Diary Entry: 29th November

Today, we went filming instead of our lesson today. We wanted to re-shoot the walking scene as the last shots were not in the correct format therefore were not clear.

We did the re-shooting in the same place near the bridge and we were happy when the set changed slightly due to the weather as it emphasised it was not the same time or place, implying it is the end of the song. We also changed the shot so it would be a forward track then pan around Grace to a behind shot to see her walking off.  This worked well however was a bit shaky as it was cold and the camera was hand held. A dolly was not used as on our first shooting at this location the floor was rough and it would not be as practical so instead we decided to hand hold it and slowly and steadily take the shot. We will not know if this way works until uploading the footage.

Author: Kiran Paul

CD Album Images

Print Artifact: CD Album

The image above is the outside of the album cover as well as one side of the inside cover. We have stayed with the theme of black and white as we believed it looked very effective and went well with the grunge theme. Something we were keen to stay by. The image on the right is an image that will be in the opening of the case and we have altered the brightness and contrast to be the same as the others as we wanted to stay with the theme. 

The middle image is the back cover. The barcode is located in the bottom right corner as followed by the codes and conventions and the record label and other label icons are displayed above the text which is found on every album cover. The song titles are displayed on the right and the last few go on top of the main image however it looks realistic and normal for an album cover to do. The four x's have been used on every album of The Pretty Reckless so to follow the same theme we decided to used them on the back cover. We did this in a chalk font to look bold against the back cover.    

 This image is the front cover. We kept it simple as we wanted the image to be the main focus. Most front covers have a title and just the image as it needs to appeal to the customers. We did not brainstorm front covers ideas because as soon as we took this photo we knew we wanted this as the front cover as it had a wide background for the title to be written and it looks like a cover picture. The ash tray and cigarettes fitted well with this as we wanted it to imply the album name- Light me up. We felt this connection had a link and worked well.

The three images above is the inside cover for the album. 

 This image is the inside main cover and will cover up one side of the album. We have typed the band name  and drew a heart to emphaise the personal feel of the album. This feature has been done in many album covers of all genres as it depends on the individual's perspective. The brightness and contrast has also been altered to 81% and 88% to get the sharp white background and the darkness of the Grace's outline.

 The middle image is a collage of pictures of Grace at different shots and candids. We wanted a personal feel so placed fun images that were taken during the photo-shoot and filming. We did not want serious ones as we felt it would not be as fun and would not add to the personal feel.











This image is the final image of the inside cover, it is also black and white and the brightness and contrast was changed to look consistent. The same four x's as used on the back cover we also used in this bit however the font has changed to a marker pen to imply it was done by Grace. This logo is their signature icon and is used on all the advertisements so we felt if we incorporated it into the inside cover as well as back it would promote them.

Author: Kiran Paul and Lauren Mcmanus

Diary Entry: 28th November

Today in our media lesson we looked at the printed version of the inside album cover, we realised that we did not like the position of the images and there was not enough in the collage. So instead we changed it so that there was only one image on both sides and a mixture in the middle. We also changed the colours of the two large images (right and left) to a sharper white and black effect. This was done by making both images black and white and the brightness to 81% and contrast to 88%. Doing this meant a washed out but bold image is presented instead of having two images of different colours.  

Once doing this we then edited the main center image by re-arranging the image position to make it more appealing. In one of the corners of three images the corner points did not fit well so we decided to write a signature to add to the personal touch. As we already added text in a marker pen we chose to used this font and size to write her name. We found difficulty to do it free hand do we decided to type it and rotate it to a slant to make it look more realistic.

When trying to drawn the signature we got Grace herself to do it as we wanted it to be her actual signature and we found it difficult to do it ourselves. Once realising none of us could do this we chose to type it in this font to make it consistent and look better. We also showed Grace our production so far, she was very impressed and said it looked effective and professional. Moreover we showed her our four ideas of the magazine cover and asked her which her favourite was, she agreed with us and liked the first one as it look effective and like a magazine cover. Sir was also asked this question and he agreed with this design he said the others looked frigid and the setting was not as effective. Me and Lauren therefore chose the first design as our firm but felt we may need to edit the colour of the image to make it stand our and look more bold.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 26th November

I had an idea over the weekend which inspired me to edit our inside of the album cover. I got the idea from the Emile Sande album in which inside there is a collage of images and I thought it would work very well for our album as we had so many images from the photo shoot which had not have been used but were of a high quality and would look good as a collage. I texted Lauren this idea and she was thrilled about it.

Therefore in today's lesson we decided to edit the inside cover, we thought it would be more difficult to get the images to look like a collage however it worked well, we reformed to shape making it different sizes, changed the contrast and brightness to make the images look unique but still all fit the black and white theme. We decided to still have the original text on the cover as it looked good and follows codes and conventions of some inside covers. In the end we put a large image on both sides of the cover and the collage in the middle frame. However one of the image had too much bare space on the left of it so instead we cropped this image and placed three black and white images in a column next to it so it looked more full. 


