Final Video

Filming Day 7 - Studio

17/10/2015 - Studio

We decided to have another filming day as we were not satisfied with how we left the rough cut of our project. We went to a studio on campus and decided to try and get some artistic shots using coloured lights.

 Firtsly, we decided to chose pink as our main colour, this is because we feel that pink is a good colour to represent love. Not only this but the colour pink is largley linked to girls, and since Nova is a girl we thought that this could be a good way of representing woman around the world. Another reason why we chose pink was because our main colour scheme is blues and pinks therefore, this therefore shows continuity within our project.

The first few clips we decided to film was some lip syncing ones, our main focus was the ending of the song as we hadn't got any footage that we were happy with to be our ending; we feel that the ending of the video is probabaly one of the most important parts as it's the bit that leaves an impression on the audience. We also thought it would be best if I lip synced the chorus again as this is the part of the song that is going to need the most components therefore, we wanted to make sure we had enough, just incase we needed to chop and change some bits of our video.

Once the lip syncing part of the filming was done, Kate suggested filming some candid clips, this is so that we can have some shots to slot into our video and continue the theme of point of view shots. These shots include me flipping my hair, laughing and just looking at the camers, we feel that these worked well as they look natural and effortless.

The main types of shots we filmed were mid-close ups, and wide angle shots, having the camera positioned straight on; for us, we think that this will not only fit with the rest of our footage but also look more professional as we are focusing on one part of the shot instead of having a complicated frame that cna take away from the actual footage itself.

Costume

For this part of the video we wanted to keep my outfit fairly simple, black jeans and black boots being an obvious choice due to the edgy look however, to keep with the pink theme we chose to put Nova in a pale pink halter neck; this also shows the gilry side to Nova. We also decided to have natural wavy hair as we wanted Nova to look completel effortless in these sceens. The top that Nova is wearing has an extremely low back, we felt that this was a good choice as it showed off Nova's more rebellious and grown up side.

Review of Footage

 In this clip you can see Kate filming some candids of me for the point of view shots. I feel that once this clip is cut and edited that it will really look rather breathtaking in our video. One downside to this video is that you can slightly see the rest of the studio however, this is fixable by using the 'crop to fill' option on iMovie to get rid of this.

This video shows me lip syncing the chorus of the song. I feel that I done well with conveying emotion through the use of closing my eyes, I also knew the words very well so this looks fairlt realistic. Unfortunatly the overall lighting of this is quite dark so, if we use this clip, we will take to the editing suit to brighten it up a bit.

Second Ending

 After rewatching our rough cut and reviewing the audience feedback, we decided that we really were not happy with the ending therefore, we refilled some scenes on campus for the ending and began editing.

The original clip we used was one of me standing by a bush that had white flowers on it - we played around with the saturation and colour balance so that it matched in with the rest of our video however we were not that keen on the clip. We then came up with the idea of having an overlay on the clip, we chose one of the sunsets that we have used in our video. Once watching this we decided that we still didn't like it and that we wanted a more artistic look for the ending. Consequently, we decided to have another filming day to get the perfect shot.

Rough Cut And Reviews

We decided to put our video on social networking sites such as Youtube and Facebook to get digital feedback from our target audience of people ages 16-23. We posted the video during the final editing stages of the creation of our video. this is so that we could get some fresh ideas on how to improve the video to be the best it can be  - there were some part of the video that we weren't sure on therefore it was vital that we received some feedback.

Posting our video on Facebook was a quick way to reach a large amount of of our target audience. It was also effective because we could also receive some feedback from people outside our target audience, to see if our artist appeals to them as well.

When posting the video we got many likes and responses to help improve our video - a large majority of the audience liked the video however, they felt that the ending needed working on as it was rather "Simple" and "Unmoving." For this reason, we have decided to have another filming day as we feel that the footage we already have is not good enough for the last scene that our audience is going to see; it is the one scene that people will remember the most. For this filming day we are thinking of working in a studio to show some diversity within our piece. 

