Digipak

I have now printed off a more realistic sized digipak with a reliable printer! i am really pleased with the outcome and this the colours work really well!

Life size digipak. I think both the digipak and tour flyer work really well together! the designs compliment each other making it continuous and both pieces take inspiration from the video which i feel is continued right the way through!

Illustration

From the post i did about testing illustration, i thought it might be a good idea to test it out to see if it is effective. This will compliment the rotoscoping in the video. Owain used a parchment style paper underneath the rotoscoping so I have incorporated this into my image, however it looked very tea stained so altered the opacity to lighten it. I created the whole image using photoshop and my wacom bamboo graphics tablet. It is different to the way owain drew the rotoscope but i still think it works, I didnt incorporate the black background as i wanted it to make more vintage connotations.

I like this illustration, I like the rugged vintage look of it and the contrast between the subtle flower and the bold outline of the body. It really reminds me of the foals album and this isn't what i wanted to do, as it doesn't make it unique at all, so i prefer the one i made using photography, I might experiment with the typography as this may change the whole image. I used a brush which i downloaded, It is designed to look like it is being brushed on with acrylic paint, hence the uneven lines.

This is the parchment i used to create the background

I based the illustration on this still i filmed of Jordan.

With Text:

I think the text makes it Hewitson River's own and gives it a polish look, i like this more than i thought i would but because the rest of the digipack goes together so well i think i still prefer the other one that i made, although i could experiment with using sepia tones.

Final Editing

So, the deadline is.. today (argh!) and I'm still editing, but the video is looking good and it shouldn't take much longer for it be completely finished. There is one issue with the fact that Sony Vegas never plays anything properly until you've rendered it, which unfortunately takes hours. This means that there may be black spots in the video that I will not know about until it is finished, which is highly annoying, but I'm scouring the timeline frame by frame to make sure there aren't any.

The rotoscoping is looking surprisingly good with the addition of the backgrounds I mentioned, and I added some paper-y animation so I think that improved it too. I'm glad Jack and Lily filmed what they did on Tuesday because that has greatly helped me in many places. There are some small sections that may confuse the viewer narrative-wise, but it's all up for interpretation as to what's going on.


Hopefully it'll all get done before sunrise (just kidding).

Digipack

this is my finished digipack, i tried to centre the trellis as owain suggested, to do this i had to enlarge the photo and move it. I don't think it looked as effective, as you could not see the branches and leaves above Jordan's head and this was one of the main reason's i chose the photo so i decided to leave it. I also added 'JOLS MEDIA PRODUCTIONS 2010' as it creates realism, JOLS is all of our names made into something remotely word like, but i can change it if people aren't happy.

here i added text to the inner panels, i think it looks better without it as it is simple yet effective, and creates a pretty scene, and i feel that the text draws attention away from the subtlety it had before. Therefore i will use the one above as it is my favourite.

Insert/Poster for digipak

I have experimented with an insert for the digipak featuring the tour dates, we all need to create ancillary's so i have created a poster which compliments the digipak. I have used an image from one of the panels which i then added text and brushes to create the right effect. I have displayed the relevant information clearly so it is easy to read and captures the audience's attention. I went onto google maps to look for venues across the country to create realism, i also added a seetickets logo and added my own .com to make it more interesting and so that it all tied in together.

Putting the video on to dvd..

i think we should use iDVD as it allows us to put each video (draft + final) under a title which is accessible just like a real dvd, this is not only easier to access but also looks more professional. you are able to choose from a selection of themes, however i think the record style theme works best as it ties in with our vintage genre and compliments the colour scheme in the video. On the record i have written "hewitson river" etc. (enlarge) which i think adds a nice finishing touch. you can add media such as photos and videos to the drop zones, so i have experimented with some, however they were not the right size, so the hipstamatic one works best. Another great thing about iDVD is that you can play music over the menu, i tried out big mouth strikes again and it works really well, introducing you to the video before even watching it.

Post Production - filters

I think we should add a filter to the video to make all the shots tie in with each other, this shouldn't take long at all. I have found a youtube tutorial with some really good filters on which can be used on adobe after effects. There are more parts to the video with different effects. I will ask the group what they think of this idea, and it wont hurt to try one. I think that if we experiment with them we will be able to give our video the finishing touches it needs to look more polished and pressentable.

I think the warmer effects would look better over the grave scene, as the lighting at the tea party was very warm so to keep it looking continuous i feel would be a plus.

there are also effects on sony vegas which owain has on his laptop, the cinematic effect creates a vintage look which may look effective and compliment the video.

