Typography for Our CD Digipack

Some possible fonts for our digipack...

Evaluation of Shoot Day

 

The evening before our shoot day, Anna and I were busy with building the set.  We used textured wallpaper that I had ordered to cover the back drop in order to create texture and interest in the video.  Using wallpaper glue, we attached the wallpaper to thin wooden boards which would form the back wall of the band performance set.  With help from the set building team, we raised the walls and secured them with weighted pillars at the back.

 

I had gathered most of the props beforehand, including the projector, fabric for the dancer, video for the projector, as well as the call list, shooting schedule and sheets with lyrics for the band members. The instruments were ready to be played in the studio, with the drummer bringing in his own kit. 

 

 I held separate meetings with the band members to discuss what each of them would be wearing.  I told the band members in other boarding houses to bring extra clothes in case of a costume change and so we could have different options to try.  The band members in my house and I chose exactly what they would be wearing for the shoot after a short fashion show.

 

The dancer, Delphine, brought in her own black leotard and tights, as she is a semi-professional dancer.  She and Anna had already choreographed the dance moves, while Maksym, who would have projections on his torso in the video, did not require any costume or choreography. 

 

On the morning of the shoot day, I felt apprehensive, but also excited to finally film our music video.  After double-checking that everything was in order, I was ready to shoot.  All the preparation and planning would finally be put in motion, and the final product on the way to becoming realised. 

 

I felt very prepared before the shoot, putting up the lyrics, shooting schedule, and call list and organising the band members while we put the finishing touches on the set.  While Anna showed the band members photos of the style we were going for one last time, I set up the camera and made sure that everyone was confident in what they were doing. Once we were all on the same page and everything was ready, the band played through the song to warm up. 

 

 Our first set was curved wallpapered walls.  The wallpaper was textured jacquard pattern in white, but we painted the sides black and would end up painting the entire back black to create contrast in the shots.  As our video will be in black and white as a convention of the indie rock genre, colour was not particularly important.  To better envision the end product, we dressed the cast in neutral colours that would show a range of tone and texture in our video.  The wallpaper, especially with the lights, helped to enhance the look.  We went for a simple, clean look but made it our own with the use of texture. 

For the dancer and projections, we furthered the idea of the clean-cut concept by shooting on a plain black curtained background and keeping the costume minimal.  The dancer wore a black leotard, made edgier to fit with our genre with cut out sides, while the projection body (Max) did not have a costume.  We wanted the lights and textures to play the most important roles rather than characterising the cast, as is frequently a convention of the indie rock music video. 

 

 On the shoot day, we split the roles and changed them after a certain amount of time (usually after a break) so that we could each find our rhythm in filming, directing and working with the timecoded song.  I mainly split my time between filming, including doing the tracking shots, and directing, which meant I was giving the cast recommendations in reference to how they were moving on stage or dancing. 

 My strength during the shoot lay in filming and organising the cast.  The cast was very cooperative and I found a solid rhythm in filming, particularly towards the end of the shoot. I also acted as an appeaser, compromising for everyone's different ideas and preferences in debates surrounding what we should film or if we should consider cutting something out. 

The time frames that the band were available for were problematic, but we had already solved this in the shooting schedule/call list.  We did not expect to run out of time with them, but inevitably wanted extra shots of them once new ideas developed, for example the tracking shots on the band.  We managed to finish the shots in time, doing the whole band shots and then moving on to the bassist's close-ups since he had to leave first.  Working in this way was an effective use of our time. 

I think that our very specific idea of what we wanted the shots to look like was the most successful, as we could clearly communicate it to the band members and had a lot of extra sources (photoshoots, videos) to show them.  Another successful aspect was the organisation on my part, as getting an entire band together with instruments plus the dancers was integral to the success of the shoot.

 I had hoped that the production group would have listened to each other more, as we were sometimes not on the same page, or disagreed in reference to what we wanted to shoot.  Some members were more directors rather than being part of the group, which was, upon reflection, inevitable considering that people who are more 'leaders' usually take charge in group situations. 

 The actors were managed very well, the call list being clear, however some had not informed me that they had not filled out the blue card I had given them and might have been missing a lesson.   Despite this, we managed the talent successfully, stemming from our very precise idea of what the video should look like, encouraging and giving feedback to them as we went on.

