Group: Studio Shoot / Update - 29-11-13

LB: Today we had our studio shoot which has been building up for a while. Unfortunately due to slots for booking and times we could film we were only able to film for just over an hour. This meant we went in with the mentality to get as much footage in the time we had. The list of shots we had planned were;

• Projection shots over the top of Chris 
• Throwing work equipment in the air for end of video
• Standing looking at hand that is changing from Black & White to colour (Cinematic, POV and different angles)
• Attempt Shadow shots
• Mid shot that will flicker Chris from colour to not

The projection shots is something that we have wanted to do for a while, but due to complications, we have never got them done. After filming them they were not as effective as we first thought. We are still yet to review the footage however we thought when we practiced on a white board it worked better because no lines appeared. I will not be able to see the footage until Tuesday because I have a University Interview, so Chris and Joey will have to see how it came out.

After filming I managed to take one SD card home with a small amount of footage, this contained one shot of Chris throwing the paper. Im not sure if this is the best one, however I put it through After Effects anyway and played with the colour in the studio. This render has been slowed down to 25% with a few mistakes made on the 'Roto Brush' tool. However the effect is still effective,  A shot like this can be hard because of the falling paper which meant I had to look frame by frame and alter the tool, however I am pleased with how it looks.

 

CC: Today we filmed some more studio footage. We only had one hour to film so we decided to film all the basic shots first to get them out of the way so we had some definite footage to edit and look through. We filmed some shots of my shadow on a projector, some conceptual shots of myself walking into a film of myself on the projector. In addition, we filmed some more conceptual shots of falling newspaper which I think turned out very well as Liam edited them on after effects. He made the background and myself black and white, while the newspaper was in colour. This shows the contrast between urban and rural life conceptually. My facial expression being angry also shows my characters hatred for urban life.

 

 



Group: Update 28-11-13

CC: Today we have decided that we will film tomorrow in break and periods 2 and 3. We are going to film the shots of my hand and my face turning into black and white or into colour. We may also re film the shots of the leaves falling onto me in the studio depending on how yesterdays filming turned out.

LB: In todays lesson we decided that we will be filming our studio shots tomorrow. This shoot has been building up for a while and the more we go on, the more our narrative expands, this means we have new ideas and shots to try that we did not have last week. The biggest change is the new idea of Chris being in Black & White with all other footage in colour. Since then we have thought of ideas that our urban footage can be in Black & White with Chris in colour to have this small narrative and play with colour with the rest of our footage being acceptable as a conceptual piece.

After this I started to carry on with my print work, since the rough cut and talking to my peers, It is clear that the favourite Image is the close up of the mask. So today I tried to think of ways I could incorporate the title of the album as if it was a front cover of our digi-pak. Despite what we found from our print analysis, the huge typography would completely ruin the effect of the Image, as the Image is powerful itself. So far this is roughly an Idea of opacity and colour for the title, I managed to cut the custom font from an image of one of Bastilles covers.

Rough Cover Idea with Typography 

At school I also transferred some footage onto a memory stick so I could take it home and put it through After Effects. In total I took about 15 seconds of footage to see if I could use the 'Roto-brush' for a wide range of shots. All of the shots need to have a "Auto Colour" effect applied to bring out the contrast in the shots.The first shot is one fourth of the woodland side where we match cut to the music, moving into chris's eyes in the urban location and back out in the woodland location. This one was the easiest to do as the contrast difference of Chris's profile and the background was quite different, this meant the tracking and positioning of the tool was minimal.

The second shot edited was one of our stop motion shots where the other characters move closer to Chris, in this shot two characters lock arms with Chris, this made it hard to make sure that the other characters were not effected by the Black and White track, so I had to remove the selected area frame by frame so it worked well.

The third shot is very small, however in our rough cut we shown this shot in slow-motion and in reverse also. I took the original footage for the edit, and when I take this into school I can apply the effects I did last time. One problem with this shot is that it is near impossible to make a separate layer for the party popper, so when it pops at first there is half a second where it is effected by the Black and White mask. However I am still happy with the outcome of this shot.

The fourth shot I looked at today is our synchronised shot. In our rough cut we produced this idea of three different characters doing the same action of putting there hand on Chris and be jump cut to make it look like one smooth transition. I decided to use the original footage instead of the jump cut already produced as it would have been more time consuming, so now I can do the shot again with this footage when I next sit down to edit.

