MC: Advert Printwork PRODUCTION PROCESS

Here shows the original image. We chose to write the text on the wall itself to look as real as possible; fearing that pasting on some hand-drawn text would look obviously artificial. To experiment we took a series of photos using the hand-written backdrop. Portrait and landscape photos for the possibility of using the image for the album cover, and some variation of focus on the writing and the girl character.  We also varied it by placed each member of the band in front of the backdrop, and the front and back of the girl for any future digipack or advert use.

 I processed the image by following video and written tutorials. Firstly, to place horizontal lines to emulate a TV screen, I created pattern fill of simply only one pixel. I tried different shades of grey to allow the perfect amount of colour through of the lower level. I also added noise to create further distortion, to recreate a damaged VHS player.

I created another distortion by using the 'shear' function, as if the image is warped from faulty hardware of the VHS tape and tracking lines. The VHS theme is popular in the 90s revival image, and the group researched VHS-damaged photos as shown in planning post.

On top of that, I added a grey rectangle shape with huge amounts of noise. After realising they were too dominant in the picture I tweaked the opacity and levels of noise. 32 pixels of noise proved perfect and 62% opacity left the bars of distorted colour more transparent and were seamlessly integrated into the advert. 

 Next, a desirable effect I found in the tutorial, was to warp the colours. I created three copy layers of the original image, below the original picture. Using the levels function, the colours were crunched and so each one was pure red, green and blue. Next, I set the layer style of the three colours to ‘exclusion’, and the original above set to 'luminosity' to become vaguely transparent. After slightly moving the coloured layers to the left and right, therefore a slightly 3D blurring effect was consciously created.

 Next, quotations were added. I applied ‘Trajan Pro’ font as this serif font was conventional and of clarity, offering a contrast to the random hand-drawn nature of the other text featured. This provided a professional aesthetic of a published magazine.

I copied a yellow star image from the internet and placed them over 3 separate quotes simply to adhere to the rule of thirds and prove aesthetically pleasing.

To finalise, I changed the stars’ colour from yellow to white after realising that this lighter colour fit the colour scheme better. Yellow stars is a conventional colour seen in NME before, but it fit in with the play button and became the chosen colour. I also placed a conventional fast forward VHS symbol on the bottom right. It was white to be striking and raise the image so it was on the surface of the overall image, giving the impression the artwork was a still from a TV screen. It more importantly gives the audience the urge to physically press play on the video. The significance of the fast forward symbol is the notion that a lot of footage in our music video production has experienced time compression.

I reformatted the sizing of the picture to A4 dimensions, so that when printed, it would simulate a full-page advert. The advert, as said, is intended for NME magazine (300mm x 240mm). To obtain A4 status, the horizontal dimensions had to increase. To avoid stretching the image and making it look warped, I used the clone tool to extend the concrete backing wall.

Finally, I placed ‘new single ‘got no money’ included’ to mention the music video track as the relevant single on the album obvious. I used no capital letters and a pixelated font to simulate a disregard for refined presentation. Furthermore, the band website is added at the base of the image, acknowledging fandom and the super-fans that have a thirst for more from the band. This has been placed on the other pieces of printwork to create coherence and promotes the website.

Finished advert:

MC: Advert Printwork PLANNING

The group set out to create a grungy looking advert that would have some coherence with the original pieces of band artwork. A theme we liked was the anti-social behavior of graffiti expressing album titles and stickers showing their band name. NME was the chosen magazine to present this artwork, as it demonstrates the band’s desire to reach out and access the mainstream. The advert will promote the band’s new album coming out soon, and reviewed by smaller magazines than NME. We also chose this specific promotion as we have seen FIDLAR’s material and interviews being promoted previously.

The group brainstormed ideas, and we came up with a specific idea to have a female character wearing a patch with the band name on the back. Reasons for this choice consist mainly of our commitment to mise-en-scene. There are a series of skate teams that live in the same LA area and this has multiple connections to the surf and skate-punk scene of the band that use patches to promote the name of their collective. Denim has been a prominent trait in the costume, as members of the band, and similar, consistently wear this material.

