts to fit with the photograph.

Our final draft we also used the Holga 1 filter on picsart however did not used the mirrored version of our photo. We placed the main text and titles in our artist's eyeline to draw more attention to it and make it stand out. We included our production logo, a website and social media account for our artist and featured tracks to make it seem more realistic. We tried to create a 3D effect on 'The Debut Album' by adding a blue/red glow however we think this looks quite tacky and unprofessional. We then used the logo as used on our digipak to create synergy for our artist and album name. This is the closest draft to our final draft however we would still like to see how the others turn out when improved.

Digipak 1st Draft

This is the first draft for out digipak that we created on fireworks, we began by finding a template on google.

We chose this photo for the inside cover because we think it shows the fun side of our artist and how close she is with her friends. I edited the photo on the app Pics Art and added the Holga 1 filter which gave the photo a 3D effect that we thought would make our audience feel as if they are getting a deeper insight into the life of our artist.

 For the left cover, again using PicsArt we added the filter PopArt Colors to the image, we thought that this is appropriate and fits with the colours used in our music video to create intertextuality between the two. We chose to use a close up of our artists legs, which we had edited to make them seem flawless. We chose this image of her jumping to show her represent her as quite free and fun.

For the back cover of our digipak, using PicsArt we added a mirror effect and the filter 'dodger'. We again photoshopped our artist to give her a flawless appearance that many people associate with beauty. We chose to include the titles of our song in gold to match the front cover of our digipak and we used the font 'Castellar' because it is a sophisticated font and is similar to the one used for our artists name on the front cover. We also chose to include our logo at the bottom and to include the first title as 'We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off' because it will have been one of the main songs to draw in the audience. For our next draft we will need to include a barcode and production company.

For the front cover we chose to incorporate our logo that we had chosen. We added an image into the record used in the logo of our artist, we then used this photo on the actual CD to create synergy and a theme throughout. We chose the colours white and gold to give the album a sense of elegance and importance.

On the left cover, so far we only have the words 'Sasha xo' here we want to create a personal message from our artist to the audience however we are unsure what we would like to write so this is something we will need to improve upon in our next draft. In our next draft we also want to make our digipak more continuous so all of the sides have a theme throughout and don't look like a mash up. We would also like to complete the message and add other small tweaks.

Logo - Front Cover

In the music industry, and the dance genre in particular, many artists use a logo or symbol for the front cover of their digipak. We would like to use this on our digipak because we think that it represents the genre as well as being symbolic of our artist. One album that uses this is Pink Floyd 'Dark Side of the Moon', this logo is used effectively and is very memorable to the audience so that it is immediately recognised which is the effect that we would hope to create.

We have designed some ideas for what we would like to use as shown in the video below.

Our first logo was very simple, an S with a crown. We chose the crown to represent our artist as important and royal as well as her girly nature. This kind of representation was used as advertisement for Beyonce's 'Mrs Carter Show' World Tour.

 We chose the colour pink because it is connoted as quite a girly colour as well as it being bright and standing out. It also a colour used frequently in our music video so would create synergy between the two products.

We incorporated the crown into our next logo idea however this time we made it gold. We chose this colour because it fits the theme of being royal and powerful as well as wealth and is also symbolic of generosity, giving and warmth. We chose this time to place the crown above the image of a vinyl to present our artist as the queen of music. We chose to import a photo onto this logo to show the audience who our artist is. We then added 'Sasha' and 'Beyond Colour' in black and gold to fit the theme and to show the name of our album.








In an attempt to improve this logo we inverted the colours into a black and blue colour and took away the photo. Although we think that this would be effective to represent the genre we do not think that it fits the image we are trying to portray for our artist so we have chosen to use the white and gold however we are considering changing the image in the centre and using it elsewhere on our digipak.

Production Company

We have decided to name our production company 'Future Productions' to show our artist as ahead of the time and setting trends through her music and also through her image. We decided upon the slogan 'Tomorrow's Music Today' to add to this and entice the audience because they think that listening to our artist will make them cool. We then had to choose a logo for our company, we wanted it to be a blue colour because it is quite cool and calming yet stands out on a page.


Our first logo shows a city in a bubble, we thought this would be appropriate because it shows that our company represents people across the whole city. We think that the bubbles add a futuristic feel to connote the name of our company.