As we did not want too many images that looked the same we decide to find a background on Google that would fill the gaps. We found this one to the left. It is a grungy background that fits well with the other images and we made this arrange to back so that it would act like a background and be hidden among the other images. 

Once finishing this we were pleased with the design and would print it next lesson to see how it looks printed, however we did identify that we may need more images to make it look better.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 22nd November

In today's lesson, we showed our filming production to our teacher and he mentioned some feedback that we could take on board when we next update the filming. Once showing our project we decided to make the scene where the couple are filming themselves more realistic. We did this by un-focusing the start and end of the filming so it implies that they are trying to adjust the camera, however once focused the shot was sharp and looked quick and did not flow. Instead we added a film dissolve to make the shot go from unfocused to focused.

Once doing this we then tried to edit one of the shots by get rid of two lines in the background however this proved difficulty as the shot moved so the lines moved in the wrong place. Instead we decided to razor the image and change the lines as the image moved.

Once completing some edits on the video footage we decided to continue editing our print artifacts. The artifact we decided to edit was the inside cover of the CD album. We wanted the album to seem personal and in some albums there are doodles in the inside cover therefore as we had empty spaces around the image we chose to draw around the image. This was done by using the pen and changing the effect to a smudge marker to make it look like a marker pen, we started to draw a signature, love hearts, three x's and typed up the pretty reckless and made it slanted to make it look real.     

Author: Kiran Paul         

Diary Entry: 19th November

Finishing off from last lesson we continued to edit our magazine advert. Sir showed us printed HMV game, music and film adverts within magazines so we could see how they organise their layout and design the page.

We then chose four potential images for the cover and opening a word document we inserted the image. Arranging the image on the page in Mac Photoshop became a nuisance as the image would not move to one side and would not crop properly, instead we decided to amend the document in word on the school computers using the Microsoft software. This was easier as the image moved and we were are familiar with this software. 

Once making sure the word document was A4 size we changed the background to black, inserted our main image and sized it correctly. We then added all the features such as the HMV dog logo, the text, terms and conditions

In another window we opened the logos and edited them so the background was transparent. Having edited the minor aspects we opened the A4 word document, changed the colour of the background to black and added all the features such as the HMV dog logo, text, CD, album cover and text including the terms and conditions. 

We chose to create four designs and ask others which they think is the best for a magazine advert. However the price has not be placed as we were only focusing on the design and layout, then the price will be inserted after. 

The first idea was our favourite because of the setting and position, we love how the props such as the crate and jumper added to the grunge theme and fits well with the album cover. We felt the position of the text worked well with the image and just looked like a magazine advert. Another thing we liked about this image was that Grace looks at the camera so she is interacting with the audience. 

The image to the right is the second option. This position is Grace looking over her shoulder towards the camera. We liked this image because of the interaction however felt the body position was a little awkward. The magazine features also stayed in the same position as it is conventional for HMV to have the their logo to the right and album cover to the left.

The third design is good because it only takes up half of the page however one of the heals are cut off in this image which makes the main image look slightly weird. Due to this it does not look professional as we have not paid attention to detail. This is my least favourite shot. 

Finally this image is the last option. This is the same image as the first option however is in a different framing. I like this framing because again it is interacting with the audience, her actions imply her casual and 'doesn't care' vibe which adds to the grunge appeal. The titles at the bottom are the same as the previous 3. 

















Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 15th November

At the start of the lesson a small amendment was made to the back cover. The credits were needed on the back to make it look much more professional therefore we viewed existing CD covers to view what it said, once seeing this we typed up the credits on our cover and made the font size small to fit on to the cover.

As the template was a tri-fold we decided to have images within the case. We wanted different poses to make the case more interesting, as well as we decided to have the images as different colours to contrast against one another. The middle image inside was a blue tinted image and on both sides we chose to have black and white images to fit with the back and front of the cover. We liked the black and white effect as it added to the grunge look we wanted to go for.

The album cover was done so we then started our magazine advert for the 10 mins remaining, as this was not completed we will finish it next lesson.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 14th November

As last lesson we created the back image, today we chose to create the front of the CD cover. We had already found the actual text of the band so inserting this was very simple, but before importing we had to make the image transparent so there would be no white background or outline around the text, this was done on Fireworks. The image chosen for this cover was Grace dabbing the cigarette hinting at the album name- light me up. We wanted a dark image where she would be the focus, although there is empty space on the right she is the main focus of the cover. The album title was created on Photoshop as it was just text. This colour and font was used as it stood out and the orange colour implied light/ fire which also links to the cigarettes. We felt linking the image and text would make the image have a relevance and effectiveness.

