Updates!

For up to date information on our process ensure you check out all our blog posts as they may have been refreshed.
Thankyou.

How our evaluation is coming along.

Well, as a team we've gone over our work in detail and scripted our evaluation so we will be able to talk fluidly when it comes to filming.
We're planning on stretching out a bit and seeing if we can use the green screen for this. This way we will have tested our abilities that little bit more an given ourselves an added experience.I'm filming our location shots today, so that it will be as if we are giving the audience a little tour backstage as we talk to them about our work and if all goes to plan we're going to film ourselves as a group with xx T-shirts on in the auditorium in front of the green screen.
But that's not all. Of course the audience needs to know what we're talking about when we give examples, so we'll ensure they can follow along by adding a little snippet of our music video, stills, photographs of us working on our media products etc etc as and when we talk about them, we're planning that they'll appear in the top right hand corner next to our heads, but we have got a lot cut out for us and that isn't really a priority, so we'll see how things go.
We're bound to run into problem areas, but just you know, this was our aim.

The Music Video

Here is an incomplete version of our music video for you to compare our finished version to, you will also begin to understand the development of the video and where we were going with our piece.



Here is the completed music Video: planned, shot, uploaded, set to music, edited, lengthened, shortened, gamma enhanced, colour corrected and tainted with a cold blue wash. Enjoy and please give feedback!!!

Ancillary Text: Website: Complete..(Almost)

Over the last week I have been working on designing our website for one of our ancillary texts. First off I looked back at the research we had done as a group on other bands/artists websites. I concluded that the best type of website for our ancillary text would be a minimalist website with a simple and effective layout. I took inspiration for this idea from Crystal Castles website, which is very minimalistic.

Home:

The homepage for our website is very a homage to the xx's current website with our version of their logo as the main focus point of the homepage.

We have tried to create continuity throughout our website by having "THE xx" written in the bottom left hand corner of each page. This is also interactive; when you click on the band name; the song "Islands" plays. This is the same throughout each page on our website and we hope it brings consistency to our website and makes it more realistic.

Gallery:

The gallery gives the public a chance to see images of the band that they would not have seen during the music video. We have used a slider to make accessing each picture easy and smoothly. We have also chosen to frame each picture with "grungy" ragged-looking edge. We believe that this will fit with the stereotype of other bands, especially in the indie genre.

Bio:

Short for biography, this page gives it's reader a chance to learn about the "history" of the band and how they came together as a group. This biography is fictional and written by Hannah and I. We tried to make the history of the band as realistic as possible, without copying THE xx's real history, by saying they dropped out of university. We did this because many other indie bands have also dropped out of university to form a band, such as "Foals".

Links:

We added a links section to increase the verisimilitude of our website as links to external sources such as "Myspace" and "Facebook" are very conventional things to find on a band website. These links are important as they give the audience a chance to find out more information about the band and support them in different ways (E.g: becoming a fan on Facebook.)

Shop:

Finally, we decided to create a "Shop". Bands usually incorporate this to increase sales in merchandise and give the band free advertising via shirts and posters. This should increase the realism to our website as I designed many "products" such a "Islands" t-shirt, a "xx" poster and a "Islands" Hoodie. We also have put our other ancillary text, our Digipak, in our shop. However, unfortunately I have not yet got a picture of the finished design but will do soon in the coming days.

To visit our website follow the link below:

http://www.wix.com/ruaraidh_j/islands

Digipak Layout

This is the layout of the digipak. Below is the final one, the one above is trying to figure out which way the layput goes.

Booklet

I'm thinking that I can make a booklet afterall, as we have a couple of images left over, that didn't fit into the real digipak, can be put into the booklet. As the only lyrics which we have put into the digipak is of 'the island', I think that I could use the lyrics of the other songs over these images in the booklet. Anyway, here are the images for the booklet.

Digipak Pages and Progress

Here are a couple of the pages which have been created. After miscalculating the number of pages which we have within the design of the digipak I have chosen to use the pages for the booklet in the digipak itself. The digipak includes; Biographies of the seperate band members, photographs of filming, and a couple of lyrics from the songs... Here are the pages before attaching them into the style of the digipak.



Front Cover
Hannah at lake

Hannah positioned at lake

Hannah Biography

Dan at lake (guitar)

Dan at lake positioned

Dan biography

David at lake (lead male)

David positioned at lake

David Biography

Ren at lake (bass)

Ren Biography

Photos from filming

Lyrics of the Islands

Mock up of Front cover (not going to use, as the image isn't the best)

The back cover

Outer layer of the Digipak

Here are the images for the outside layer of the digipak. This is where the Band members find each other, finally creating the group on the fourth image.

This is the firt edit with the lead female singer in, however the lighting was all wrong in the original photo, so I have edited the brightness so that its the same as the other three band members.

Page Editing for Digipak

Here are the thanks pages which I have created. Here we thank the public, family and friends, the company which represents the band and to our inspirations... Below are the images for the digipak.



Editing the colour of the Thanks page. This is for two reasons, firstly it higlights the two lead singers in the centre of the archway. Also it makes the writting easier to read.

Filming Images

Here are a couple of images which were taken throughout filming which I can use for the Digipak, as i love the arched look around the two lead singers. This will be good to add the lyrics/writting into the gap above the actors and between the trees. This image could also be used for the front page or back page.

Mock up of front cover...

Due to Hannah being in a Drama Exam Rehersal, we did not have the camera to upload the images which I took of the band members for the Digipak. However, instead of sitting in a lesson doing nothing, which we would never do, Ren and I decided to so a mock up of the Digipak Front cover, playing with different fonts, colours. However, the image which we used was cut from the music video, so therefore when editing in large scale the image will be pixilated.



Anyway, here it is...


I do like the way in which the XX looks like a reflection in the lake, like shown on the left with the reflected image of the two lead Singers of the band.

Guitarist and more editing

Also today, we filmed the guitarist playing the Bridge within the song. We filmed this in the park at Thurston, as we were unable to get to the lake location, as we filmed duing lunch time and therefore needed a near location as we all have lessons in the afternoon. This worked well as we found a couple of trees to film next to, allowing it to look like the other three locations, even though it isn't. We did three types of shots, extreme close up of both the body and neck of the guitar. We also did a long shot of Dan (the guitarist) playing the guitar.



Then, during our lesson today we edited this footage into the music video, over the bridge. This broke down the lake 'walking entrance', as before this editing session, this clip was very long. This new editing also makes the music veido snappy and exciting to watch.

Photos for Digipak

Ok, so today at lunch time I pestered and poked all of our actors within our music video, the two lead singers, the guitarist and bass player to wear the same or at least simular outfits to what they wore for the music video. Apart from our lead female singer, as Hannah was occupied by a drama exam rehersal, all opliged. So I now have the photos for the digipak. I plan to use photoshop to cut out the images of our actors and place them onto the backgrounds all all three locations. This is for two reasons. Firstly, what with the acotrs having jobs at the weekends, to be able to get everyone at the location at the same time is neon impossible. Also this 'cut out' look is very Indie, fitting perfectly with our Indie video/music/look.


Below are the images of which I have captured of the lead male singer, the bass player and the guitarist:


Lead Male Singer

Guitarist

Bass

From these I'm going to photoshop them out and overlay with the picture of the three locations.