In the video for ‘No Waves’ by FIDLAR, Zac (the singer) uses his sister to mime the lyrics for most of the song. She features in other videos of theirs and has become part of the band’s meta-narrative. We thought using a girl character for the advert would adhere to their theme and prove coherent with their image.

My advert specifically is for NME magazine. It would cover one full page inside the magazine, prior to the concert listings. We analysed the popularity of the band by considering the number of Facebook likes (12,000 fans), arguably the most popular social network they use. It would be too expensive for the band to obtain a two-page spread, or seek a place inside the front cover.

We looked through some artwork and press shots of the band and saw that a great number of them were particularly grainy. A revelation came to me, and I thought that the VHS effect that is placed on our video, should be continued throughout the artwork to provide a strong band image. Once I gained the knowledge for this effect of my advert I showed the others. This was so that each piece of print-work (adverts and digipack), would have strong coherence with each other.

I researched a number of tutorials including one to simulate a vintage game, played through a TV or VHS.

 VHS tutorial

Genuine VHS

Genuine VHS

Genuine VHS

Genuine VHS

JC: Digipak + Evaluation of print

1. In what ways does your print product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of other similar products (layout, image, font, SFX)

I think our print work is fairly conventional compared to usual advertising methods and artwork designs. Our work has a consistent theme and is easily distinguishable as being about the same artist. The images we have used are framed correctly, and the most prominent object of the images are usually in the centre. Compared with FIDLAR's examples of work such as CD artwork and music videos, I think we have created a product which would advertise the band equally as well as their own images. 

2. How doese your product link to the other print and moving image products your group has constructed? (brand, star image, visual motifs, colour, font, images, illustrative, amplified, disjunctive)

I believe that we have created a cohesive set of prints which successfully reinforce FIDLAR's image and meta-narrative. The damaged VCR effect has made our work more aesthetically pleasing, as the warped images and vivid colours give the prints an interesting look about them. This also upholds the 'grungy', low-budget aspect which is seen in a lot of FIDLAR's music videos as well as our own, making it easy for an audience to associate the artwork with the band and their videos. 

The cursive font we used further creates the sense of a low-budget aesthetic, as the handwriting is scrawled and untidy, rather than neat and orderly. The fact that it is written on a wall (or appears to be) also conforms to FIDLAR's affiliation with street culture: announcing tour dates in the form of graffiti:

 

Costume has been a main focus throughout our work as it is a great contributor to achieving the 'careless teenager' image we aimed for. Denim jackets, worn out trainers, ripped jeans etc are a prominent aspect of our work and are the key feature which make the band stand out in our video. FIDLAR take pride in their strong, intimate fanbase, and put a lot of work into making their followers satisfied, examples include homemade merchandise, selling copies of their album at shows (before it has been commercially released) and highly appreciating those who go so far as to tattoo the band's name on themselves. Our artwork and adverts reflect the band's closeness with their fans by featuring a homemade band jacket as the main visual aspect.

3. What other techniques have you used in the software not already mentioned? To what effect?

We used our own font (my handwriting) in order to make the writing look like graffiti. Although we actually wrote 'Don't Try' on a wall, we had to create a font for the track-listing which would be coherent with the title on the front cover. I wrote down 10 existing songs on a piece of white paper in the same style of handwriting and used a scanner to load the text as a JPEG on Photoshop. I then stripped the image of its RGB levels using the level adjustment editor, leaving only black output and some white as well. I then used the magic wand tool to select only the black parts of the image (which was just the text). This was then copied and pasted onto the blank wall background image which would then become the back of the CD cover. 

