Production Meeting 8

The promotional package has been finished and presented to the class. We gained valuable feedback (see previous entries) and we will all now individually begin to concentrate on our evaluation. Jess has made some last minute edits to the the music video based upon feedback to improve the video further. Unfortunately we have hit some technical errors when trying to compress the video from Final Cut Pro into a Quicktime .Mov file. Our lecturer is looking into these problems and we hope to have a final version of our video up on the blog asap.

Production Meeting 7

Learning to use Photoshop was frustrating but we eventually discovered that it was a very powerful tool when harnessed properly. Nicola had now complete the first draft of our album cover using both images of nature and city life. We wanted to create a link between the video and the album design and the inclusion of lights and traffics helps with this. The nature image on the front has had the colours altered to appear artificial and more 'electronic'. For the inside image Nicola experimented with exposure time. Using a busy road she increased the exposure time to create the blurring of the lights which give the appearance of fast moving traffic. We are particularly happy with this.

Editing of the pop promo is nearing completion but has hit some errors. A problem with the Macs effected the whole class and resulted in some footage dropping frames or footage becoming jerky and clipped. Unfortunately we do not have the original footage to re-capture to resolve this problem, but as explained it is through no fault of our own. We will try and reduce the damage caused by using alternative footage that is unaffected. Luckily Maya shot quite a few take of the same scenes so we should be able to find some footage that is good to use.

Production Meeting 6

Editing is now coming along well and the timeline on Final Cut Pro is now beginning to fill up. Jess has decided to drop the footage of herself on the beach as she doesn't think it fits properly. Her character is shown in a city environment at the beginning of the promo and to show her then suddenly on a beach may prove confusing.

Nicola and Maya are both going to shoot some photographs around town in the next couple of weeks for inspiration for the album cover and advertisement, whilst Jess will focus on more fun nature-ish shots. We have a lesson next week introducing us to Photoshop on the Macs, and we will begin creating some rough ideas. We will all design album covers and advertisements but Nicola will be producing the final piece. We feel that if we all have a go at designing it will help us aid Nicola in producing a great final piece.

Production Meeting 5

Shooting is now complete and Jess is beggining to capture footage and getting to grips with Final Cut Pro. Although we are all excited about having Macs this year it does mean we all have to learn how to use a completely new piece of software. We have decided that Nicola concentrate on the album cover and album advertisment, and Maya will help Jess with the editing.

We were not able to shoot some of the shots on Maya's storyboard due to our conflicting time schedules and accessibilty of locations. We had planned to shoot in a record shop but the only times we were allowed to shoot in there were times when at least one of us were unable to do so. However we are confident that the footage that we do have will prove adequate.

Production Meeting 4

Since the last meeting we have developed our narrative and concept for the pop promo further. Unfortunately we have a shortage of male actors so the storyline has changes so that the relationship will form between 2 girls. We will go on our first shoot next week... the beach! We wanted to include nature shots and we though that by showing one of the girl on location at the beach in the best way of incorporating this. The other girl will mainly be shot in urban location which we hope to film in Ipswich the week after.

Location finders checklists, Maps and risk assessments will be complete by Jess because as Editor she doesn't have too much to do at the moment. We need to gain permission to shoot in a bar and record shop, but the rest of the locations are public. Maya is busy drawing rough storyboards and completing shot lists. Nicola has also drawn up a rough art treatment for the pop promo, and busy deciding characters costumes etc.

Production Meeting 3

Today we brought together all our individual ideas and discussed them. All our ideas are quite similar in some respects so it wasn't that hard to all agree on a final idea. We want our narrative to center around a boy and a girl who cross paths throughout the day but never notice each other. Near the end of the music video they will finally meet and form a relationship. However, we are still keen to include nature shots to reflect the inspirations Lawrence King has within his music. Over the next few week we will pin down locations and characters, and then begin our treatments.

Production Meeting 2

Today our task was to finalise our music choice. We had listened to some Lawrence King tracks in the week on Last.fm and the whole group enjoyed the music. Lawrence sent us some tracks that he thought were particularly suitable for a pop promo. We decided on the track - Gravity and Habit- as we felt the change in styles and tempo throughout the song would make for a more interesting pop promo.

Our initial ideas was a nature vs. urban idea, shots of the city and of nature. After speaking to Jon we realise we need to incorporate a stronger narrative in the promo. So for next week we are all going to come up with individual ideas which include a narrative and research what similar artists have done for their music videos.

Our roles within the group have been decided..

Maya Mathias- Cinematographer
Nicola Wright- Art Director
Jessica Hayward- Editor, Producer

Production Meeting 1

Today the class were given their brief by Jon, and we discussed what was required of us. Our first task was to organise ourselves into groups for our coursework. Our group consists of Maya Mathias, Jessica Hayward and Nicola Wright. Jon asked us to discuss our options for the music track for our pop promo. Nicola mentioned a friend, Lawrence King, that is doing music production at university, and that it may be possible to use one of his tracks. For next week we will try to contact Lawrence and get some tracks from him.