Digipack

As a group we decided to organise the project by diving each element per person. I am in charged of the digipack as photography student and fairly experience with Photoshop. Hannah as also photography student will design the website ( I will help taking the relative pictures for it), and Harvey main thing will be editing. We will all daily update each other will the different elements giving our own opinion towards the product and possible alternatives for the layout.

I have look at some digipac and decided to playa round the theme of snake as Sioux the name of our artist means little snake and it fits with our idea. I used trendy techniques and used pictures from online to have so example to show my group.

The feedback were positive, however those are just roughly edited to have an idea of were the product can go, the idea is simplistic and with dark and dull colours, the artist is not seen in any of the example as i have not took any pictures of her yet. I believe i could play around more with colours and maybe incorporate more elements into the image to make it more interesting or representative for the artist. I have only design the first page out of 6.

I used Adobe Photoshop for each of my example. The main difficulty for me was to find a font that would work with the name and appeal to the audience, I believe that I need to do more research looking at more example of the artists and apply those with our targeted audience.

Those are some of my own examples:

Looking at new artists

With the additional change to our music video with the introduction of the boys we decided to look as a another possible contextual link that could have help us to design the costumes and come up with new ideas. We also looked at the performance as similar of what we are looking for, and the overall style of the video as indie and it could out useful for the post production  process.

Schedule

Harvey for the group made a detailed schedule to follow on the shooting day to know exactly how much time to dedicate for each element without having any time missing and make the most out of the day being as efficient as possible.  Setting up, packing up and lunch time.

Preparing for the shooting day

Few days before the shooting day we decided to plan exactly what were missing to make sure we would have got everything for the actual day. Especially the boys costumes as they have been the latest big addition to the idea.

Harvey made a list of all the prop we needed and decided to write in detail all the costumes for each character. we have also discuss as a group about the boys costumes and Harvey made sure they would get each of the element researched and wanted for the music video.

Costumes:

Hannah and Harvey text each person privately making sure they would know exactly what to do before the shooting day and what to bring, previously all discuss as a group.

The main props needed was:

- bubblegum
- rollerskates
- skateboards
- paint
- lollypops
- spray paint

Looking at male indie clothing style

For the change in our cast I have looked at possible styles that could work with the indie style and the boys featured in our video, I was also considering the shortage of time and doable clothing that we could own ourself and bring into school on the day. my main source of research was Pinterest.

Washed colours, simple style, still considered the colour scheme used for the others girls (green, blue and silver).

Changing Our Cast

Few days before our shooting day we decided to make a change to our cast due for several reasons, to show a difference in comparisons to others music video previously shot, to addd more elements within the music video for example skateboarding, spray painting, it would make the smashing easier as the girls' strength was a worried and it would also add something different to it.

We have asked few people of different gender about a possible change to the casting and they all agree of having a mixture of the two as it would appear to appealing for a wider audience.

The initial idea started from the problem that Tori, one of the main elements in our cast could have not make it for the shooting day for others commitments, and Emma also due for others things never made it for a rehearsal, making the decision of cutting them and adding different character the most reasonable idea.

By introducing two boys that are friends with each other to be supportive on the actual shooting day, Luca and Xav. They are both comfortable to work with the rest of the group and very keen on helping us with our idea. We can also show a wider variety and better designed clothing style.

We put them together with the girls and we ended up seen that the final choice was successful.

Visit To The Location

As a media group and our teacher we went to visit the location for our music video, to complete the risk assessment needed for school's policies. By looking at the location into more details we clarify some of our initial ideas, if doable or not, also permitting us to come out with new elements to add to our video. We were pleased overall to the final result as there were no problems with the location and we keeping most elements of the music video.

Make Up

Me and Hannah in a previous lesson had looked into more details at the possible make up for the girls, bearing in mind that because of short time the cats should come on the day fully ready so be went for something simple but effective. However those are just starting ideas we might change or develop this idea further more. I prepared a Pinterest board about it and Hannah made a table with all the interested pictures.

Test shoot

The test shoot didn’t go as planned as we didn’t have all out cast and most of the elements that will be presented in our video are not really makeable if not in the actual day.

We went to different departments in school to act for props to use for the test shoot and possibly during the actual shooting day.

Our main singer is getting a lot better at performing in comparison to the beginning, howver there is still margin of improvement that is why we are planning another test shooting with the full cast, that would be a lot more organised and we will pay attention to the details, starting from costumes, props, hairstyle, and extras.

It was good practise for us to see if the girls fitted together and easy to work with, also for them to be clear of what the music video would be about and the dynamic of the group.

The next test shoot because better planned should prove us if the idea actually work or not and will give us a detailed perspective of the overall group and action, this time we will make a list to make sure nothing would be missing.

The video was edited by Harvey.

Pray (Empty Gun) Test Shoot from Harvey Wright on Vimeo.

Costume Fitting

As a group activity we planned a test shoot, with our full cast and costumes and hairstyle.

On the actual day we had the overall costumes even though we missed out, mainly the details of each outfit like jewellery, make up, tights and shoes.

We still had enough costumes to playa round with and have a better understanding of the overall for each individual as well as in a wider perspective.

On the day we were missing two of our girls for further commitment, however we replace them with others, so fill in the gap and being be able to get something done and productive.

The costume fitting ending up taking a lot longer that we thought, however as a result it was a lot better than expected as we realised that we needed to meet up with the cast and see the actual clothes, instead of just a picture.

Me and Hannah we planned each individual costumes earlier on looking at what we owned and exchanging pictures between the two of us, creating overall outfit.

At first we wanted our main singer to get change at least three time in the actual music video,, to  add a fashionable sense to the video, so we tried different outfit and see which one was the better and we ended up choosing a single good outfit that fit perfectly Juli and with our idea, also the best as she is the protagonist.

To this final costume jellewery will be added to complete the look.

We also tried her hairstyle to see if we can do it by ourselves during the actual shooting day, and the result was roughly what we were looking for.

For Charlotte we were thinking about a look high neck jumper and a dress on top of it, even thought it fitted her outfit didn’t follow our idea of indie pop, so we changed it with a jumpsuit.

Louisa clothing style was going to be Juli’s original outfit, however we decide dot swap one of the outfit and give a more simplistic one, so silver skirt, black top and silver jacket.

Emma will end up wearing a transparent dress with a leather skirt.

Tori would be wearing a silver dress with fishnet tights.

Now the costumes are completed, al, the girls would be wearing black trainers, we will provide them the costumes and jellewery and further props.

Risk Assessment

Before we keep planning and adding new elements into our music video, as a group, discussing with our teachers and the house’s owner we need to complete a risk assessment, to ensure that the house is safely set to shoot our music video, without risking an possible injuries towards the complete cast.

This will require the whole group and the teacher to go to the actual location and look in details all the room that we want to use for our music, and double check that everything that we want to do its possible to make. For example smashing the kitchen, holed the wall and flood the bathroom.

We are organising a sort trip to visit the location, some time next week, this well help us to have nicely done the risk assessment as well as have a clearer idea of the location overall.

This assessment will be done following some rigid criteria, by checking that nothing of the electricity system will be damaged, that the items that will be smashed as safe for the characters to do.

Talking to the owner will also be a polite way to thanks them face to face about the location, make sure they are confortable enough for a whole day, supervised by several teachers