GROUP: Evaluation of Brighton footage (provisional film shoot)

GROUP: Concept development

• As a group, we have decided to attemtp to find the media of colour correction, between making the video look to dull, and it looking too artificial. As part of the band's meta-narrative, which is linked strongly to Los Angeles, which is iconic for it's sunny weather, we intended on colour correcting and editing the contrast and brightness of our footage to almost create the illusion of our production taking place in the same areas, but as part of the 'fly-on-the-wall' ethos that we are trying to convey through our music video, we want to avoid making our footage appear too artificial.
• We have also found ourself filling small areas on the time line where no footage is present, as we did foresee this problem, we filmed alot short shots (many consisting of only approximately a second) to fill these spaces, many of the shots reinforce the band image, as they consist of things naturally associated with the band's persona like skating.
• We have also now inserted the footage of the sketch which features at the end of the music video, which is used to use up time to reach our target duration of approximately two and a half minutes. The sketch now consists of one of the band members who feature in the music video, to be removing a VHS tape from a VCR player, thus implying that he was watching the music video, and possibly reminising of his past, this is enigmatic as some of the audience may infer that he has 'moved on' in his life and left the 'care-free' lifestyle behind, this is a form of narrative fuzz, which we found was conventional of Fidlar's music videos.

JC: Photoshop VCR effect development

- First, I created 3 extra layers for the red, green and blue layers of the image. The layer type for these was changed to 'Exclusion'.
- Another two background copies were created for the TV lines effect, which was 'Soft Light', and one more for colour correction 'Luminosity'.

I then created a fill layer which was half light grey and half white. By applying a gaussian blur of two pixels, and adding some noise, this created the TV line effect.

To create separate colour layers, I selected each one, and set the output level for each colour to 0 corresponding to what colour I wanted to create, e.g.: Red layer - Red: 100, Green: 0, Blue: 0, Blue Layer - Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 100.

I then moved the red and green layers slightly left and right in order to create the damaged tape effect.

Lastly, I created some distortions to further imitate the notion of damaged VCR tape. This included warped sections of the image and sections with altered colour. I did this by using the select tool on the background copy and giving the selected section a gaussian blur and added noise.
For the distortion I used the rectangle tool and made the selected shape a light grey colour. I then changed this shape layer to soft light and also added gaussian blur and noise.
For some other images I used different layer types such as 'Saturation' and 'Overlay', which gave different results, such as drained colour, and more vivid, defined sections of noise.

CF:Development of print work

I have decided to use the image displayed below, as the base image for the advert that I am designing and producing:

• We took this image during the first second film shoot, I we feel that it is an aesthetically pleasing photo, one of the contributing factors to this, is how the colour of the female character's hair clearly does not correspond with that of the bland grey wall that does dominate the photo currently.
• One of the problems with this photo, is that there the photo is not naturally an A4 picture, which is a major problem as I made the initial designs of the advert, with the idea in mind that the advert would feature in a weekend newspaper, which would feature A4 advert, even if I chose not to produce an A4 advert, the final product of the advert would need to be of a standardized size, which it is not in the image above.
• To overcome this problem, I shall use the stamp tool in photoshop to select a similar an area of the image with a similar colour range to what the blank areas should be filled with. I simply selected the stamp tool:

• This allowed me to successfuly fill the image to the standard A4 size that I had already chosen, I chose the tool, selected the area of colour I wanted to use, then use it to paint to fill in the two blank columns down either side of the image, which was now in a complete A4 state. This image now looked like this:
  
  
  
  