Another comment for improvement was on some of the Red Ivy shots; there is a tracking shot of Nova walking down the Ivy whilst lip-syncing however, as her hair falls in her face you cannot see what she is singing, this is something that our audience picked up on and suggested that we fill that space with some other clips - this is something we are definitley willing to change as we want to please our audience as much as we can.

Other than these improvements, everyone else seemed to think that our video was "of a professional standard" and was "enjoyable to watch."

Editing Of The Video

The editing for our video was mainly taken out by me as I have most experience with the sofware however, we did all have a go at editing as we felt it was important for us to all contribute to all areas of the creation of our coursework. Below are some of the steps we went through to create our video...

The first thing we done was try to figure out how to use Final Cut Pro however, after much time looking at tutorials on how to use the soft wear, we decided that it was best for us to edit on iMovie as we know how the software works; this will therefore lead to a more successful final video.

Obviously, to create this video we had to do the simple edits such as cropping and spliting video clips - this helps us create a more clean and concise timeline. 

One form of editing that we used was fast paced cuts - We felt that this form of editing was successful for us as the song is quite slow therefore, by having a collection of fast cuts,will bring a new dynamic to the video. Another reason why we chose to have a collection of fast cuts was to show a complete flash back, we wanted to create a sense of "life flashing before my eyes" this will again reinforce the idea of Nova's partner remembering parts of their relationship. In this series of shots we also used the tool to speed them up, this was to speed up the video - making it more like a continuous flashback. From the video to the right, you can see how this flashback looks, after some dispute we decided to change the series so that it only consists of a few clips, this is so that it cuts in time to the lyrics "Hello Hello C-Can You Hear Me" this will be satisfying for our audience as it all ties together.

Throughout our video we wanted a general colour scheme of blues and pinks therefore,with some clips we had to do a bit of colour correction. We thought that it was best to have a general colour as the video will then be aesthetically pleasing for our audience - we think this is important as we want the audience to feel at ease whilst watching the video. We chose the colour blue as it is a calming colour, which will be good for our audience however, it is also a colour to represent sadness, this then relates to the lyrics of our song. The colour pink was chosen to represent love.

We also used slow motion within our video - this was so that the clips could link to the pace of the song, We used this on multiple clips in our video to show some continuity.

Some of our clips had too much going on in the background or there was elements in the shot that were unnecessary - to fix this we used the 'crop to fill' tool to crop out these elements. We think that this makes our video looks more refined and professional, this is a look we want for our video.

Creating The Advertising Poster

This is the final outcome of our tour/album poster - It is an advert that you will find in a magazine taking up a double page spread. I feel that this poster is sophisticated and stylish due to its colour scheme and layout. The white writing compliments the colours of Nova's dress as well as standing out from the background. I feel that the layout of the poster is clean and sharp, making it easy to read and asthetically pleaseing. Below I have written a step by step to how we made this poster and the reasoning behind some of the choices we have made...

We chose to to a poster advertising a UK Tour (just the initial advert for it, meaning just the dates and venues) and the album instead of just the album as we felt that this is what most fans look for, they want to know when their idol is going on tour pretty much as soon as they hear that there is going to be an album.

1. Firstly, we unlocked the background layer so that we could move the image to the left slightly so that Nova was positioned off centre, this is to have continuity with our footage. We decided to go for a landscape advert as we feel that this will stand out against the other adverts that it will be near due to not many adverts being this orientation also, it allows Nova to then have a double page spread in adverts, giving her more publicity.

2. Next, we airbrushed Nova, just like Evie did when we were creating our album cover.

3. The next step in this task was to insert the text; we started off by inserting the artist logo and the album name. We originally had the font black however, we thought that the poster needed to be bright so we opted for the option of white font. 

