A cover for its release on DVD

•A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

–a website homepage for the band;

–a cover for its release on DVD; <----------------------

–a magazine advertisement for the DVD.

This is a preview of our view on Odesza's DVD cover. It has their name in large on the front and side so is easily identified while looking at the front and when it's on the shelf. We have researched into similar products and saw that they include many affiliations of music companies and copyright logos at the bottom on the back. This helps protect the artist from illegal activities. 

Our next step if to include song names on the back, pictures of the band and then one large image to complete the front. 

Odesza Website update

This is a screenshot from the Odesza website that I am currently creating. This is the contact page after you click the tab at the top to redirect you here.

Odesza Website

We have set up a website for our band Odesza as part of the brief as well as having to produce a music video and a cover for its release on DVD. We have included links, samples and pictures to a current album of the band on the website as well as advertising a album coming up in the near future with samples of the music and video promos.

Elsewhere on the website we have links to all social media's such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Spotify. These allow the fans of the band to stay in contact with the all the latest and up and coming news.  These are shown with the icons for each social media near the band heading at the top of the page so very visible to the viewer.

Finally, we have a photo gallery for the band which shows off pictures of Odesza in recent concerts, music video snapshots and other examples of the band in action.

(Actual Odesza website)

Youth Culture - Banks

In Mrs Banks lessons we have been focusing on Youth Culture films which are films with the main characters and plot based on youths and how they act in certain environments. We have watched three films with this genre, these being, 'My brother the devil', 'Attack the block' and 'Fast girls'. These films all have some aspects of similarities between the youths involved but also have vast differences between one another. For example, they all have a non-white person who is one of the main characters and lives in troubled conditions such as underprivileged families living in council estates, MBTD - Rash, ATB - Moses, FG - Shania. However, two of the movies are heavily male based gang violence with the other one being about four international female athletes.

Filming in London

Filming in London Plan - 18/11/15

• Bus from Oxford to London at 7am
• Hire Boris bikes to get easy access to filming locations
• Film in and around London's busy streets - time-lapses, hyper-lapses, slow motion, aerials etc.
• Film the journey of a DLR from a Go-Pro mount of the front of the train
• Film in the areas of tower blocks and other lower working class areas
• More filming in dusk and night time in London
• Travel back to Oxford around 8pm



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Trip to the BFI - Corin Hardy

The day after we filmed in London we had a trip to the BFI (British Film Institute) on South-Bank, London. We were given a talk all day about how to create an opening sequence for our coursework. We did this for AS but it still was helpful knowledge as we could adapt to fit our A2 work. However we had a talk from a director called Corin Hardy who has created a recent film called 'The Hallows'. He was able to share with us his experience in creating his film and just how difficult and time consuming it really is. As well as this we were able to watch the first opening minutes to the film as he discussed how each of the scenes were shot and created. This was very interesting and useful as we could see easy correlations compared to our A level work.

Corin was also able to show us how much time and planning went into the creation of his film by showing us his script writing, shot-list and sketches of various different characters and how they had been changed over time during the creation of the film. This also helped as we could see how our pre production should look and the level of detail it should be in so that when it comes to filming everything will run a lot smoother.

Train Timelapse Trial

Me and Jordan adventured out into oxford to finalize our locations and shots for our music video. Here is an example of a time lapse we would at look using for our final piece but we would recreate in a rush hour period as then there will be more activity with the trains. This was taken at Oxford train station at 11;30am on a Tuesday, we would like to recreate this shot again between 7:30am-9am and/or 4:30p,-7pm Monday-Saturday as these times are the peak of the rush hour due to our research.

First day of filming - 20/10/15

Our first day of actual day of filming for our music video Bloom by Odesza will be on Tuesday the 20th of October. We will be filming in and around Oxford City Centre. We have chosen this date due to the weather forecast and us all being available. We hope to achieve 2 time lapses and 1 hyper lapses that we can use for our final piece. We know the location we would like to get these shots so it should be a successful day of filming.

First time-lapse attempt with audio

This is Jordan's first attempt at a time-lapse during his journey from Oxford to Southampton. This is 2 hours of footage which relates to around 35 seconds of film. This is a good first attempt and now we can see that the camera must stay in an identical spot to get the best outcome for our music video. It also helps show that the genre of song is perfect for this kind of footage.

Practice Timelapse



I decided to try a practice timelapse before I went out to film the real one. This is because I had never attempted one and wanted to go out feeling I was comfortable enough to plan and shoot one to a high standard. Attached is a screenshot from my practice shot. There were some strengths of the footage looking back, one, it was in high definition and stayed in focus throughout and also it was around 15 seconds long so wasn't too short to use as a genuine scene. However, it had limitations, it has two black dots at the bottom of the shot throughout which is very unprofessional so if it was the final product I would not have used this clip. Also, not much happened as it was a fairly clear blue ski meaning at points it was unclear that it was a timelapse.

Overall, the timelapse for a first attempt was very successful and defiantly taught me things that I will replicate when I go out and film the final shot.

A Level Media showing at Wheatley Park

Today we had a school trip to the Wheatley School Film Festival, where we were able to watch other peoples work from both AS and A2 coursework. This featured our opening sequences that we made for our work last year as well as other schools opening sequences. Our school won several awards for their opening sequences and we were able to gain some insightful knowledge and experience from attending the event because it gave me ideas on what I wanted to include in my music video.