I like the cinematic effect as it gives a good colour and also creates the vintage look, however it may appear to dark on our video.

Rotoscoping Ideas

I was thinking that I should probably add some form of texture behind the animation to give it more depth and also for it to just look more interesting than a plain black background. I thought that a old paper texture would work quite well, as it would then look like the animation was drawn on the paper. Eventually I settled on the texture on the right, though I couldn't work with it being white, as the the drawing's wouldn't show up, also it wouldn't reflect the nighttime mise-en-scene that I was intending.

In Sony Vegas I applied a Chroma Key to remove the black from the original rotoscoping, and then turned the contrast up to make the animation brighter. I then put the paper image in the layer below, turned it black and white, then turned the brightness down and the contrast up. However I then had to invert the colours (it was looking weird the other way i.e. pixelly and awful). I think that it looks a lot more interesting than a plain black background, and I'm hoping to do some faux-paper animation alongside the rotoscoping for one section, where the sun rises and the moon disappears, though I'll have to see how it pans out.

Plan for tomorrow

As I have the day off tomorrow (I am lucky) I can get on with the bulk of the editing for the entire day. First of all I have to complete 250-something frames of rotoscoping, which will take place in the instrumental section near the start.. hopefully it will add more of a seamless narrative, though still leave some mystery as to what is going on in reality.

 Above is a screenshot of me working through it, you can see the original footage that I filmed last week on my day off, and the red Hewitson River drawn over the top of it. I will remove the reference footage when I'm done drawing on it. I am also drawing in red because it shows up better on the footage, though I will completely desaturate the colours eventually. After I've done it all, I will also produce a more in depth step-by-step guide to how I eventually created the overall effect.

 I will then add it to the rest of the footage, which includes the shots we filmed today in the graveyard. Hopefully it'll end up making sense, but still look good.

Lip Sync clips + HD Clips

Lip Sync





HD Clips

Final Filming!

Today we turned on the video camera towards our music video for the final time!
We filmed in and around St Marry's Church in Lutterworth in order to be able to film more in a short amount of time. We think the continuity will not be affected as it looks very similar to the Church in Broughton Astley. We were able to get permission to film inside the church to get some really good church footage.

Different sections of the graveyard were used to film in order to get the correct light. Lighting was difficult in this shoot, as the sun was bright one minute, and dark the next. This caused all sorts of problems, with continuity and also shadows cast by everyone.
We filmed the new shot today for our music video, where Jordan/Hewitson is waking up in the graveyard, which will allow the grave yard scene to be linked with the rest of the footage, as the audience can make their own narrative connotations of what has happened for him to be here (has he died, is he simply rebelling, ect)
Today everyone could feel that the pressure really was on, and we all just wanted to get everything finished in time for the deadline on friday. I think if everything is really finished like we hope it is, everything should be fine.
I've uploaded the HD clips which we filmed, which can be downloaded and added to the video.

Our final film shoot..

Today we spent lunch time and the lesson filming at St Mary's Church in Lutterworth as it is local, although it is different from the graveyard we filmed in before it still works well as they look extremely similar, keeping the continuity. I asked the vicar whether it would be possible for us to use the ground and inside the church which he gave us permission to do.

 We started by planning what we needed to film and used different areas of the graveyard to do it, hopefully the footage we caught is in keeping with what we already filmed. We filmed for about an hour in ice cold temperatures! so hopefully our hard work will pay off! We filmed Jordan lip syncing to the whole song and took different shots of him in the graveyard to show his behaviour. We also created a new shot of him waking up in the graveyard, taking a shot from jordan's perspective as if he is opening his eyes, this will allow the reader to interpret the video in their on way and decide on why the change of scenery has happened e.g. has he committed suicide? is he a ghost? has he gone to ask for forgiveness? etc.

As the deadline is only 2 days away i am starting to feel anxious as the stress is now on to get it finished! If i was to do the video again i would have attempted to get all the footage done in one day, and would have planned the video more precisely (e.g. taking into consideration the clocks go back), luckily we have solved these problems as we have gone on and today used the lesson time to film Hewitson for what is hopefully the last time! Owain has a free day tomorrow so is going to crack on with putting together the shots. Jack and I have selected the best clips from yesterdays video so will get them to him this evening, as all of our footage is on Owains laptop he will bring it in on Friday so that we can add any final touches/changes before the deadline at 3.10 pm. I think that by splitting the workload at this point we will definitely get it finished, the ancillary task is well on it's way to being finished by next week and the video is close to being finished! I am really proud of the hard work put in so am looking forward to finally submitting it!

