Behind the Scenes - Jacks House

Throughout the filming session I got both Jack and Kate to use their phones to take behind the scenes pictures of me and other cast members filming. This allows you to see the set up of the location and filming equipment, it also shows you what I was doing throughout the day. 

Filming Diary (31/01/15)

DAY FOUR
31/01/2015
Jacks house

Shots filmed: 1 (a,b), 2 (a,b), 3 (a,b), 4 (a,b), 5, 6 (a,b), 7 (a,b), 8 (a,b), 22, 23(a,b,c), 24(a,b), 29,  30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,  45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70

Today I shot most of the shots set in Jacks house and although we ran out of time towards the end of the session there weren't any real problems with the actual filming. I have reviewed the majority of the footage and I am quite happy with the result of most of the shots and don't think I will have to re shoot any shots in particular. If when I do fully review the footage I find any slight problems I will then arrange to re film them at a later date (probably after the second draft as I will not have time to film before then). 
One of the problems that occurred was that I had forgotten that on previous footage (the street scene) Kate was wearing a hat but I shot this footage (which is continued from the street scene) without a hat. This creates a lack of continuity which could be a problem however as I am refilming the street scene I will just remove the hat from the costume that she needs to wear. Another slight problem was that when filming the first few shots I was finding it difficult to do some of the moving shots on the tripod and so instead had to make them hand held shots but I am quite pleased with the result of these and do not think this will be a problem. The lighting on the upstairs shots was also quite poor due to a lack of windows to provide natural lighting, this meant that I had to turn on lights making the footage look quite grainy. If once I have reviewed these shots I find that the footage is really poor quality then I will arrange to re shoot these shots another time. The only other major problem was the dripping blood shot which we had to abandon in the end due to lack of time. The fake blood that I had wasn't a very runny consistency which meant that it wouldn't drip very easily. I will have to re shoot this another time but before hand I will have to research how to change the consistency of the blood to make it more runny.
Although there were quite a few problems I am generally quite happy with the majority of the footage and can't wait to get editing it. Once I have began editing I will have a better idea of what needs refilming and what looks good so I can plan the next step.

Organising Fourth Filming Session

Location: Jacks house/Street
Shots to be filmed: 

Street - 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 71, 79

Jacks house - Kitchen - 1 (a,b), 2 (a,b), 3 (a,b), 4 (a,b), 5, 6 (a,b), 7 (a,b), 8 (a,b), 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 73, 76, 91, 92, 93

Jacks house - Hallway/stairway - 22, 23(a,b,c), 24(a,b), 29,  30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44

Jacks house - Living room - 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 72, 74, 75, 80

Jacks house - Bedroom - 78

Equipment needed: 

• Filming Camera
• Tripod 

Cast needed: 

• Kate Maxey (main female character)
• Jack Blanchard (main male character)

Costume needed:
Kate:
Look 1:

• Ripped Jeans
• Plain T-Shirt
• Necklace and several bracelets
• Casual Black Boots
• Leather Jacket (removed after shot 44)
• Woolly hat (removed after shot 44)

Jack:
Look 1:

• Dark Jeans
• Black T-Shirt
• Black Converse
• Winter Jacket (removed after shot 44)

Props needed:

• Sharp knife (7 (a,b), 8 (a,b), 63, 65, 66, 67, 68, 91, 92)
• Full length mirror (22)
• Sofa (45, 46, 47, 48)
• Plate (50) 
• Butter knife (50)
• Fake blood (69, 70, 93)
• Throwable object (TV remote possibly) (72)
• Wooden spoon (73)
• Baking mixture (73)
• Bed (78)

Organising Actors

Before our filming session tomorrow I decided to message Kate and Jack asking them if they were still ok to film and also if they could wear the same costume as last time to create continuity. This will allow me to have all of the costume and props I need to film the planned scenes and I therefore shouldn't need to re-shoot shots. 

Green Room Outfits

Kate:

This is the look I ended up using for the green room shots of Kate. The hair and make-up is quite simple but more of a 'going out' style compared with to the narrative sections. Her hair is mainly down but with a small bun holding sections of her hair up, her make up is an everyday style however with added dark red lipstick and simple eyeliner. I chose this look because the extra make-up and more thought out hair style helps to differentiate from the different scenes. The lipstick also helps to make her lips stand out in the lip sync sections of the video. The hair style compliments her face shape well and looks good on camera. The outfit I decided to use in the end was a loose black top, ripped skinny jeans, converse and multiple grunge style jewellery. This is very simple and not exactly what I intended on using however when I looked at the shots I was filming I realised that only the top half of her body would be noticeable and so I therefore decided not to use the leather skirt. The top is still however the same as I had planned and so there were no real alterations to the costume. The overall look is very stylish and matches the personality and style I created for the character, it is exactly how I wanted my female character to be represented.  

