Feeback from ex-art editor Future Music Magazine
The overall design lets me know what kind of band we’ve got here straight away. Moody. Avant garde (grown up speak for indie). Leftfield. It’s nice that you’ve used – what I guess – are the band members in the advert too.
Nice work on the photo manipulation, the black and white to colour looks professional. Though when you decide to roll-out the tour posters maybe talk to iStockphoto about buying the TV image... [cough]
Great name - Apollo Station. Maybe look at taking the NME rating down a notch, it’s great to have a qualifier from an independent source that people trust for finding new music, but it seems odd to dominate the album title.
The Girls on TV typography is fun, the way it works with the television set – you can see the begging's of a logo/icon for the merchandise. But I struggled to get the TV bit straight away. It might work better if the T and V were placed underneath the set, letters side-by-side. And White too.
Considering you are AV students and not graphic designers, it’s impressive stuff.
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Magazine cover/Poster
Our ideas for the black and white background and the TV around Tom's face all went according to plan. We decided to put Tom's face in the TV as in the lyrics, one of the lines is "and is it real like those girls on TV", which gave us an image of surrealism and abstract, therefore we wanted to show this in the poster. We thought that, stereotypically, people would expect Bryony's head to be in the TV as she is the girl, but we went against that stereotype and mixed it up with Tom's head.
By putting Tom's head in the TV and making the background black and white, we had to work with the layers and make new ones then merge them etc. It was a long proccess but eventually it was done and we're very proud of how it's come out.
In the end, we decided that we should have TV written down the side of the TV as it would look better than either side. We made the font a purple/pink to contrast against the black and white background, and to link with Bryony's tights so there werent too many different colours on the magazine cover/poster.
The font we used for the band name and title of the song was used as it looks retro and rough, as the band is supposed to be percieved as rough around the edges and indie. We found the font on www.dafont.com and just changed the size to make it fit the structure of the poster, and as we needed the band title bigger than anything else on the page.
We then needed to think of a font for the tour dates, when the tour dates would be, where they would be, where to put them on the page and how they would fit around the other things going on on the magazine cover/poster. We decided on a font again from www.dafont.com that was memorable and slightly American. We liked this font as it has 2 different ways that come up, for example the "2010" on the poster looks transparent and the word "TOUR" looks is in white. We decided on white for most of our fonts as we thought it stood out from the black and white background but didnt take the attention away from the band members and "out now" banner. We decided on when the tour dates would be by writing in random dates for next year all in the spring/summer time, and we decided on the location by typing in in Google "arenas in UK" and chose from the long list.
At first we put the tour dates at the bottom of the page in a small font on the right hand side of Tom, but we then realised, and from feedback by our peers, that it wasn't standing out and wasn't really noticeable compared to the other happenings on the page so we decided to merge it into the frame more. We came up with the idea of slanting the tour dates by playing around with it and trying it in different ways, and chose the slanting idea as we thought it looked the best, running through the band members. We thought that it was a good place to put them as when the reader looks at the band members, the tour dates are immediately shown.
Like all reputable band posters, we chose to have a review from a well-known magazine, so we chose NME. We decided on the review by thinking of reviews we had seen before, and Tom thought of best newcomers, as Girls on TV would be Apollo Stations' new single! By adding on NME's review, it made the magazine cover/poster more realistic and like any other we had seen and researched.
We also used stars in the review to show the reader how good the song was and how it was rated by NME. As it was given 5 stars, we thought it might stand more of a chance of being bought, as we in the group have learnt this from past experience.
We also researched the font for the hmv logo and found it on Google after typing in "hmv logo font". It was easy to find, but we had to guess the colour for it. In the end we decided to have the same colour as the 5 stars and the word "TV". We added in the hmv logo as it's a very up to date, well known music and DVD store, which young people of today go in to buy their music and music technology. By associating our magazine cover/poster with hmv, we thought it'd draw more attention to it and open more to a wider range of readers.