 

LB: Roto Brush on After Effects

After receiving feedback from our rough cut, a problem brought up was that Chris in the woodland location was not smiling and did not seem happy. From this we needed to address the issue, however I put forward an Idea of reinforcing the problem and giving the narrative a different connotation. The idea I had involved making Chris Black & White like we have done in one of our studio shots.
This creative Idea would not be possible to do on Premiere unless we were to make the whole shot Black & White. So to do this I had to use After Effects. The program has a tool called "Roto Brush' which gives you the ability to track and select a certain frame (Custom frame) and apply default settings or pre-settings on the chosen Image.




Roughly creating custom frame

First I chose the footage I wanted to try the effect on. This was just a simple shot of Chris standing still holding a red and blue balloon. This shot had both positives and negatives, I thought that because of the minimal movement, tracking Chris would be much easier, which was correct to some stage. However because of the contrast and how Chris's hair and background 'noise' is very similar, the tool struggled to tell the difference between some of him and the background. This just meant having to go frame by frame and altering any problems.

Editing tracking around Chris

 Once I chose the footage, I duplicated the file so I could make changes to both the background and the separate Image of Chris. Once I did this I selected the 'Roto Brush' tool, from this I get a mini green brush which I roughly draw where I want to create my frame. I can also use a red brush which gets rid of where the tool may have picked up. From this I was able to create the frame of Chris.

This must be checked frame by frame

I then watched the footage through frame by frame, the tool tries to track your chosen Image by colour and contrast to the pre sets you have already given it. However some times you have to alter it and teach the tool more which gives you an opportunity of roughly cutting out the image for the whole clip.

After this I successfully had a cut out Image of just Chris frame by frame. I then had to alter this layer just so the edges were not as harsh and did not look out of place in the clip. To do this I had to alter the contrast and 'Reduce Chatter'. After this I applied the Black & White Effect, and applied the curves effect to increase the contrast and reduce the brightness. This is how I ended up with the final Clip.

Applying Black and White to Layer

I am very pleased with the outcome of the footage, and will try this with some other shots. I need to show the rest of the group what they think about the Idea, however I am certain they will be pleased with the outcome. Unfortunately there was some problems with the exporting and rendering of the final clip which needs to be addressed.

Photos come from edit at home (Not clip talked about)

Group: Update 27-11-13

LB: Today we booked the studio to film some of our conceptual studio shots, This included shots that
are framed the same as our paint shots but with leaves instead to link the two sides. We had also planned to film our projector shots. Unfortunately due to problems with the laptop we were using, we were unable to test these shots. So we decided that we will need to film again this week. However since  playing around with After effects, we may need to create some more shot Ideas to back up our new connotations.

After being given a tutorial on After Effects and how to use the "Roto Brush" I went home and downloaded the thirty day trial for the software and started to use the effect on more footage.
I decided to use a small shot of the four of us looking upwards, I chose this to see if there would be a problem using the tool on Chris as he is standing next to other characters. It was not as hard as expected and I didn't have to alter the frames to much. I am happy with the turnout of the two clips made today and so are the rest of the group. From this we can create new shots for the studio and really play on the Idea of colour and Chris being colourless.



Shot Produced at Home on After Effects

CC: Today we filmed more studio work. I had leaves thrown over me which acts as a bridge from the urban to rural life. We have also decided that we are going to edit some of the footage on the timeline to make myself change from colour to black and white using 'RotoBrush' on 'after effects'. In addition we are going to do the opposite of this by making the woodland area black and white and have myself in colour. This adds to the conceptual part of our music video by emphasising my characters feelings towards urban and rural life.

Group: Update 26-11-13

CC: Today I completed the finishing touches to my mock up print work. I am very pleased with the turn out because it is conventional to Bastille's other adverts. In addition I researched into reviews and where the advert may appear. I decided that the 'NME' magazine would suit due to the genres that appear in NME, similar to Bastille. I decided to make an A5 advert because I realised that even though Bastille are fairly well known in the UK and parts of America, they still do not have the budget to have an A4 advert. I used the image of myself getting hit with blue paint, not revealing my face. I did this as I conformed to Dyer's paradox of the star being present and absent at the same time. This is shown through my face being covered by the dry pain even though it is clear that I am standing there.