4. We decided that we wanted the tour to be in the UK only due to Nova being an extremely new artist, and even though she has a large following on YouTube, we did not think that the rest of the world was quite achieveable yet. We chose May as a good month as it is in the spring, spring represents new life and in terms of the msic industry, Nova is a new born. To get the locations we looked at other tour posters for inspiration, we wanted to do a show in Cambridge since that is where Nova is from and we wanted it to be her last date as the last song on her album is called 'Home' therefore, it all links nicely - we researched into venues in Cambridge to find the 'Cambridge Junction.' The font used for this information is 'Basic Title Font,' the same as the album title's font; this is becuase the font is quite simple and we did not want anything too fancy that will be distracting from what the font actually says. Just like the back of the album we used the paint bucket tool to make some letters bolder than the others to give it an edgy look. We placed all of the font to the right of Nova as we felt that it would be better if all crucial information was together rather than spread out.

5. The next thing we decided to do was insert in her social media links, this is so that her fans can follow her and see what shes up too - this is where they need to look out for more information such as when the tickets go on sale and where you can buy them; we opted not to put this on the poster as this tour poster is just an initial one that gets printed way before tickets go on sale, it is simply to let her fans know that she is going on tour.

6.We then had a small advertisement of Nova's album, letting the fans know that it is currently avaliable on iTunes - we chose to advertise this on the poster as for those people who just stumble accross the poster, they can then go to iTunes to preview the album and hopefully become interested.

7. The final step to this process was to add in the Opal Records logo. We placed this next to the album advertisement as Opal Records, obviously, had a lot to do with all of this and the album was just the begining. We made the logo white so that it matched in with the rest of the poster.

Magazine Advert Photograph Selection

Option 1

This was a personal favourite of mine as I feel that I look natural and approachable towards my audience.

I am positioned off centre, this shows continuity within our work as most of the footage that we filmed of me, I am off centre. I like that my body is turned slightly to an angle as it connotes the idea of Nova being interested in her audience, this will be good for Nova as her fans will feel as if she cares about them. By having my hair half infront half behind, it swaps things up visually as this isn't something a lot of artists do. I also like that you can see my shadow, I feel that this looks quite a mysterious, which will intregue the audience. Personally, I feel that this image is a strong contendor for the final choice.

Option 2

The second option we had was one of Nova looking, rather simplistically, at the camera, with her body shifted slightly to the side. I don't particularly like this photograph that much as I feel that I look stiff rather than effortless, which is not what we wanted as we feel that if you look stiff, you look like you do not really want to be there, which obviously is not how we want to represent Nova. Notwithstanding, I like the way that I am looking rather mysteriosly and almost seductivly at the camera, this is because this type of eye contact will draw people in as they become intrigued.

We decided that for this image my hair should be pushed back so that you can see more of my face.

Option 3

We decided to experient with a differnt body position in this image by having me turn to the side so you can see my side profile. Experimenting with different body positions and angles is crucial in a photoshoot so that we can determine what angles work and what ones don't. I feel that this angle is successfull as it is different to any picture we've ever chosen of Nova before, this will give her fans something new to get excited about. When it comes to adding in text we could then do something a bit more creative like having the text morphe around the outline of my profile. We felt that this profile allowed us to be more creative and artistic. 

Option 4 / Chosen Image

This is the fourth and final imgae - this ended up being the image we all liked the most. My favourite thing about this image is the way im posing, I feel that it expresses an element of confidence which is something that we want Nova to inspire her fans to have. The way that I am starring right down the lense of the camera suggests an element of authroity  or power, this tells Nova's audience that she is serious about the tour and her music.

We chose to place my hair behind my shoulders to show off my face and keep the look in my eye as the main focal point. I feel that the quality of this photograph is professional, as if Nova is in the big leagues of the music industry. The shot we used (wide medium shot) works really well here as it shows off the right amount of Nova's outfit as well as leaving enough space either side of her for text to be inserted or for space to be cut out.