Production Diary: Week 24

• We asked our teacher to look at our digipak and website to see if there were any dramatic changes that should happen to our work. For our website she felt that other than the gallery page not being very interactive with the audience there wasn't anything else and they both liked our website however, our digipak wasn't up to the standard they wanted it to be. Our front cover was quite simple and not very eye catching so we changed the font to red and across the top and then we used the same font we used on our website where it almost looks handwritten so we used this in order to give it a more personal touch opposed to using a standard font. We also changed our CD page on the digipak and gave it a background change to some lights and then we also changed the actual print on the CD to a lot of lips being cut out into the shape of a larger pair of lips which helped keep the theme of lips constant and current. 

Last existing draft before changes:

Our final version: 

Production Diary: Week 23

• We began to came towards the final stages of our website and all that was left was simply the 'shop' page which we had to create merchandise so we researched into merchandise and thought of some items which were a lot less common. We followed the main idea of bracelets and tshirts so we could be easily recognised then we thought of less common ones such as phone cases, tote bags etc. All of our merchandise was create on Fireworks were took plain versions of what we wanted our merchandise to based upon and then we edited on our versions of these to make them to a professional standard. We felt some of these came out better than others so these were going to be the ones that would eventually make it to our shop page. 

Production Diary: Week 18

• We wanted a photo where she looked quite feminine opposed to the ones where she had an strong attitude expression on her face so we decided to bring both combined. I had been looking on tumblr and pinterest for inspiration for photos to take where I came across a few where girls had small flowers in their hair throughout but also, I found some with bigger flowers in their hair. 

• We liked this idea but buying real flowers would be hard to use as they may not be as bright as what we want them to be therefore, we went to a crafts shop and found little fake daisies that we could paint. Each of us had some sort of interesting paint that we could contribute for example metallic paint, glitter paint etc therefore, this still fit the theme of our artist and that she is quite quirky but we still were able to give her a slight feminine edge. For our location we wanted her simply laying on a white sheet to help her stand out from the background and we took these painted daisies and put them into her hair. Also we decided that this would be best shot in our drama hall as we could use all the lights they use for the stage lighting to ensure that we had the best lighting possible. 

Production Diary: Week 22

• As a group decision we felt that our website wasn't up to the standard of other websites we had looked at from previous years and our current classes. In general, our website lacked attraction and just didn't feel like it connected to the audience so we sat and thought up some ideas which could help add to and enhance these things. We felt that the animation added more dimensions to our website but it still lacked the thing that we wanted so we carried on brainstorming and looked at various different websites. 

By looking at popular female artists websites it meant that we could take inspiration from them and also,it meant that we could clearly see the conventions that websites follow, We also looked at Rihanna's but since then she has drastically changed her website so I was unable to show but it followed the same concept as ours, she has a variety of things cut out for example ink. 

• We mainly focused on the website during this week and following the conventions of websites but also, it allowed us to get our website to a more professional standard than it was before. It began to get a lot more interactive and looked more appealing to our audience. We cut our an image of our artist out in order for the audience to recognise who she is straight away so this is based on the home page of our website. We added three of her in order for her to be the focal point of the page, we took the same image three times and flipped it around to get a variation and cut a wave across the bottom of the image. This meant that because she isn't a well established artist that people will recogise her image and then they can begin to put names towards her songs.

Production Diary: Week 21

• The focus of this week was mainly to make our website more interactive so on the home page we made things fade in at different times, this would make our website more interesting to the audience who are viewing. As we've never used 'wix' before this meant that we had to watch a few youtube tutorials on how to add animation to our video but after watching this we found that it was quite simple on how to add animation so after this we added more animation on other pages also, making it more appealing and interesting. 

Production Diary: Week 20

• After all of our editing we finally finished our video to a high standard. 

• We also began to play around with out titles on the front cover of our digipak but after realising it didn't look as professional as the rest of our digipak we began to brainstorm again and try to come up with a title which would help get across that we're professional and a new and upcoming artist therefore, we wanted the font to be clear in order for everyone to see and understand our artist. 

Production Diary: Week 19

BEFORE

 AFTER

• This week we edited the flower images for the digipak and due to the sheet being crinkled I had to use an airbrush effect in order for it to simply look like a white background. 
• We also put the images in positions for the digipak in where we felt they fit best and then we switched them around a little and saved them which meant we were able to ask people for their feedback and which layout they preferred and in the end the target audience had the same thoughts as all of our group did which was good. 