LB: In todays lesson I started to have a think about how we could address the problems picked up in the rough cut, as a group we looked at our rough cut and thought of possible plans. As it stands we have not started to resolve the problem but we know it is important to do so. Today I also carried on with print work and other pane ideas based on the two I have already produced. For what I have done so far for the digi-pak, there seems to be a mixed balance. The most popular image is the close up of the mask, so I decided to choose other stills from our video and apply the same style as I have in that shot.

Briefcase Pane Idea

Group: Rough Cut / Update - 25-11-13

GR: Feedback


Footage

• First shot should be put into slow-motion
• more urban footage, ends to quick
• Black & White footage really effective, more contrast and use of no colour
• Smiling- Sense of freedom = problem, The idea of the video is our character being brought to the woods to experience the difference to the urban lifestyle, however there is not a big enough sense of joy, Studio needs to replicate happiness and joy through movement.
• Addressing the gaps effectively

Print work

• Image with only face blurred works well, feedback was positive.
• Fully blurred Image was too much, didn't work
• Possible change for the framing and positing of Chris
• Pane Idea of mask with colour effects worked well, effective Image
• Stronger Images in video which can be used for video
• Triangle being used over an Image is effective, different colours.

JP: Today, we put together a rough cut of all the footage we have so far as well as some shots that we are planning on re-filming or were practice shots just to see if the style of shot worked in that place. Me and Liam spent the majority of the lesson putting the footage we have into the timeline.  From watching through all this footage in order, we realised that even though we did have a lot of footage, after editing to a fast cutting rate, we only around 60% of our timeline filled. So we still have a substantial amount of footage to film and put in the timeline. However, we have thought about these shots and now what we want to film and we know that we are filming in Wednesday's lesson.

After we completed our rough cut, we looked at other peoples work and got some feedback on our rough cut and concept. We had a lot of positive feedback about our shots particularly things such as the use colour. However we also now realise there are some things we need to change and/or rearrange so that it makes more sense in the video. Our biggest criticism was that in the woodland sequence, Chris did not appear happy which didn't fit so well with the music or the concept of the juxtaposing urban/dream-like rural settings. A suggestion to improve this would be to include more movement and we plan on making a strong link between the woodland and studio footage as we will be able to create the sense of movement and happiness in the studio shoot, giving him a sense of freedom and to make more sense of the idea.

I also began to make a call sheet for our shoot on Wednesday in the studio.

LB: In todays lesson we had to create a rough cut of what our video is currently shaping out to look like. We currently have about 60% of footage covering our timeline, with gaps which we have planned call sheets for. We are aware that we still need to get footage, and have a lot of editing to do as we have a fast cutting rate.

This task was a great way of seeing how far we have come, and what we have left to do. The feedback received was both Positive and Helpful. Today was the first chance our peers got to view our footage and print work. In our video we put our animatic underneath our footage to show what will be going in our blank parts. We also put in footage that we have planned to project over the top of Chris as we were unable to show as this is still to be filmed.

I spent the lesson by putting the footage on the timeline, because we knew we needed to show a basic idea of how it was turning out I had to put footage in there that had not been properly cut or inter-cutted with other shots. From this we had gathered the middle section of our video complete, with it to be fully cut and edited to how we want to. There is still a chance that the positioning of the clips may change.

As a response to the feedback we need to try and think of  way to regain and alter the mood of the video or reinforce the footage we already have to give a different reading message to the video. With the feedback we got, the biggest problem is that people were unable to tell straight away that once Chris had arrived at the woodland area, he was happier because of facial expressions. This problem could be solved with jump cuts to the studio using movement and joy to show the Idea we have, or we could reinforce the idea which we have created accidently with the use of Black & White.

Group: Update - 20-11-13

JP: I was working on the image for the print work for an advertisement  on Photoshop and tried a couple of different images and using different features  and effects on Photoshop.
I also looked through some of the footage from our shoot yesterday that we selected to try and put in our video.

LB: In todays lesson I carried on with the print work for the digi-pak. I discussed the images with the group and there is uncertainty about the blurred Image. So as a compromise I have applied the effect to just Chris's face and have blurred the Image. I like the simple Idea of the cover and the hidden connotations we can add to it. However this may have to be changed.

Edited Cover

The group liked the Image of the masked character and I have brought out the colours and made the background Black & White like I previously planned. The image is very strong and I believe I will be using it for a pane in the digi-pak. I don't know if there is anything else I can do with the image, but as it stands it looks good.