CF: Plan for print work

• For my print work, I am planning to design and produce an A4 advert featuring artwork relating to the music artist (FIDLAR), the advert will be representative not just of the music artist, but their most recent album in particular (called 'Don't Try). I will use Photoshop CS3 due to its diverse range of tools which will allow me to make vast edits to the initial image, and will generally allow me to incorporate other forms of media such as fonts and other images.
• The advert itself will be designed, with the thought in mind that whereas other adverts for the band may do,  the advert I am producing will not feature in a music magazine, but possibly in a weekend newspaper. This is because, the age of the core audience of all genres of rock music in the last decade, has expanded, many people in their late 30's are now attending rock concerts, where as in the past, this was only the situation in certain sub-genres of rock music like prog rock. The weekend newspapers I am referring to, are largely read by people who also fit into this expanded age range. While music magazines clearly 'get their message through' in terms of advertising to younger people, broadsheet newspapers advertise and promote media texts to these people who are into their 30's or possibly older, and as the age range of the target audience of the music expands, it is only logical for the publicity campaigns of the music artists to expand also. Broadsheet newspapers often feature A4 advertisements for popular culture (including movies and music artists), and for this reason, the advert I shall produce will be in A4 form.
• Here is an example of a popular band whose advert has featured in a broadsheet newspaper.

• The actual content of the magazine will relate to the meta-narrative of the band, the idea of the 'fly-on-the-wall' ethos which we observed in many of Fidlar's other music videos, where everything seems improvised and low-budget, will be incorporated into the actual print advert.

• Relating to the meta-narrative of the band, we noticed that in many of Fidlar's music videos, the lead singers sister features in many of the shots as a recurring character, not only is this enigmatic, but it also helps to establish a form of iconography for the fans to recognise within the music video productions. My initial plan for the advert is seen above, and features this character, as well as the name of the album. Other conventional characteristics of music adverts that will feature in the final advert, include name of the artist, quotes of reviews from critics/magazines, ratings and possibly a release date.

GROUP: Concept development

• After discussing the following of the artist of whom perform the track we are producing a music video for (FIDLAR), we came to the conclusion that their following is that of a cult audience, where even though the numbers of their fans are small, the supporters they do have are loyal and dedicated. To reward them, as many artists do, we willl use replace an advert in the background of our footage, with one of the print adverts we have created using photoshop.We will use Adobe after-effects to key the advert in, and it will act as almost a form of semiotics for the audience, who would be very keen to seek for these forms of symbolism in our video.

• Secondly, we have made the decision to change the narrative of the sketch that appears at the end of our music video after the track. Originally, we planned for a elderly man to remove a VHS tape which was supposedly the music video, from a VCR player, and in an enigmatic way, convey to the audience that this elderly man used to be one of the band members that appears in the music video, and he is reminiscing of his past. Instead, we are going to convey the three band members watching the music video VSH, who in the time after when the music video was set and when they are watching it (a matter of a few years), have left the care-free lifestyle that is conveyed in the music video, and instead appear more corporate.

GROUP: Concept development

• We have decided that alot of our footage looks to similar, and lacks variety and creativity on the aspects of camera techniques, for this reason, during our last shoot (this week) we will ensure that a number of different kinds of camera shots will be used, include more Long shots, more stationary shots, and shots from high and low angles, as opposed to centered shots.
• We have also come to the conclusion that the footage we have, may be lacking enough variety in the shots which feature the performers to be miming the track, this is crucial as excluding the last section of the song, the rest of the music video does not feature performance, but will feature tracking shots of the performers walking/skating while singing to the track.
• Finally, we have made the decision to use a fish eye lens which adds to the 'fly-on-the-wall' persona that we believe our final production will create the illusion of. Fish eye lenses are often used for recording footage of urban sports such as longboarding and skateboarding, and we believe that it would almost be an intertextual reference to use a fish eye lens.