Jack:

This is the look that I used for the green room scenes containing Jack. I tried making his hair look a lot neater than in the narrative sections so he looks more composed and serious. I also got him to neaten his beard so that his overall look appears much more sophisticated.I chose to do this to make it obvious that these scenes are separate to the narrative sections. I also wanted to show that although he is still the same character his personality is slightly different as he is calm and fairly normal. The outfit used is again fairly simple and quite similar to the narrative sections, however as with Kate the shots being filmed only showed the upper half of his body and therefore there was no point in using a fancy costume. The costume consists of a plain black top, dark jeans and black converse. The top I used is what I had planned, I chose the colour black to represent the characters antagonistic nature which is the same reasons to why I decided upon the black top for Kate. This represents them as both being bad people and by them both wearing this negatively connotated colour it shows that they're both as bad as each other. The overall look still matches the style I created for the character and represents him well. 

Behind the Scenes - Green Room 2

 Whilst I was filming the sections which require Jack alone I got Kate to take some behind the scenes picture which allow you to see what I was doing and how I had the equipment set up.

Filming Diary (27/01/15)

DAY THREE
27/01/2015
Green room

Shots filmed: 25, 26 (a,b,c), 27 (a,b), 28 , 55 (a,b,c), 56 (a,b), 57 (a,b), 58, 59, 60, 61 (a,b), shot 62 (a,b)

Today I shot the majority of the shots set in the green room and no major problems occurred, overall it went quite well. Although I have not yet had time to review the footage on a computer I am much happier with the outcome of these shots and think that they look a lot better than the first time that we shot them. This will hopefully allow me to improve the quality of my video for my second draft. If there are any problems I can always reshoot again because this next draft will not be my final product, however I am fairly confident that this footage is too a much higher standard. 
The main reason for the shots looking a lot better is because of the improved quality of lighting. The footage from the last shoot appeared quite grainy and created excessive light in certain places and I believe that this was the main reason for the poor quality of the shots. This time I had a lot longer to experiment with the lighting and find what looked best and so I was able to make the shots look much more professional. The fact that I had already practiced the shots before also meant that I had an idea of how to achieve the look I was aiming for. 
There were very few, if any, problems whilst filming. Jack turned up about 15 minutes late however he had a justified reason due to the traffic being quite bad. This did not effect the filming in anyway though because I instead started filming the shots of Kate whilst we waited and I still managed to get everything filmed that I had hoped to. The only other slight problem was that the tripod we were using was quite stiff and it took a lot of effort to get it in the right position so the framing on the shot was right. 
I filmed all of Kates shots first (as there were more) and then filmed Jacks shots, this is because it saved messing about and helped to conserve time. I told both actors exactly what they had to do and how they had to act in each shot and the majority of time their acting was very good, helping to create a professional look. The only slight problem experienced with the acting was that Jack sometimes found it hard to sing in time to the music and often got the lyrics slightly mixed up, however after multiple practices he actually managed to do it quite well.
The limited issues that we did experience were easy to solve and they didn't cause too much disturbance to the actually filming of the shots so hopefully the footage will be to a standard I am happy with and we will not have to re shoot anything.  

Organising Third Filming Session

Location: Green Room
Shots to be filmed: 25, 26 (a,b,c), 27 (a,b), 28, 55 (a,b), 56 (a,b), 57 (a,b), 58, 59, 60, 61 (a,b), 62 (a,b)

Equipment needed: 

• Filming Camera
• Tripod 
• Lighting

Cast needed: 

• Kate Maxey (main female character)
• Jack Blanchard (main male character)

Costume needed:
Kate:

• Leather skirt
• Plain t-shirt
• Dark red lipstick

Jack:

• Dark Jeans
• Black T-Shirt

Props needed:

• Fake blood
• Black curtain

Organising Actors

Today ahead of our filming session on Tuesday I messaged both Kate and Jack on the group chat I created asking if they were both still available to film on the 27th like we had planned. This was fine with both of them, helping the filming session to run exactly as planned. It also means that I will be able to get the majority of the green room shots filmed on this day.

January/February Shooting Schedule

I found that creating a shooting schedule for December was very helpful as it allowed me to keep organised and on top of my filming, therefore I decided to carry this on into January and February. Below is my online calendar which shows the dates of filming sessions we have already organised. I will continue to update this as I go along. This will allow me to make sure I and other cast members are where they are supposed to be and also make sure I have the right props, costume, etc needed at the time. 

We have already arranged a few filming dates but I will continue to update this post.

27th January:

As me and Kate both have a free last period on a Tuesday (14:50-16:00) and Jack has Tuesday afternoons off college I decided to book the green room out to film all of the green room sections. This includes the shots which need re shooting and as I have already filmed these shots before it shouldn't take very long to do. Hopefully I will be able to film these shots to a better/professional standard this time.

31st January:

We have also arranged to film on the 31st because everyone is free and so we will be able to shoot the shots based at Jacks house. We have not arranged a specific time to film as of yet however with it being a Saturday we have all day to film therefore we should have enough time to get it all done. I will however make sure that we arrange to film fairly early so that the lighting is consistent in all shots. If I have time I may also re shoot the street scene because although the shots weren't that bad some of the acting and the timings could be slightly better. This will allow me to maximise the quality of my video. Below I have included screenshots of the messages exchanged when organising this filming session.