CC: Today I edited the footage that we filmed in the woods. I turned roughly 20 minutes of footage into 1 minute. I may be able to cut it down even more when we do a finer edit. Although we now only have 2/3 of the total timeline complete, we are filming more studio work on Friday. In addition, we are going to use the same footage twice from the paint studio work but we are going to change the colour of the paint in after effects and reverse the shot so it does not look similar to the other copied one.


Black and White Edit

LB: Digi-Pak Mock

Reading Path:

When looking at the reading path of our mock Front Cover when applying the conventional use of the Rule-of-thirds our drafted cover does not challenge boundaries as our main focus of the Image is in the right middle third box with the balloons opposite also in the final third. However the first part of the image that will be spotted is the Balloons because of the colour usage and how much they stand out. The typography and choice of just using the bands iconic logo instead of the album name increases the focus on the Image as it means there is less to look at on the cover. We have stuck with our original Idea to follow the format of the simple font used on the front cover however we have changed it so the album name is not on the front.



Applying Rule of Thirds to front cover

Present and Absent:

Present and Absent has played a big part on our work currently. As far as the actual band go, as the character on the cover is not part of the Band, this makes the band absent.However we have Included the Bands Iconic Image and Typography Style which gives the sense of knowing who the work is related to.

However for our character we have always played on the Idea of our character not fully visible, e.g. Back to camera, and face being hidden, as this links to the concept and lyrics of our track. As for our cover we have put our character in the position of both Present and Absent as you can see our character but because of the blurred effect, you are unable to fully make him out.

Group: Fourth Film Shoot - Update 19/11/13

CC: Today we went back to Southborough woods for another shoot as the weather was a lot better than the past couple of days. We filmed some tracking shots of myself and some shots of myself with some other actors in the woods. The shots with the other actors were conceptual, for example where I hold the balloons with the actors next to me. Another example of some conceptual footage that we filmed today would be where I stood still and each character came up and put their hand on my shoulder. We have decided to jump cut that footage when I edit it tomorrow.

(Picture of footage)

LB: Today we all filmed from 11:00 -1:00 at Southborough Woods for more woodland Footage. For this shoot we were more organised then yesterday with a shot list and extra cast. We were fortunate that the weather was perfect for what we wanted to film, and in the two hours we managed to film around 20 minutes of footage which since I have edited down to over a minute of footage for our video. Tomorrow Chris will be able to look through the footage and start to place it in the correct positions on the timeline.

(Picture of footage)

After reviewing what we had filmed I am happy with what we have got, and thought that the use of jump-cuts of the other characters around Chris has worked really well. I am also pleased with some of the shots including Props around Chris that we can use to slow down. As we have got a lot of footage done today, I am sure that we should not need to go back to the Woodland are much from now and we can focus strictly on our studio work.

(Picture of editing)

After reviewing today's footage I also started to create more Ideas for my project of completing the Digi-pak. I have screen grabbed from today's footage and have created images of conceptual ideas I may be able to use for my final project. I am pleased with the turnout especially the shot of Chris holding the balloons.

Possible conceptual Cover Idea for album

The above Image is the work I like the most, the Image used was a screenshot from today's footage. I then put the image into Photoshop and cropped the Image to the correct aspect ratio. Afterwards I created two layers of the same image and made the top layer black and white. As well as changing the colour, I decreased the Hue/Saturation and decreased the brightness so the Image was slightly darker but still gave you the ability to see the main features of Chris. After this I erased the black and white from the balloons simply with a rubber tool on the Image.

Next I started to think about typography and what would look best, and thought that the connotation behind the triangle and the importance of what it has towards the band would be enough to show who the album belongs to. This is common for the type of genre also as we found when we initially looked at printwork in our analysis. This left me with the Image below, I then started to play around with tools and effects that are on Photoshop and really liked the with the Sharp Blur, and though it connoted what we were trying to show in our video 'Escaping reality, tired with life, not being subordinate to society'

Conceptual Idea without Sharp Blur

I also used today's footage of our extreme close ups with characters wearing masks and have screen grabbed them and also put them onto Photoshop. The image below is for an idea of one of the pane's for the Digi-pak. The image has been cropped down to the correct ratio as well as an enhance on colour and contrast including a small blur. A possible change that can be made to the image is a similar idea to the cover, and making everything Black & White except from the bright colours in the mask.