When both the front and back covers were completed we imported it to the tri-fold CD template. Although importing it did not alter the image to fit to scale so we had to do it manually by making it fit a 12cm by 12cm square. This task proved difficulty as the images were overlapping and the quality of the image changed as it was transformed in size. Instead a lot of the unnecessary parts had to be cropped to ensure the image did not  lose its high quality and good size. This process was very time consuming however as we got used to it, the process got a lot quicker.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 12th November

As we have no more footage to edit we decided to start our print artifacts so that we could organise our time properly. We decided we would focus on the back cover of the CD in today's lesson. Thankfully the photo shoot was done near the start of the production so we did not have the worry of filming as well as getting images for the album covers.

To start the back cover we chose our image very carefully however since the photo shoot we had the perfect image for the back and we were happy that the image came out clearly and was very effective. Originally the image was colour however Lauren felt it would look better if the image was black and white, doing this made the image better but I suggested to change the contrast and brightness so the face and entire image was white and the black eyes stood out. This image looked extremely effective but was more visually appealing when the text was placed on. The titles used the font- courier and coloured in black to contrast against the white background. A bar-code and logo of the record label was also imported so the CD cover would respect the codes and conventions. However one unconventional thing that was done was not having the song times next to the song titles. We felt this did not look appealing and it was not a major concern as most CD cases do not state the times on the back cover.  

To import the Interscope records label was a struggle due to the outline being white and as our main image background was a faded white we had t edit the image in fireworks. This still proved to be a problem as the shades changed depending on the position. To solve this we used the ink generator and clicked the area nearest to the text and then used a paintbrush to go around the lining of the text. In the end this worked and was not noticeable.






Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 8th November

In today's lesson me and Lauren started straight away to edit the footage. We needed to upload the footage of the re-walk to put at the end however when trying to import we realised that the footage was of a different format and made the footage look blurred and unstable. We could not have used this footage as it would look completely different and unprofessional compared to the rest of the video, therefore we decided to re-film as we wanted the entire footage to be of a high quality.

The crying footage on the other hand was not blurred or an odd colour therefore the footage could be used. We firstly enlarged the image so it was zoomed into the eye only where the tear drop falls, we also made the speed of this drop very slow to exaggerate and add to the video effect. A lot of editing was done to this shot as the original colour was faded and made Grace's skin look infected. We disorted the image and changed the colours, however this made the image look worse by turning her older and with bad skin. Finding a suitable effect was stressful so we decided to leave it and come back to it when we had edited other areas.

As most of our footage could not be used we decided to edit more of the footage we already have. An idea we had was to  use a magnification effect when Grace was singing. This effect would make Grace Bigger and be in faint wash out colour to either the right or left of her. We originally wanted this to be on both sides but found it difficult to do because it mirrored the main shot of grace and converted the two images into one which looked very weird and alien like. We found this funny but was not fond of it for our work.


Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 7th November

In today's filming session me, Lauren and our main actress Grace revisited our first location; the pathway near the bridge as well as filming the close up of the tea drop. Firstly we put dark eye makeup on grace and tried to make Grace cry, doing this was very difficult as Grace could physically not cry. After this we went to the pathway to film the walking scene. We made Grace wear different clothes to show a change in time and the weather helped with this as there was more autumn leaves. Me and Lauren wanted different shots to be done from the start walk as we did not want it to look similar, therefore we wanted a forward and reverse track to make the music video diverse. A dolly was not used because the floor surface was very rough and it made the camera very shaky. Therefore we decided to walk and hold the camera instead.

Author: Kiran Paul

Diary Entry: 5th November

After returning from the holidays me and Lauren got straight into editing our project. We watched the video again and decided that the bath scene at the end was not very effective and was not working with the rest of the video footage. In the bath scene there was green paint on the wall which was not supposed to be there and because it was highly visible we felt it would not be appropriate for a music video. Therefore we decided to film an alternative ending where Grace would revisit the bench but walk past smiling and singing showing the end of their relationship.

Once deciding this, we felt that the footage that we had needed more effects. On one of the shots of grace singing we put a magnify effect. This placed a bigger image of her on the left as well as the original image and looked very effective because of originally changing the colour and contrast to make the image look washed out and white. This was only done to one of the shots because we wanted each singing part to look different. Another effect that was placed in the shots was a blur on the edges of the frame. This effect was used on the romantic sitting down scene and worked very well because of the camera technique and video effect. As the camera zoomed out the candle lit tea lights appeared through the blurred frame which added romance to the shot. Another video effect used was during the argument scene. The colour of the room was quite bright and did not fit with the lyrics at this certain point, we therefore made the scene darker to make the lighting stand out. As well as doing this we increased the speed and duration of the shot where Grace throws her pillow to dramatize her anger. Moreover we then edited the REC titles. The text was moved to the left corner and a battery icon was made to make the image of a camera look more realistic. We razored the title shot so that it would repeatedly flash on and off the screen to show it is recording as well as showing the battery decreases by slowly the battery bars disappearing.

Author: Kiran Paul