By adding an "out now" banner, we thought it would show the readers that it was ready to buy now, as if it was what they had been waiting for. We put it in yellow and red so it was the brightest thing on the page, therefore telling the readers to grab the album as it may not be there long. We think the colours and font (which we used for the tour dates and reviw) work really well, as yellow and red clash, and the diagonal banner looks like a real one that is used in real magazine covers/posters of today. As we haven't used those colours anywhere else in the magazine cover/poster, it really captures the attention of the reader, and makes it unmissable that the album is out, which is ultimately what we want - sales of our single.
We are overall very pleased with our magazine cover/poster as it has taken a lot of time and effort, but it is certainly worth it. It really showed off our technology capabilities and by tweaking bits here and there we have really paid attention to the smallest of detail in all the right places.
By putting Tom's head in the TV and making the background black and white, we had to work with the layers and make new ones then merge them etc. It was a long proccess but eventually it was done and we're very proud of how it's come out.
In the end, we decided that we should have TV written down the side of the TV as it would look better than either side. We made the font a purple/pink to contrast against the black and white background, and to link with Bryony's tights so there werent too many different colours on the magazine cover/poster.
The font we used for the band name and title of the song was used as it looks retro and rough, as the band is supposed to be percieved as rough around the edges and indie. We found the font on www.dafont.com and just changed the size to make it fit the structure of the poster, and as we needed the band title bigger than anything else on the page.
We then needed to think of a font for the tour dates, when the tour dates would be, where they would be, where to put them on the page and how they would fit around the other things going on on the magazine cover/poster. We decided on a font again from www.dafont.com that was memorable and slightly American. We liked this font as it has 2 different ways that come up, for example the "2010" on the poster looks transparent and the word "TOUR" looks is in white. We decided on white for most of our fonts as we thought it stood out from the black and white background but didnt take the attention away from the band members and "out now" banner. We decided on when the tour dates would be by writing in random dates for next year all in the spring/summer time, and we decided on the location by typing in in Google "arenas in UK" and chose from the long list.
At first we put the tour dates at the bottom of the page in a small font on the right hand side of Tom, but we then realised, and from feedback by our peers, that it wasn't standing out and wasn't really noticeable compared to the other happenings on the page so we decided to merge it into the frame more. We came up with the idea of slanting the tour dates by playing around with it and trying it in different ways, and chose the slanting idea as we thought it looked the best, running through the band members. We thought that it was a good place to put them as when the reader looks at the band members, the tour dates are immediately shown.
Like all reputable band posters, we chose to have a review from a well-known magazine, so we chose NME. We decided on the review by thinking of reviews we had seen before, and Tom thought of best newcomers, as Girls on TV would be Apollo Stations' new single! By adding on NME's review, it made the magazine cover/poster more realistic and like any other we had seen and researched.
We also used stars in the review to show the reader how good the song was and how it was rated by NME. As it was given 5 stars, we thought it might stand more of a chance of being bought, as we in the group have learnt this from past experience.
We also researched the font for the hmv logo and found it on Google after typing in "hmv logo font". It was easy to find, but we had to guess the colour for it. In the end we decided to have the same colour as the 5 stars and the word "TV". We added in the hmv logo as it's a very up to date, well known music and DVD store, which young people of today go in to buy their music and music technology. By associating our magazine cover/poster with hmv, we thought it'd draw more attention to it and open more to a wider range of readers.
By adding an "out now" banner, we thought it would show the readers that it was ready to buy now, as if it was what they had been waiting for. We put it in yellow and red so it was the brightest thing on the page, therefore telling the readers to grab the album as it may not be there long. We think the colours and font (which we used for the tour dates and reviw) work really well, as yellow and red clash, and the diagonal banner looks like a real one that is used in real magazine covers/posters of today. As we haven't used those colours anywhere else in the magazine cover/poster, it really captures the attention of the reader, and makes it unmissable that the album is out, which is ultimately what we want - sales of our single.
We are overall very pleased with our magazine cover/poster as it has taken a lot of time and effort, but it is certainly worth it. It really showed off our technology capabilities and by tweaking bits here and there we have really paid attention to the smallest of detail in all the right places.
Friday, 20 November 2009
Ideas for the Digipak
In our production meeting we first discussed the name of the band and which photo to put onto the magazine cover.