Pane Idea for Digi-Pak

JP: Today we were filming for a couple more hours in Southborough woods as we had some more planned shots for the outside/woodland section of the video. We had a list of shots and had extra cast for this shoot. The weather was very good and was perfect for continuity with other footage and the look we were going for.
We took about 20 more minutes of footage which we edited down into a couple of minutes to put in the timeline and we will edit it down even further to place within the video.
We got all the shots we think we needed and they all worked well. We are pleased with the footage we have got and should be able to now focus almost completely on getting more studio footage.
Some of this footage can be used for print work  and I've also been looking through some of it for an image to use for my print work.
 

Mrs Fernandez - feedback 2

You have some excellent visual ideas, however at this stage you are short of footage.  You need to select all the usable takes and take a time check on how much you need to add still, plus contingency for when you take the cutting rate up.

You now need to post a list of shots that you plan to do - I can't see evidence of that on the blog - both in the studio and woodlands

I'd also like to see a treatment for your concept - what is this video about?  How does it all link together?

These are vital planning aspects for L4. On reviewing your blog, there are various aspects at L3 still and I'm concerned about how Chris/Joey have missed the print deadline?  Please post up the full analysis of your print mock-ups, stating where they would be published and deconstructing them.  See me for details.

JP: Print Advert

We have decided to keep the same or very similar typography to the typography seen on Bastille products and advertisements as the font, mainly the triangle logo for the letter 'a' is iconic to the band and is part of the band image. The colour is something I also haven't decided on yet but the colour will be contrasting to the image colours to make it stand out more clearly.

Placement of the titles is something that I need to consider in more detail as I have not yet looked at whether including reviews of the album would work in this format and this may mean that some of the writing may need to be moved around. 

The image is a screenshot taken from our footage from the music video.The mise-en-scene is representational of the idea of escape and leaving usual settings so the message of the song could be inferred from this image as well as the style of music as this genre of music is fairly relaxed and doesn't connote particularly urban location.

I decided the image with the cat mask was more interesting and appealing than a simple image without it. It creates interest that may appeal to someone who sees the advert and makes the image stand out a little more with the unusual image. It is also representational of the artist and includes the concept of being present yet absent as the character who is representing the artist is clearly the main feature of the image but the mask covers his face also makes him absent. This is an extension of the star image, connoting simple but different and unusual music or as having a twist to the artist that makes them stand out.

The advert will probably run in a music magazine such as NME, Q, or MTV Magazine maybe as an A4 print

Group: Update - 18-11-2013

LB: In today's lesson I reviewed the footage with Joey for both the footage Chris and I filmed as well as Joeys filler shots. We put some of the footage onto the timeline and we are currently deciding if we want to show some of the shots before the track has started as a way of introducing the concept of the woods.

We have also planned a shoot for tomorrow as we know that there is a lot of footage to be shot in the woodland area, we need to film shots with other characters. We have organised to book the track so that we can have more movement in our shots, and thankfully the weather is supposed to be good. We are planning to film from 10:45-12:45, this should be enough time to gather a lot of footage, as we know we need a lot.

Shots Planned:

• Tracking shot follows characters walking past camera who are following Chris from close up to Long Shot.
• Chris Extreme Close-up of eyes pulls out to close-ups, Mid shots and Long shots to show Chris is in the woodland area.
• Characters from behind trees - Interacting with Chris, jump cuts of characters moving closer to Chris, and grab his arm.
• All characters popping party poppers in mid-shot to be used in slow motion (Not necessary)
• Mid-shot - synchronized action of putting hand on Chris (Edited to one) as well as all characters in shot looking upwards at same time.
• Extreme Long Shot of location - Sun behind trees 
• Balloon shot, Two colours (Blue/Red) Mid Shot, other characters In shot
• Extreme Close Up, Mid-Shot of each character with 360 pan

This should give us enough footage for our woodland area if we tick all the boxes, this would just leave some missing studio and urban shots to be completed.