 Our second logo is much more focused on the music side of the company with a microphone in a house. The futuristic font used adds to the future side of our company to create a balance between the two.

Our third logo is also quite focused on the music side of our company. We chose to use a red colour with this one to represent the love of music and to stand out more than the blue.

We returned to the colour blue for our final logal and incorporated the image of a globe and a USB. We think that the globe shows how the music would be global and marketed to a worldwide audience however we thought that the USB took away from the music side of our company.

We decided upon using our first design for our logo because we think that even though it isn't directly linked to music it shows the futuristic side of the video well.

Album Name

Now that we have our ideas for our digipak we need to create a title for our album. Our favourite title ideas that we narrowed our choices down to were Sasha, Pillow Talk and Beyond Colour, we think that although Sasha is quite effective we want to give our audience a deeper insight into our artist with an original title. Although we really liked the idea of Pillow Talk we found that there was an album by Man Like Me with this name and we wanted our album to appear original. This left us with the title 'Beyond Colour' which we as a group agreed on and thought it really represented our themes in our music video and the image we wanted to portray through our artist.

Song Titles

Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.

Through our research albums usually have 12 songs but is different for every album and some may have less or more. We have decided that 8 songs would be appropriate for our digipak because our artist is a 'new' artist who won't have a strong fan base so would typically have less songs on her album. Above are the titles that we are considering for our music video and the reasons in which we chose them. We want our artist to be represented as young and free which we think these all relate to, they could also all potentially be songs that the target audience could relate to so would entice them to purchase our album.

Production Diary - Week 14

This week we have completed our first draft, as a whole I am happy with the outcome although there are improvements that we have established such as making the shots quicker to add a faster pace and more fun and lively feeling. We also carried out a photoshoot for our digipak and advert, we chose the theme of a pillow fight which was really effective to portray our genre and the fun image we want to create for our artist. Within the next week we are going to edit these pictures into creating a draft for our digipak and advert and we would also like to incorporate any shots of this into our music video to create a resemblance between the different products.

Production Diary - Photoshoot

We have carried out a photoshoot of our artist having a pillow fight to use for our digipak and our advert. We also decided to film some shots to put into our music video to obtain an intertextuality between the two. It was really fun to film here and we think that these will be really effective to show the fun side of our artist. Although the feathers were effective they were very difficult to clear up and managed to stick to everything which became a problem for the clear up.

1st Draft Reflection

We are happy with how our first draft has been completed however for our next draft the main improvements that we would like to make are to add more colour, include shorter shots, add more of the video inside text and we also want to carry out some more filming of our artist lip syncing which is something that we will need to start to plan.

Roles and Responsibilities

We all wanted to ensure that we contributed to our first draft. To do this we all ensured that we inputted our ideas into the editing of the video, I came up with the idea of layering text into the video like we used for 'The Night Is Young' and 'Clothes off' and so took control of the editing of this. This effect isn't used in a wide variety of music videos however when used appropriately it can be very effective, one video that uses this is the A-level music video shown below.


 This is something we would like to add to more in our next draft. I found a tutorial, as shown below, so that I knew what to do, I will now edit this into other places throughout our video as part of my contribution to the construction of the second draft.



My group contributed into the editing by adding colour and transitions as well as changing the opacity levels to layer different shots over each other, however we found that in some parts of the editing it became more efficient for them to feedback their ideas to me and I would bring them to life through the editing because I was familiar with the software.

1st Draft

First draft - We don't have to take our clothes off from sasha bchs on Vimeo.

Production Diary - Week 13

This week we have begun to edit our music video. We are trying to follow the storyboard as close as possible as an initial draft, so far this is going really well and I am happy with how the video is coming along. We are adding extra effects occasionally but are mainly sticking to how it was originally planned. We are hoping to have our first draft completed within the next week so we can then begin to focus on the creation of our advert and digipak.

Synergy

It is important to create continuity and synergy between our products to create a recognisable image for our artist. This will ensure that the target audience can create a link between the products and associate them with each other to remember them. We will need to create synergy between our music video and ancillary products to create this desired effect.

Audience Feedback - Digipak ideas and inspiration

After obtaining feedback from a member of our target audience we have decided to base our digipak and advert around the themes of a pillow fight. We will use images of our artist with her friend who is featured in the music video and portray the fun and outgoing side of our artist.