GROUP: Concept development

Concept development

•    Now we have started the initial filming stage of the production process, our next major task for production, is to observe the footage which we have shot, and decide how much of this footage is to the standard that we believe it should be, to be incorporated into the final music video. The next stage will then be to decide which shots we will then still need to film and we will plan for us to go out and film them, and then do so.
•       A large challenge relating to having more than one filming session is the matter of continuity. The appearance of the characters that feature in the footage is not an issue, as we have asked them to wear the same clothes, and have their hair in the same style, as well as other aspects relating to appearance. The appearance of the environments that our footage takes place within could be an issue, as weather, lighting and physical changes to these locations could prove to be a major issue. We will use weather forecasts to see when the weather will be similar during the shoot of that day, to what it was in the first shooting session. Obviously, the matter of continuity is only relevant when re-filming parts from scenes we have already shot, but we have made the decision that continuity is not needed between the different scenes.
•       One problem concerning continuity that we encountered, was the
•       After the initial shoot, we have decided to incorporate the use of a steadicam when shooting the rest of our footage, as although we are attempting to convey a ‘home-video’ look within our footage, we believe that are initial footage simply looked unprofessional, and was not enjoyable to watch to a certain extent.
•       We have planned for our next filming session, to be on the Tuesday, 13^th of November where we not only is it practical for all of the members of our group to film on, but other aspects such as weather will also comply with the continuity of the footage which we shot on our first filming session.

GROUP: Evaluation of first shoot

Evaluation of first shooting

• On the 29^th of September, myself (Connor), Max and Jake met in Tonbridge to begin the filming process of our production. We decided to shoot the shots which will not require all three members of the group to feature in the footage we shot. As there are a small number of shots which comply with these criteria, we allocated two hours which we efficiently used to get the shots we wanted.
• The shots we decided to shoot included that of the sketch which will feature at the very beginning of our music video where one of the band members is shown to have very little balance in his bank account to relate to the track’s name (“got no money”). We also wanted to shoot some of the shots which take place in the location which will appear to resemble a venue/performance area. The overall quality of the shots varied.
• After watching the shots of the ATM sketch scene, we were satisfied, although we thought that the lack of lighting resulted in the shot appearing grainy. We were disappointed with the shots which we took within the venue-area (which is actually Jake’s house) for the same reason, apart from we believe that an artificial source of light such as lamps will need to be used should we shoot these shots again, which is likely.

• We encountered a number of problems throughout the process of filming for a number of reasons. As previously mentioned, we experienced number of problems relating to a lack of light, this applied to the shots which we shot both indoors and outdoors. We will overcome the lack of light indoors, by using artificial lights, include normal desk lamps and a camera-light.
• For all of the shots which we are planning to shoot outside, we will now look ahead and use weather forecasts to ensure that there is maximum lighting, not only is this to prevent the shots appearing grainy, but also to fit in with the meta-narrative of the band which is strongly associated with surf culture, Los Angeles (Venice Beach) etc., where there would clearly me more sun and lighting, than the climate of Britain.
• We believe that the footage we shot (as shown in the still screenshot from the footage below does convey colour which is vibrant enough, and 'sunny' enough to relate to the band's culture of surfing and skateboarding which are clearly summer sports and would be done in sunnier climates, such a photo that we took which complies with this, is shown below.

               

• Alhough this shoot was certainly not as successful as we would have liked it to of been, we did learn a number of things which will definitely make the futureshoots more successful. The first of these lessons was the importance of preparation.
• Our lack of preparation meant that we were not able to shoot many of the shots which we wanted to, as we did not discuss and record which props were required for certain scenes. We also learnt that importance of treating the environment in which you are shooting, like an official set. A key example of this was when we were shooting the shots for the sketch featuring the ATM scene, and although we were alerting anyone that walked nearby that we were shooting footage for school work, people were still slightly sceptical due to the fragile nature of surveillance near ATMs due to awareness of fraud.
•  Another example of this was when shooting in a house, where we were trying to create the illusion that the area in which we were shooting is an official music venue, due to a lack of care, when watching the footage back, it was clear amongst us (as an audience to the footage) that the footage was shot in an actual venue, the aspects that prevented us from achieving this illusion, was simple things like not putting typical household items like family photographs away. This again, was perhaps a lack of preparation.
• We also took photographs of the people who are going to represent the band in the print pieces (digipak and adverts), we took a number of photographs for this in a number of locations, but we found that the shots which worked most effectively for the 'fly on the wall' persona that we are trying to convey, were the shots which featured the 'band members' in more natural poses, rather than shots which are clearly staged.