Our Last Day of Filming- Sofie

Today we filmed our last bits of footage. This was lip syncing and Hewitson waking up in the grave yard to show the transition of night to day, and to explain why he is in the grave yard. We used the church nearer to school to save time as we were nervous about not filming all we wanted before the end of the day. With permission from somebody involved with the church, we got plenty of footage filmed making sure we filmed more than we needed so that we wouldn't be left struggling for footage when we are editing over the next few days. I liked the location today as it's a big and very pretty church, and we had a good amount of sunlight for the video as well so everything went very well. We had to make sure we were careful with our shadows getting in the shot and encountered problems whenever anybody walked by, but other than that, it all ran smoothly. 

Tomorrow, Owain will edit a lot of the footage as he has a day off on Thursdays. Jack and myself are planning to edit in a free period we have together tomorrow, and we will share the workload to ensure that everybody is contributing and to get it done quicker as our deadline is nearing. We will hopefully all get together on Friday to edit together and make sure we are all pleased with our final piece and make any small tweaks that we think should be made.

Here is a short video of footage from our filming today, including a mini vlog by Jack and Lily

Visualising the finished Digipack

I have printed off the digipack i made onto a4 paper, so it is a small prototype of the real thing, however i feel it will help me visualise what is needed and whether it works as a whole. (excuse my printer it needs toner).

when making the real thing there needs to be NO GAPS between the panels! this doesnt looks as continually smooth! overall i think the digipack works really well! espescially the outer panels, I think the inner panels need some text/graphics to look less dark, however due to the printer issues these have come out darker than they usually would, so i would have to reprint them on a photo printer.

more panels for the digipak..

the cropped original photo before editing the colour:

it is upside down so that when we create the pack it can be folded, however i have provided one so that you can get an idea of how it will look.

Here I have been experimenting with the panels inside the digipak, I used a photo that jack took when we were filming the tea party, I really liked the lighting on the tree's and the mise en scene the tea party created. As Jordan is on his own it creates connotations to him being anti social and because he is central to the panels it may connote that he is self centered. I edited the photo as it was highly exposed due to the lighting we were using on set, i altered the saturation and the contrast, this also made it tie in more with the black and white style I have incorporated on the digipak, but as there is some subtle colour it compliments the editing on the back of the pack, as it features the central jordan in colour with a black and white background. I think the right hand top panel may look better with some typography on it, I will experiment with this, I have tweeted the rest of the group asking for some feedback so that everyone is happy with the overall result.

Filming..

today's filming went really well, I got to Jack's house at about 6pm and luckily the weather was dry and it wasn't as cold as last week!

We used Jack's SLR to film as owain and sofie couldn't make it, so we were unable to use owain's camera. We set up in Jack's garden after deciding on a location over looking the fields and on the same decking we filmed the tea party, only at a different level. I think the location looks really effective as their is a barbed wire fence behind Jordan making connotations to the countryside and the field we had filmed performance in before. We also used the flowers that were still there from last week, I had to root around the shrubbery looking for any survivors! which i then arranged on the decking. The flowers as a feature worked really well and they looked very effective with the lighting we had arranged (using a floodlight), this also refers back (or forward, depending on editing) to the tea party. We both had a go at filming, however because the tripod was stiff only two parts of my footage was successful. As Jack was more familiar with his camera and was more successful with adjusting homemade tripod, I took the role or directing jordan, I wanted his movement to look natural so by looking down and fiddling with the rose, it looked more effective as it created realism.

Filming went really well tonight and we were finished in about an hour, allowing us to get some editing in, where we selected the best shots and put the song over the lip syncing, which worked really well and was pretty much on sync! We will send to owain's laptop for the final cut, I added some annotations on Jack's iMovie so that owain could be directed on what we had filmed.

 I am really pleased with the footage we got and how smoothly it went! Jordan fit the role of Hewitson really well and created a really good image with the location and props (flowers) we had to hand.

Filming lip syncing today

Today we filmed lip syncing all the way through the song in the location of the tea party.
I think everything went really well today. Everything ran smoothly, and we managed to film within an hour and a half.
We hope this is enough lip syncing for the rest of the video. In order to fit in with the tea party scene, we had to film it at night, with bright lights on 'Hewitson', because we want to maintain continuity.

I'm just putting all the usable clips together on iMovie ready for importing to After Effects for editing

(Video currently uploading)