 

 I most enjoyed filming the tracking shots and learning to use slow motion filming.  It was fascinating to see a three-second shot end up being twelve seconds when slowed down.  I had also never done a tracking shot before, so setting up the rubber tracks and sitting on the dolly was a fun experience. 

Painting the wallpaper black was enjoyable - a nice break from filming in the dim lighting.  In the edit, I am most looking forward to seeing the shots of the dancer, as she was incredible!

 Although we are all different types of people, our production team managed to get the job done effectively.  We found a way of dividing the work, and were conscious of others preferences, for example Anna really enjoyed filming, so Raf and I gave her the majority of the time filming.  We were organised and had many ideas, so worked creatively together. 

I learned about focussing on the Sony NX5 and FS100  cameras that we were using.  There was a multitude of different lenses to be used, and we needed to measure with a special tape measure from the lens to the point of focus to see which one we would need to use.  It was very confusing but nonetheless good to know for the next shoot.

I also learned that a group that works well together is essential to the overall success of a shoot, not only people who have good technical skills, but can communicate effectively to complete the shoot successfully.

 

We took many pictures throughout the shoot which will be useful for our website, a sort of 'behind the scenes' peek page to connect with our target audiences.  Our video has stayed true to the planning we have done for the website and album artwork.

Album Cover Brainstorming

Here is a rough CD design we came up with that Anna drew!

Projection Videos

Some incredible, inspiring use of projection:


Box from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.




For the projections, we want to use video rather than images.  This would probably be footage of cityscapes (as most of our target audiences live in/would like to live in the city), iconic landmarks and art.
Alternatively, we could use some interesting graphics or clips found on Vimeo, which operates under the CCAC, meaning that we would be allowed to use it for our own production.

 
TRI▲NGLE from Onur Senturk on Vimeo.


LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.


THE BEAT OF NEW YORK from tim hahne on Vimeo.

Mirror City Timelapse from Michael Shainblum on Vimeo.

Test Shoot

More on Our Target Audience

Conventions of Indie Rock Campaigns

Costume And Props List

This is our list of costume and props which will help us keep track of what we have and what we're missing, which costume belongs to who, or when we'll need a prop on the day of the shoot.

Call List

This list lets the cast know when they are needed.  As we only have one location, we have only put the time and what we will be shooting down. I've shared this with my group members in GoogleDocs so we can make changes as needed, and be alerted to those changes we make.  The list will be put up on the day of the shoot for the cast to look at as they need.

Possible Album Cover?

Here's one of the first album covers we've designed:

Clean, streamlined, and graphic is the look we were going for.  We may end up changing the font, but the colours and minimalism are here to stay.

Album Covers

Album covers essentially give preview of an artist to a consumer.  This decides whether or not the consumer will pick it up and take it to the check out or not.

So how do we make sure they do? 

First of all, the artwork needs to communicate the genre of music, appeal to the target audience (male or female? age? social class?) and look nice!

Here's a link to the Music Radar voted 50 best album covers of all time:

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/the-50-greatest-album-covers-of-all-time-444093/14

We wanted to create a graphically designed album cover, as we felt that a photo of the band would take up shooting time and not be eye-catching enough.  When people see a picture of a band on a CD, they know it's an album, however when they see an interesting graphic they may be more curious. Additionally, the indie genre album cover is characterised by graphic designs. Below are some of the album covers that have inspired me in our process of design:

1. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

The simple graphic given a rustic feel and in the colour scheme of our band really inspired our group with the possibilities of graphic design for our album cover.  

 

2. The 1975 - (Debut album out soon)

 

Another black and white album cover, as The 1975 are a black and white band.  This shot looks like our music video will, with tube lighting and a dark background.  The intriguing way in which the band name is written makes the audience want to know more, perfect as this is their debut album (and ours too of course!)

3. Vampire Weekend - Contra

I like the idea of taking an archived photo and putting modern text over it.  The photo of the girl speaks to our song choice and makes the album more appealing to a male audience, and the vintage feel would definitely appeal to our "stuck in the past" but "in with the technology" indie target audiences. 