As well as watching all the schools pieces of coursework, we also had a Q and A session from someone who works in the industry for a company called Audio-motion. They were able to give first hand experience as to what they do as a career and what its like working in the industry for big filming companies.

Costume for main character

Costume:

Plain Red Hoodie: We decided that this would be ideal as we wanted the focus to be on the camera work and audio rather than what the main character is wearing. Also, it will make it easy to change the person playing the main character as we could buy two of the same hoodies in different sizes for cheap.

  

Black Morph Mask: We decided to use this to cover the face of the main character so it stays anonymous in the gender, race etc. This way the audience will be able to relate more to the character.

Grey Joggers: This was decided on because they are easily accessible and go well with the hoodie that will be worn, also they are easy to do tricks in on the BMX which is what we are aiming for later on in the music video. 

Final song choice

We have decided to use Bloom by ODESZA as we felt we could relate to this style. We have many ideas for shots, locations etc that can fit to this genre of music. We also just received confirmation that we cold use this music by ODESZA for our A2 Media by Chloe over the phone.


This is the song choice we have decided

 

Requesting permission to use Bloom by Odesza

Here is confirmation of our email to Chloe who was the contact details regarding getting in touch with the band. Here is where we asked to use the soundtrack of Odesza called Bloom. She never replied to our email request saying we could or we couldn't so we decided to use it anyways. 



 

Our Pitch

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More about our Canon 700d

This is George's camera and the one we will do the majority of our shots with. We decided on this camera as it is higher quality than Jordan's and myself so will give the highest definition to our shots. Also, George uses regularly for a variety of filming and photography so is very comfortable around it. Saying that, all three of us will be using it to film as it is a group production.

 

 

Our Camera Equipment

Before we start filming we had to make a list of all the camera equipment we had or could get a hold of so we could see what we could and couldn't shoot.

What we own:

2 GoPros
Canon 700d
Tripod
DJI Phantom 2
iPhone 5/6/6s

What we can get a hold of:

Camera Rig
Steady Cam
Another Tripod

As you can see we have a wide range of equipment to use meaning that we should be able to get a wide variety of shots and shot types helping raise our overall production.

Target Audience

In my lesson today I discussed with George and Jordan the age group that we would be aiming our Music video at. We decided that the classification of the music video would be PG as it does not contain any violence or swearing which would be inappropriate to some younger audiences, but some scenes we want to use may be confusing to some people.

Story Board

Story Board

First Brainstrom

Song Ideas:

Mac Miller - Senior Skip Day
Odesza - Bloom
Macklemore - My oh my
James Bay - Let it go


Camera Ideas:

Time-lapse
Hyper-lapse
Slow-Mo
Very high angle - Drone


Story Line:

Start of song - dawn
End of song - night-time
Follows one character that's lonely, singled out, depressed
As the song goes on, gets more confident
Ends with him with companions


Scene Ideas:

Paint on speakers - cost could be an issue - slow motion
BMX tricks on way to work
Bonfire at end fading to embers
Commuting to work - time-lapse

Brief

•A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

–a website homepage for the band;

–a cover for its release on DVD;

–a magazine advertisement for the DVD.

A2 Media Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?


4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation of AS

AS Overview

Brief Summary:

• Attached is my AS Media Opening Sequence which was based on a drug deal between the dealer and the boss at the bosses mansion. It shows that lead up to the deal and the deal itself. However, it does not show the aftermath of the deal as it takes a turn for the worst for the boss in a cleverly thought out assasination by the dealer.

Areas of success:

• One area of my opening sequence I thought was a success was the locations we decided to scout and include. For example, the extremely large house we decided to illiustate as the drug lords didn't take a long to scout out for as I had the perfect place in mind as I know the owners of the house. This also helped as it was easy to have permission granted to film at this location at almost anytime we needed.
• Another area of success was the costumes we decided to use. The drug lord was in a suit which represents he has a high status and a lot of money as this is the usual interpretation of a suit. Also, the clothes the dealer is wearing is a tank top, beanie and chavy jeans and this gives the feel as though he is a gangster. 
• Finally, we felt that we had a very clear plan for our opening sequence as we had a story board of camera shots, sounds we wanted to include and actors/costumes/props etc. This helped us later on as we just searched for what we needed rather than having to brainstorm again.

Areas for improvement:

• We felt as though we could have had a wider cast number rather than just 3 people. This would have helped because it could have gave the opening sequence a bit more of a realistic view. We even had the same actor play 2 roles as we didn't have a wide enough cast list.
• Finally, we felt that with a bit more capital to spend, we could have purchased a steady cam to widen our range of shots and give it more of a professional look rather than some shots which were handheld so gave a shaky scene.

Audience:

• The feedback we received was very positive on the whole. The target market said that they had felt it was suitable for them. Also, we showed to people of a much older age and they felt as though it wasn't a film they would watch proving that the target audience we chose to base our opening sequence on was correct.
• The audience liked the realistic feel as there was continuity throughout and felt like the scenes fit together perfectly without them thinking 'how did the character get to this location suddenly?'.
• Also, they felt that not too much was given away in the opening sequence meaning that they wanted more, which is ideal as it is only a first impression of a full film.
• However, one thing that we could improve on was a more HD opening sequence as they felt it was in some areas not focused or auto focused mid scene which is not professional at all.
• Next time, we will know to adapt our opening sequence to the improvements given so that it give the film a much better viewing experience for the audience.

Overall, we were very happy with our first media production and felt as though it came together well. We also agree there needs to be some tweaking involved if we were to recreate the task of creating an opening sequence again.