We first decided to work on the name of our band and by doing this we went on Wikipedia and kept clicking on the random botton. We thought of a theme for our band name but also had to keep it indie and edgy, and we thought of a name of a God or Goddess. We typed in Greek Gods on Wikipedia and found the Gods Apollo and Herion quite interesting as they are one God with two names. Apollo/Herion is the God of Sun and we thought it sounded powerful and memorable. As people dont generally know about the name Herion we decided to go with Apollo. Agreeing on one part of the name, we decided to lengthen it, therefore we started clicking the random button on Wikipedia. We found the word "Station" and we instantly thought of "Apollo Station". This then became our band name.
For our magazine cover, we decided to choose the photo of Tom and Bryony in the forest with the car with both of them looking in opposite directions looking slightly distracted/lost but comfortable.
As we put the photo into photoshop, a few ideas arose. We are hoping to put an old fashioned TV around Tom's face to make it look like his face is in the TV. We are then hoping to make the rest of the photo black and white and just have the TV and the image inside the TV (Tom's face) in colour. We think this will look very effective but it's just a case of spending a large amount of time on photoshop to perfect this image and make it look as we want it to. We have decided that we will need to spend multiple out of college hours to get the image perfect.
Above the TV box we will maybe have "Girls on" on it and then have the letters "T" and "V" either side of Tom's face. This is just an idea as we think it will look effective that we are writing "TV" and there will be an image TV where it is meant to be written.
We will then add on the band name at the top of the poster in a big font and have a barcode at the bottom right hand side of the image. We are thinking to put the barcode in colour to contrast from the black and white background although this has not yet been definately decided.
We first decided to work on the name of our band and by doing this we went on Wikipedia and kept clicking on the random botton. We thought of a theme for our band name but also had to keep it indie and edgy, and we thought of a name of a God or Goddess. We typed in Greek Gods on Wikipedia and found the Gods Apollo and Herion quite interesting as they are one God with two names. Apollo/Herion is the God of Sun and we thought it sounded powerful and memorable. As people dont generally know about the name Herion we decided to go with Apollo. Agreeing on one part of the name, we decided to lengthen it, therefore we started clicking the random button on Wikipedia. We found the word "Station" and we instantly thought of "Apollo Station". This then became our band name.
For our magazine cover, we decided to choose the photo of Tom and Bryony in the forest with the car with both of them looking in opposite directions looking slightly distracted/lost but comfortable.
As we put the photo into photoshop, a few ideas arose. We are hoping to put an old fashioned TV around Tom's face to make it look like his face is in the TV. We are then hoping to make the rest of the photo black and white and just have the TV and the image inside the TV (Tom's face) in colour. We think this will look very effective but it's just a case of spending a large amount of time on photoshop to perfect this image and make it look as we want it to. We have decided that we will need to spend multiple out of college hours to get the image perfect.
Above the TV box we will maybe have "Girls on" on it and then have the letters "T" and "V" either side of Tom's face. This is just an idea as we think it will look effective that we are writing "TV" and there will be an image TV where it is meant to be written.
We will then add on the band name at the top of the poster in a big font and have a barcode at the bottom right hand side of the image. We are thinking to put the barcode in colour to contrast from the black and white background although this has not yet been definately decided.
Thursday, 19 November 2009
Digipak Planning
Now that we have finished our final cut we are beginning plans for making a Digipak to promote the single.
Here are some ideas for what we could include to increase the appeal of the single:
- Bonus tracks
- Lyrics
- Limited edition status
- Live performances
- 'Shout-outs'
- Video biography
- Interviews with band members
- Making of the video
Freebies:
- Stickers
- Posters
- Postcards
- Competitions
- Vouchers
- Priority tickets
- Signed stuff
In this meeting we are talking over ideas and themes to include in our digipak.
Here are some ideas for what we could include to increase the appeal of the single:
- Bonus tracks
- Lyrics
- Limited edition status
- Live performances
- 'Shout-outs'
- Video biography
- Interviews with band members
- Making of the video
Freebies:
- Stickers
- Posters
- Postcards
- Competitions
- Vouchers
- Priority tickets
- Signed stuff
In this meeting we are talking over ideas and themes to include in our digipak.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Final Cut
Here is our finished product of our music video project. Girls On TV by Be Your Own PET!