JP: We have been looking through the footage that we have got in the woods over the last couple of days. The footage that I got of the location and mostly filler shots and shots we can use for projections seem to be successful and I have placed some on the timeline however we may change the positioning once we have more footage in place.
We have planned to do another shoot tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be good and we have organised to take the track with us. We have a shot list and ideas of exactly what we want for our video and we have asked for someone else to come with us to feature in our video and have bought props such as party poppers and balloons and I will bring in another mask

CC: Advert Mock

I have decided that I will be making an advert mock for Bastille in the magazine NME.
I created this advert based on the fact that it is conventional of Bastille's other magazines adverts.
I have used the same typography as Bastille use in all of their media forms. The one part of the typography that stands out is the triangle used to replace the 'A'.
I decided to make an A5 advert because Bastille are not entirely a mainstream band, therefore they do not have a huge budget to spend on marketing and promoting their album.
I have conformed to one of Dyer's paradox's by being present and absent. This is shown in the advert by my face being covered by the dry paint, making me absent, however it is clear that I am still standing there, making me present.
The reading path of this advert is clear. The 'Bastille' name is in the largest font, attracting the eyes of the reader to that first. Then, they will see the image next as it covers the whole advert. The next seen thing will be the album name 'Bad Blood', being the second largest text size on the page. Finally, the reviews would be the last thing that the consumer will see, even though this is still a vital aspect of the advert.

Group: Third Film Shoot - Update 15-11-13

CC: Today myself and Liam went back to Southborough woods. We filmed some more woodland footage, for example popping balloons, and we experimented with high angle shots with Liam on a rope swing. We did like this angle, however it was not smoothly filmed. If we were to film this again we would use a steady-cam as this will produce smoother shots.

We filmed shots of balloons in front of my face and popping them, however this did not turn out very well due to me flinching as it popped. The final shots we took were worm eye shots of balloons and myself standing in the foreground. We did like this shot, however it was hard to fit both the balloons and all of myself into one shot.



Liam using the rope swing while filming

LB: Today me and Chris returned to the woods to film more footage, the weather was great and just what we wanted however we had very limited time and footage space so did not film as much as we wanted. To start off we had bought party poppers and balloons to keep our conceptual and bright feel to the video.
We did not have a call sheet or shot list for the shoot as we had decided to film because of the nice weather.

When we were there, we decided to film on what we thought would look nice, Chris and I decided that if I filmed on top of a rope swing we may have got a nice angle for a few shots. When we filmed this we thought it looked nice, however since we have reviewed the footage, it was not as effective as we first thought, but we like the angle and the movement as it breaks it up against the other still shots we have.

Footage from rope swing.

As well as this we tried filming different ranges like close-ups and long shots, as so far we believe we have lots of mid-shots. We also tried filming shots at low-angles, we tried filming a worms-eye shot which turned out fine. We also filmed various shots from different angles which we can use parts of as quick cuts, however we know we still have to film more in the woods with other characters.

JP: Yesterday, I filmed for about 2 hours in the woods for filler and projection shots but I was unable to shoot today with Chris and Liam as they were shooting in frees. However I did get to look through some of the footage from today. While it was not as successful as we had hoped, it has given us an idea of what we will need to re-film and what additional shots we can film next time.

Group: Update 14-11-13

CC: Today I edited the filming we did yesterday in the studio. I have cut the paint shots to the length that we want them to be. Then I added the 'Auto Colour' effect onto each shot to brighten up the red and blue colours. This also brings out the background colour although we did not have a problem with this because we this is not a problem for us.

Applying 'Auto Colour' effect in Premiere

From this we will be rendering the shots on after effects as we will get a richer quality when the shots are slowed down. Today I turned 1 minute 35 seconds of footage into 6 seconds. When this is slowed down it is likely to turn into roughly 30 seconds of footage that will be placed at certain places on the timeline for our final music video.



Editing the paint footage

LB: In today's lesson I shown yesterdays Ideas of print work to the group, they liked the Idea of using the Bastille Image of the triangle, however they didn't understand the use of the colour of green and thought It would be a better Idea to choose a colour that we used for the paint shoot to keep the same colour scene.

Print work completed today

Chris also recommended splitting the image into two parts  to show the two sides like we are trying to in our video. So I decided to use both Blue & Red, to do this I just enhanced the colour contrast and split the picture into two on Photoshop, adding a filter which changed the colour. I am happy with the outcome, and at a higher standard this may be used for part of our digi-pak. As a group we have also decided for our posters, our main Image will be using a still of our paint shoot.

Group: Studio Filming - Update 13-11-13

Example of Powder Paint shot

JP: We managed to film a large proportion of our studio shots today however, due to a lack of time, there are still several shots we need to try. We tried using powder paint for one shot and it was fairly successful. Using this paint was quite time consuming and made a lot of mess so it would be difficult for us to try anything else with it but it may be something that we look at trying again for a slightly different effect. The projection of the balloons seem to work quite well and we are planning on doing a few other shots using the projector like this. We managed to get a variety of different shots; close ups and mid shots and well as using the track for a shot pulling back from a close up of Chris to a mid shot revealing other characters

.