UPDATE

Today (28th December) I went to the media department and pre booked a camera and tripod from Ben (the media technician). I am glad that I got organised and did this because lots of other students have also planned to film this weekend. This means that I am guaranteed to get the filming equipment that I need, therefore there shouldn't be any disturbances to my plans.  

Places of Publication

This is a prezi that briefly explains were I would sell/publish my ancillary texts. This just helps to show what my products are representing and the level of professionalism that they are expected to be at.

Magazine Ad-Mock Ups

I created 3 very simple magazine ad mock ups using microsoft word. These help to give a brief idea of the possible layouts that I might use on my own magazine advert. All of the mock ups contain the key conventional features of magazine ads, which will allow my product to look realistic and professional. I have not yet decided which layout I will use for my final product but when creating my drafts I will experiment with all of them to see which I think works best. 

Digipak Template

This is the template I will be using to create my digipak. I chose to use this template as it has 6 panels and 2 discs. All of the dimensions are already on it so I can simply import the template onto photoshop and then add my designs to each section. 

Colour Scheme Ideas

Font Ideas

The fonts that I use on my ancillary texts need to be a number of things: bold, eye catching but easy to read. They also need to relate to the artist and genre of music to create cohesion. To make sure of this I did some research into the fonts that I could use on my products (mainly for the album name/artist name). To do this I used the popular font sharing site 'dafont.com' which has a wide range of fonts categorised by style. I have used this site before (for last years coursework) so I know that there are a lot of interesting fonts which I could use. I searched through the categories that fit my genre and style the most and created a small moodboard of the fonts that I liked the best. I used the song title 'Heads Will Roll' to view these fonts and found that the 'horror', 'brush' and 'handwritten' styles matched my products best due to their eye catching qualities. The horror style fonts also match the theme/narrative of my music video which is again quite cohesive, however the brush style fonts stood out to me more as they look more professional. I have not decided on the fonts which I am going to use for definite as I am not sure what will suit my product best, therefore I am going to conduct some audience research into what they think will look most effective. So far I like  'True Lies' and 'Da Streets' the most but I will look at audience feedback and actually experiment with these styles before making a firm decision. 

Names of fonts:

Horror:

-'Face Your Fears'

-'True Lies'

Brush:

-'Da Streets'

-'Brushed'

-'Chalk Paint'

-'Ignite the Light'

-'Floydian'

-'Abovea'

Handwritten:

-'Lemon Yellow Sun' 

-'Daniel'

Audience Feedback:

Ancillary Text - Conventions and Existing Products: Digipak

As I am creating a digipak as one of my ancillary products I thought that it would be useful to look at the conventions of the main sections of a digipak (the front cover, spine, back cover) and also look at some existing products to see how they have followed or challenged them. I found this really helpful as I now know what conventions are essential, what conventions could possibly be broken and how I can make my product unique without taking away professionalism.

Ancillary Text - Conventions

Ancillary Text Inspiration - Magazine Ad

These are all examples of album release posters which at some point have featured in magazines, such as Q and NME. I looked at quite a few album posters to get inspiration however these are the ones that appealed to me the most. Most of these examples use the album artwork as the main focus of the poster (which is conventional) and so the poster I create will depend upon my final idea for my digipak, however these examples have given me a wider insight into the amount and type of text that should feature. I like the idea of having the main image in the background whilst the text covers it, which can be seen on the posters for Coldplay, The Vaccines and Biffy Clyro. This is because I think it looks more aesthetically pleasing than having the picture alone, with the text around it. In addition to this it differentiates from the digipak, making it appear more interesting. I also really like how the fonts are the same as they are on the actual albums because it makes it identifiable. I plan to do the same with my product to follow conventions and also to make it look sophisticated by keeping the font styles simple and limited. 

Ancillary Text Inspiration - Album Covers

Here are some examples of existing album covers which I have found interesting in some way. All of them have appealed to me for different reasons and doing this research has given me several ideas for my own digipak. I would like to incorporate some of these styles into my own work, the features I found most interesting being the use of layering photos; the use of several (possibly 4) photos; the use of a logo and the use of a plain background. I think if I were to use a mixture of these things on my digipak I would be able to create a unique and aesthetically pleasing album cover. 

Band Name

I was really struggling to think of an original band that suited the style of the song and music genre so I typed into google 'coming up with a band name' and the second one down was the site 'www.bandnamemaker.com'. This site uses inputted words to generate band names which seemed like a really good idea but I then had to think of words to use. To do this I found the lyrics of the song on the internet and picked out words which stood out. These were my findings:

After reviewing the names given I decided that although some of them were quite good, none of them really matched the style I was hoping for my band. I then decided to look at song names by existing artists for inspiration. I scrolled down the song list on my iPod and picked out song names which could also work as band names. These are the ones I found:

I thought that all of these would work quite well as band names but I most like 'Common People' as I think that this relates the most to my music genre and style of the band. Therefore my band name is going to be:

'THE COMMON PEOPLE'