4. Sparkadia - Postcards

Using things that are square shaped as album covers works very well, as people love seeing things that are being used as other objects, "WOW! It's a phone...BUT IT'S ALSO A BURGER!"  The earthy tone colour scheme is a device of the indie rock genre, and adding some colour to the promotional package would show that THE DMND has a lot more to offer than just being black and white all the time.

5. Depeche Mode - New Life

Based on Salvador Dali's 'Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man', this album cover has more of a background and symbolic value.  Using well-known artwork to create meaningful album covers not only insinuate what the album/artist is about, but connects with the audience as when people pick up on subtleties or recognise something, they are immediately drawn into it.

Colombia Records

Updated Shooting Schedule

Here is the updated shooting schedule, which is only missing the name of the lead singer and some phone numbers:

Time	Shot no.	Shot Description	Actors	Props	Phone Numbers
9:00 – 9:45	1	Wide shot of set, with band playing  - play through song	Mike Asaturov, Maksym Kulik, Alex Wadstein, George Hill, + singer	Drums, guitar, bass, microphone, smoke machine, lights, blinders
	2	Close up of lead singer (sing through song)		Microphone
	3	Close up of guitarist (30 seconds	Mike Asaturov	Guitar
	4	Close up of drummer (30 seconds)	Alex Wadstein	Drums
	5	Close up of bassist (30 seconds)	George Hill	Bass	07952683551
9:45 – 10:20	6	Medium shot of lead singer (15 seconds)		Microphone
	7	Medium shot of guitarist (15 seconds)	Mike Asaturov	Guitar
	8	Medium shot of drummer (15 seconds)	Alex Wadstein	Drums
	9	Medium shot of bassist (15 seconds)	George Hill	Bass
10:20 – 10: 35		BREAK
10:35 – 11:00	11	Extreme CU of strumming/fretboard	Mike Asaturov	Guitar
	12	Extreme CU of mouth singing	Singer
	13	Extreme CU of foot on drum pedal	Alex Wadstein	Drums
	14	Side medium shot of bass	George Hill	Bass
	15	Panning wide shot on set and lights	Band members	Lights, instruments, set
11:00 – 12:00	16	Mid shot of band standing in a line relaxed on set	Band members
	17	Panning WS on band standing	Band members
	18	WS of band leaning/sitting around on set	Band members	Instruments
	19	H/A on band lying down around the set	Band members	Instruments
	20	CU of feet walking away	Band members
	21	Over the shoulder shot of band	Band members	Instruments
12:00 – 12:30	22	Wide shot of dancer with projections	Maksym Kulik	Projector, filters, smoke machine, lights
12:30 – 1: 10		LUNCH
1:15 – 2:00	24	Close up of projections	Maksym Kulik	‘’
	25	Mid shot of projector moving		‘’
	26	Close up of projection on face	Maksym Kulik	‘’
2:00 – 2:30	27	High angle on projection dancer	Maksym Kulik	‘’
	28	Panning on projection dancer	Maksym Kulik	‘’
2:30 – 3:00	29	Wide shot of dancer with fabric	Delphine Lim	Fabric, lights, smoke machine
	30	Mid shot from behind the lights on fabric dancer	Delphine Lim	‘’
	31	Close up of her face behind fabric	Delphine Lim	‘’
	32	Mid shot of dancer legs + fabric	Delphine Lim	‘’
3:00 – 4:00	33	Mid shot of upper body + fabric	Delphine Lim	‘’
	34	Shot of lights		Lights
	35	Panning on wallpaper		Set
	36	Close up of smoke		Smoke machine
4:00 – 4:30	37	Close up of fabric
	38	Shot of blinders turning on		Blinders
	39	Panning mid shot of set		Set, instruments, lights, smoke machine
4:30 – 5:30	40	CU of smoke, light and lead singer	Lead singer	Smoke machine, lights
	41	WS of band with light chair	Band members	Chair, lights, smoke, set
	42	WS of band with light chair	Band members -1	Set, lights, smoke machine
	43	WS of band with light chair	Band members -2	Set, lights, smoke machine
	44	WS of band with light chair	Band members -3	Set, lights, smoke machine
	45	WS of singer with light chair	Lead singer	Set, lights, smoke machine
5:30 – 6:30	46	Additional Shots