Example Of Mess on floor of Studio

We had a few problems in our shoot today. One was that the camera ran out of battery before we finished shooting and so we had to change cameras. We were also limited by time so were unable to try all the shots we wanted to do such as the stop motion of paint covering his face so we will have to make time for that in another shoot.

We have reviewed some of the footage already and edited some clips. The shots throwing powder paint we have used time stretch and put it to 15% to slow down the footage. While this does work we are going to try to put the footage into slow motion using After Effects instead of premiere for a better quality slow motion as currently the slow motion is a little jumpy.

As the camera had run out of battery, I was unable to film any filler shots in the woods, however the weather tomorrow is expected to be good so I will go tomorrow when I will have a couple of hours free to shoot.



LB: Today in our first lesson the three of us arranged to film our studio work in the school studio. We had planned to film a variety of shots;

• Track pulling back from Chris in a CU revealing other character in the Studio in a MS
• Powder Paint thrown at Chris to be played in slow-motion
• Projected Balloon Image with Chris
• Stop Motion Face Paint

Another Example of Powder Paint Shot

We filmed for a total of 1 and a half hours but had some complications when filming. The first biggest problem we had was the battery life running out half way through filming, so we had to use a different camera, however this was not a problem for frame rates as we lowered the frame rate per second as we knew we wanted to slow down the footage when rendered. This time we did not have a problem with cast and managed to get another actor in the studio including myself for the one shot. After filming the powder paint shot we created a massive mess which left us in a situation where we had to clean up the floor and Chris. 

Example of Balloon Projection Shot

Unfortunately we did not have enough time to film the stop motion shots, however since then we have decided that it may be better to film those shots at the woodland area for more of a balance in our video of studio and narrative. After filming we managed to have some time to look through the footage and we are happy with the turnout. For the powder paint shots I have Time-stretched the footage to 15% which gives the paint an explosion on Chris's face as well as this I added a colour enhance effect which brought out the white background and the colour in the paint. After this I added effects to the tracking shot of Chris making the clip Black and White with Image Control as this shot is added to the lyric 'In my Mind' and then to the drumming of the track it flashes back into colour to add more disjuncture to our video.
 

Black and White Shot of Chris in MS

Also Joey had planned originally to film down in the woods for filler shots of surroundings and trees. However due to the camera running out of battery this was not possible however we have time during Friday where we can plan to film. In tomorrows lesson we will continue to edit today's footage as well as organize more shoots on the basis of what studio shots still need to be added, we will also be able to tell what gaps there are in our video so we know what to film in the woodland area.




Revealed Image of shot in LS showing other characters 

First Idea For Print work

CC: This shoot was successful as the projection shots and the paint shots turned out very well. I had to self direct because we were testing a lot of the ideas out, for example when the paint was thrown over me, I suggested the idea of throwing the paint lightly and not to compress it together as it means that it will cover a large area and look better when it came to editing it. I very much like the shot where I hold the projected balloons and it will look even better when we use after effects to add the tears running down my face.


LB: As well as filming today, I have been thinking of Ideas for print work and created some draft Ideas based on today's shoot. I have used the Bastille Triangle and created two draft Ideas based around the Image of the Triangle covering Chris's face as well as him being inside the Triangle. I created these images on Photoshop, to do this I found a triangle of Bastille's website and made the background and center of the triangle transparent and changed the Hue/Saturation of the triangle to make it green. Then simply put this layer on top of the original Black & White Image of Chris. For the other Image I simply did the opposite making the actual triangle transparent with the photo layered underneath.

Second Idea for print work

LB: Studio Filming Planning

Tomorrow during our first period and free time we are planning to film huge chunks of our video. During our first period we have planned to film our studio work. Me and Chris sat down today and watched our Animatic and had a look at previous Concept Development posts to decide exactly what we wanted to do in the lesson. As well as this Joey has some free time during the day to film filler shots of woodland areas that will be included during our clip.