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Extra footage
With our extra footage, we had to cut and edit it to make it fit properly into the footage we had already edited for our final cut. We had extra footage of Tom (the mime) playing the guitar in different areas of the forest and Bryony (lead singer) looking up at the camera whilst singing lyrics. There was also a panic today that we didnt have enough footage of Bryony's lips so we had to take the camera outside so the lighting was the same as the old shots, and had to film a close up of Bryony's lips.
With the footage of Tom playing the guitar in different, we had to cut the shots so we could place them in time with the beat whilst making it look effective. We made it look as if Tom had jumped from one place in the forest to another in a random order, whilst still playing the guitar to the music. We had to fill the gaps in the video we had so it didnt get boring for the viewer, therefore had to make the shots short and sharp. The shots were 0.5seconds quick in the final edit. It looks effective as it is more fun than just a long shot of Tom playing the guitar without any different angles of him.
We have yet to find a place for the shot of Bryony looking up at the camera, although we have added in the close up of her lips. We will use the shots to fill in the gaps (as above) where we have no footage and need new footage to keep it interesting.
We decided to do a split screen as the final shot (as we have done at the beginning of the sequence) as it would round the music video off very well. The shots we will use will be of both Bryony and Tom together to make it look as though they got together in the end.
With the footage of Tom playing the guitar in different, we had to cut the shots so we could place them in time with the beat whilst making it look effective. We made it look as if Tom had jumped from one place in the forest to another in a random order, whilst still playing the guitar to the music. We had to fill the gaps in the video we had so it didnt get boring for the viewer, therefore had to make the shots short and sharp. The shots were 0.5seconds quick in the final edit. It looks effective as it is more fun than just a long shot of Tom playing the guitar without any different angles of him.
We have yet to find a place for the shot of Bryony looking up at the camera, although we have added in the close up of her lips. We will use the shots to fill in the gaps (as above) where we have no footage and need new footage to keep it interesting.
We decided to do a split screen as the final shot (as we have done at the beginning of the sequence) as it would round the music video off very well. The shots we will use will be of both Bryony and Tom together to make it look as though they got together in the end.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Marking
-Ability to hold a shot steady, where appropriate
-Framing a shot
-Using a variety of shot distances
-Shooting material appropriate to task set
-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting objects and setting
-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
-Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects
-Using sound with images and editing appropriatley for the task.
This is the marking criteria for our music video. To ensure that we fulfill these we will ask for feedback based on our rough cut. Also in the filming that we plan to do today we will try and meet all of the specifications to ensure maximum marks possible.
-Framing a shot
-Using a variety of shot distances
-Shooting material appropriate to task set
-Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting objects and setting
-Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer
-Using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects
-Using sound with images and editing appropriatley for the task.
This is the marking criteria for our music video. To ensure that we fulfill these we will ask for feedback based on our rough cut. Also in the filming that we plan to do today we will try and meet all of the specifications to ensure maximum marks possible.
Rough Cut
This is the rough cut of our music video. There are still a few things we need to sort out before our final music video for example:
- even out the colouring on the split screens
- tighten up the beginning sequence, particularly the lips and borders
- fill in black patches with more footage
- bigger variety of shots during the closing scenes
We are going to start editing what we can immediately and start planning another filming session so we don't have to repeat our current footage and have a larger variety of good quality footage.
- even out the colouring on the split screens
- tighten up the beginning sequence, particularly the lips and borders
- fill in black patches with more footage
- bigger variety of shots during the closing scenes
We are going to start editing what we can immediately and start planning another filming session so we don't have to repeat our current footage and have a larger variety of good quality footage.
Further Filming
After reviewing our rough cut, we realised that we didn't have enough variety of footage to keep the quality of our video on the same level throughout the song.
We are very happy with the opening sequence but are going to be filming in our production meeting today for more camera angles of the performance.
Unfortunately we can't get to our original location therefore we are using the resources we have available.
We are very happy with the opening sequence but are going to be filming in our production meeting today for more camera angles of the performance.
Unfortunately we can't get to our original location therefore we are using the resources we have available.