Print Work Brief - Group

We have just been briefed about our next task , designing print work for our own album. This task includes creating a digipak , and two advertisments in a magazine. We have decided that James will create the digipak while Luca and I will create advertisiments but designed for different magazines targetting different audiences.

We already have some initial idea's about what we plan to do , but need some time to research more conventions of boyband print work. We will also need to carry out a print work analysis which will include :
- Genre
- Media Language
-Representation
- Institution and audience

We are throughly excited about some initial idea's we have , especially our digipak

Brighton Recce Reflection

Given the quality of the photos Luca and James have posted I think it is evident how successful we found the Brighton recce. The photos demonstrate that we have thought about themes and conventions consistent in boyband videos , especially with some of our glamourous posing.

Before the actual trip we were told we were required to shoot a range of shots that were meant to offer some inspiration as to what to include in our actual music video. These shots included :

-Sped up time shot

-POV
-360 Degree shot

-Tracking shot

-Low Angle shot

- Variety of Close ups

We completed all of these shots , with alot of extra practice footage that im sure gave us valuable experience in how to frame our shots. An example of the experience we gathered was that when we shot our sped up shot , we did so in a very public area. This was in Brightons shopping centre , thus , security were not very happy when they saw that we were filming someone standing still in the middle of a public area (they most likely thought we planned to do something). We were asked to leave , however after having gone through this experience it is evident we need to take public consideration into account before shooting any shots.

Group: Reflection on Audience research

After analysing our audience research last year we came to the conclusion that we need to include different strategies of gaining the data to help us mould and shape our final product to suit our target audience. Survey monkey is a good interactive way on gaining an insight into the viewers thought, however we feel the last time we use it some of our questions were rather week, thus the wording we used formed a leading question.

 

Therefore by using semantic differentials we believe we can still get back useful reliable results without forcing the audience down a certain route. It allows us to quantify opinions and gives the interviewee a scale on how much they liked or disliked an aspect of our work.

 

Furthermore there are other techniques we will use in gathering audience research such as focused groups. The focused groups are likely to consist of people we believe would be our target audience, younger males and females. They are a great way of testing our products, by understanding different opinions within the group, immediately. They also include concentrated feedback and we can ask how any improvements may be made

LF: Atlas Hands - Benjamin Francis Leftwich

I just came across this video and i really like some of the beach shots such as the very start and at 0:26 

What do you think?

TB: Technical Analysis Reflection

Above is the video I looked at for my technical analysis , ' The A Team' by Ed Sheeran. Doing this detailed analysis highlighted three key area's I will now pay attention to when filming our own music video.

- On our actual filming days we need to shoot far over the required amount , this is for filler shots and extra footage we may need to add into our final piece. Due to the fast cutting rate its necessary to film a large amount of footage.

- In the genre of song we are doing , a mild emotive narrative may be effective in adding a personal feel to the video , making it our own.

- Special effects , such as black and white layering or speeding up shots can prove incredibly engaging. Also , camera movement has become apparent as the most important tool in creating steady motion throughout the video.
(Left) - A screenshot of a woman kneeling over her dead friend. This is a very provocative shot , we hope to use framing like this to evoke emotion in our own piece.

Below is a scanned picture of my technical analysis that I carried out on paper.

LF:Brighton Recce Review

On the 27^th of September our media class went on a recce to Brighton to try and gain some basic ideas of what we would like our video to like and to experience filming in an urban environment and overcoming the difficulties that come with it.

Overall it was a very successful trip as we were thinking of using Brighton as one of our locations for our video. We like the location of the beach, a classic boy band location, combined with the edgy feel of the lanes adding a modern touch to our video. We had a list of shots we had to complete as well as doing our own work.

A shot that we were particularly excited about filming was a sped up shot, however we had trouble filming it. We attempted to film it in the main shopping centre however we had to stop filming because security said we were breaching regulations, however we still managed to complete 3 minutes of filming which we sped up 5000% and created an effective shot.

After analysing JLS ‘Everybody in Love’ a particular shot we liked was one of the boy bands singing directly into the camera whilst sitting down, therefore as we can see from above we decided to film from a low angle shot on Brighton pier. With a fast cutting rate and fading in shots we feel we can use this footage in our final piece.

Here is another still image we captured on Brighton Pier; we liked the background setting of the beach and the sea as it’s a very iconic shot, thus we are thinking of filming certain scenes of the video in black and white. I particularly like the contrast between the city landscape in the background and the picturesque beach. Whilst editing the photo I feel I slightly over contrasted it however on the HD cameras we wouldn’t do that. When we actually filmed this shot the camera would pan to the right as we walked to the left to create some movement within the shot.

In the photo above we tried to convey to the genre characteristics by wearing boy band clothing which combined with an authentic performance would create an authentic boy band feel.

JI: Brighton Recce

On 27th September we went down to Brighton with our media studies group for a recce, giving us an opportunity to explore with different equipment and our cameras in an exciting, photogenic location, with an urban feel. On arrival we were giving a number of different shot requirements we had to achieve throughout the day while experimenting different techniques of filming.

Here are a list of the shots we had to include:
MLS panning establishing shot for narrative/performance
Use of high/low angle for performance
Footage for sped up shot of character in crowd
POV handicam shot
360 pan
Tracking shot with character / performer in first person mode of address
A variety of CUs suitable for instruments
2 shots of your own design

These requirements allowed us to gain fresh ideas while filming, giving us possibly different shot ideas to which we had planned out. All these shots are common critical shots within music videos which are used to give the video interesting movement and repeatability for the audience.

To give us an authentic feel to the shots we were going to do we decided to wear costume which we would generally use within our music video. Here is a shot of me and Luca in our costume:



Here is a shot of One Direction in there latest video, 'That What Makes You Beautiful':



Through our initial research into boy bands we have taken some inspiration from One Direction who are possibly the most exciting new boy band in the music industry at the moment, and used similar costume from them to create an authentic boy band look.

Through this recce I feel it helped us getting a real feel for how difficult filming a music video was going to be, especially in a busy location. External factors while filming can prove to be a very influential factor while filming, and effect how the footage turns out. We found ourselves having to wait between shots for the general public to pass by which ultimately ended up being quite time consuming, so this is a factor we have to think about when choosing our location to filming.

I feel for our song 'Close to you - JLS' Brighton could be an appropriate location as it has a very iconic and memorable setting which would work well within our music video. Also with the presence of the beach it could help us bring out that fun, exciting feel to our boy band which is predominately shown amongst boy bands.



Here is a mid-production shot of us filming on Brighton pier:



Here you can see us experimenting with different type of shots, with this one being shot from a low angle to try and add different angles and movement into our filming to create a more exciting watch video. We gained inspiration of this from JLS' video 'Everybody in Love'. Here is a shot from that video of Aston performing:



Other troubles we had was permission while shooting footage. We had to get some indoor shots on our recce, however when we asked a few shops, we found that they took high precaution with people filming within their stores, so this meant we weren't able to get some good shots inside. We were able to shoot for a few minutes within the Churchill Square shopping centre in Brighton, however after a while we were told by security we had to leave. Luckily we had just enough shot footage to be able to achieve the footage of the character sped up in a crowded place. Here's a print screen of this footage:



Overall the recce was a really good experience for our group and gave us some good ideas which we can eventually use within our music video and a possibly an idea of a second location.