Things that needed to be brought tomorrow;

• Created Projected Images - Balloon, Paint
• Party Poppers 
• Powder Paint
• Papers/Work Stuff
• Face paint for Stop Motion
• Rope
• Suit & Tie
• Masks 

Where we plan to film studio shots

STUDIO SHOTS: 

1. One shot we have planned for is not something that we had clearly planned beforehand, we had talked about the idea of Childhood and Balloons in our studio work however we had not included it in our Animatic. Chris recently created an Image of Balloons on Photoshop which we are using to project other Chris to make it look like he is holding them. We are planning to keep the shot slightly dark with the colour of the Balloons really bright and bold. We will have Chris standing slightly to the left with the Balloons to the right on the bases of the rule-of-thirds.  
2. Another shot we have planned is to use the Track however we have not booked it out yet so it may be unavailable for the shoot. This shot will show Chris being pulled by a rope and as the track moves to the right it will reveal a character in the mask pulling the rope on the far right. This is just to portray the idea of being held back by life. 
3. Other shots we are planning to do which we have talked about from the start is the stop-motion shots of close-up on our main character. We had talked about this possibly being done using After Effects post production and this is still a possibility for an idea  we had of a tear drop going down his face. Tomorrow we are bringing face paint in to cover up Chris face in stop motion, this will have to be filmed in manual settings instead of Automatic on the camera so the light is the same and the stop motions continuity is correct.
4. We will try more shots that we filmed in the woodland areas is similar ways in the studio so we can link the narrative and conceptual shots. This will include mid-shots and close ups of Chris in the studio.We will also have the party poppers of shot and fall into shot as if it was projected but try it in slow-motion in front of him. These shots will be similar to the idea we had of Powder Paint being thrown. Joey has made this for our shoot in two different colours, so we are hoping that it will look aesthetically good in front of the camera.

WOODLAND SHOTS:

1. Joey tomorrow also has some spare time to go and film all the location shots that we want to use for filler shots. This will probably only be up to 20 seconds of footage for our video and towards the end of the video. Hopefully these shots will work out well. 

Group: Update 12-11-13

LB: In today's lesson I took over with the editing of our footage taken in the woods the other day. I edited 3 shots today and put them in the correct position according to our animatic. One shot I worked on the most and was pleased with was a shot of Chris popping a party popper. I put this shot into slow motion and reversed the footage, I then enhanced the colour so it was clear and it turned out looking good. With Chris we also looked at our animatic and planned what we needed and what we wanted to do in our studio shoot tomorrow.

Screenshot of Slow Motion Party Popper

CC: Today I did a step by step blog post on how I made the balloons in Photoshop that we are going to use tomorrow in our conceptual studio shots.

JP: Not In due to Sickness.

GR: For tomorrows lesson we are planning and have arranged to film in the school studio to film a huge chunk of our video. We are going to do projection shots as well as conceptual ideas we have to undertake in the studio. Also tomorrow Joey is planning to film some mise-en-scene filler shots of the woodland area.
For tomorrow we were also requested to have a drafted edition of what our digi-pak will look like.

CC: How To Make Balloons On Photoshop For Projection Shots

•  The first step is to make a new file and a canvas with 1000 by 1000 pixels. Then hold down 'alt backspace'. This will turn the background black. 

Original 1000x1000 canvas.

• Once this is done, go to 'Filter, Render, Lens Flare'. Then adjust the flare to roughly 120%. 

Adjusting Lens Flare

• Then go to 'Filter, Distort, Polar Coordinates'. Change it from rectangular to polar to polar to rectangular. 

Changing to Polar

• Then go to 'Image, Rotate Canvas, 180 degrees'. 

Rotating Canvas

• Then go back to 'Filter, Distort, Polar Coordinates' and change it back from 'Polar to Rectangular' to 'Rectangular to Polar'. This will reveal a sphere. 

Revealing Sphere

• Then go to 'Image, Canvas Size', and put 150% onto both width and height. 

Adjusting Width & Height

• Then get the 'Magic Wand' tool and click on the surrounding areas onto the sphere and click delete. Then click 'Ctrl D'.

Transparent Background

• Then go to 'Filter, Liquify' which gives you a brush tool where you can drag down the bottom of the Sphere to give a balloon looking object. 

Making it a Balloon

• Then duplicate the layer by right clicking on the original layer and clicking the 'Duplicate' button.

Duplicating

•  Use the 'Magic Wand' tool again to delete the surrounding white area. 

Delete Final Background

• Then go to 'Image, adjustments' and then to 'Hue and Saturation'. This is where you can change the colour of the duplicated balloon by playing around with the hue and saturation bars. I repeated this twice more to get a total of 4 balloons. 

Changing the colour

• Then to make the string I duplicated a new layer again and used the brush tool to add in the string.