Production Diary: Week 17

• We got a lot of feedback on our video and sat down as a group and discussed the changes and how we were going to change them etc. We felt that we needed to make small changes so we came up with a group decisions on how to change them. The majority of the changes were to make things brighter so it flows through together and other things like cutting shots to fit to the beat of the song and just generally neaten a few areas up. 
• We also began to start brainstorming ideas for our website and just generally learning how to use wix as none of us have used wix before so therefore, it was very new to all of us and unfamiliar. 

Production Dairy:Week 16

• We found a template in which we could follow for our digipak and began to look through our photos and where to place them in the digipak. We knew where some of the images would go for example the back picture would be the one where we put our information, barcode and song list. We knew where some of the images would go for example the back picture would be the one where we put our information, barcode and song list. 
• These were are final stages of our first full draft of the music video where we just down to the last stages of editing and just simply cutting things out that didn't work and cutting some shots in order for them to fit the beat of the song. Once we had felt we finished our video we played this to our form group to receive some feedback, we recorded each of the feedback in order to watch back later and make some changes if necessary. 

Production Diary: Week 15

• This week we edited out glitter digipak photos some more and began to separate our possible ones that would fit with the style of our digipak. This meant cutting them down to the right sizes and then asking members of our class which ones they felt worked best with our artists image and the whole look of the digipak. By using members of our class it meant they were all our target audience and could help us with the creation of our digipak. 
• Also we started to bring the conventions of a digipak together where we added things like a barcode and some information on the back regarding our record label and producers etc. This helped tie our digipak together and more it look more professional opposed to just having six images. 
• My group and I felt that our music video was lacking something at the start and we always felt that we should have a black and white section at the start when our narrative character goes through a depressive stage before the colours bursts in and she becomes happy again. We felt that this would be quite hard so we thought we would show her in black and white walking around alone and ripping up the picture of her and her boyfriend , by doing this it allowed our audience to understand what she has been through and also, using black and white helps get this depression across even more. When it came to editing our 'walking shots' as we called them we made the black and white quite intense in order to show the change between the black and white filter and then the bright colours. 

Production Diary: Week 14

• .This week we mostly focused on getting a few last shots of our music video sorted so our artist Georgia filmed her lips lipsyncing the entire songs. We done this on several times over with different coloured glitter which meant we could cut them separately into different  areas of the video and give a variation throughout the video but also, keep the theme of lips a constant theme. 
• We also shot had a whole day where we just shot some digipak photos and edited them. We had seen a few photos of girls on things like Tumblr and Pinterest where they had glitter across their faces and around their eyes and we felt that this is something that would tie in with our artist. We chose to place the glitter around her eyes to draw attention to her face more as she is a new and upcoming artist therefore, we would need to identify her and brand her as an artist. 

Production Diary: Week 13

• This week we decided to edit our arcade shots into our video and get feedback on them and we found that these shots tend to work a lot better than the elder ones where our characters were drinking at a party. By changing these shots it means that our music fits alongside our song more and the video seems to be more upbeat and vibrant. 
• We began to start planning our digipak photos and scheduling a time to take them. We had an idea that our artist could be covered in kisses across her chest which would then relate back to the music video and our website when it is finalised. By having her chest bare it means that the audience will be able to see the kisses clearly and we didn't really want her face to be on it as we originally planned this as our back cover of the digipak. Georgia wore a tube top to get this effect and we simply just put lipstick on and kissed her chest as it didn't transfer across when kissing paper and then pressing it against her chest. 
• After taking these images we edited on them on 'fotor' and made them look a lot more professional by using smoothing tools and changing the lighting effects. This enhanced the lighting and the bright colours we've used when taking them originally. 

Production Diary: Week 12

• This week we decided to delete the shots of Kyra and Ellie because they didn't fit with the vibe of our video so we changed up our ideas again and decided to take the route which was more childish but not to childish but it showed their fun sides. Our main idea was to go to a pier near for us however, we felt this was too far away in order for us to reach the deadline for our video so we brainstormed again and came up with the idea of going to an arcade a lot closer to us and it would have similar games. The closest arcade was actually in a bowling alley which was an idea that we thought we could also use so we scheduled a date between us all and a friend so we could get this filming done. By using an arcade and a bowling alley we realised that all the surroundings would be bright and colourful which tied in with our video and allowed us when coming to editing to enhance the colours within the shots and still carry on the theme of colour and keep that consistent.

Production Diary: Week 11

• For our video we thought that it would be a good idea that followed with our music video to get some shots of someone on a skateboard. Whilst we were waiting for our friend to turn up to the skatepark, we asked if we could record some other boys in there which they didn't seem to mind but it was awkward to keep asking them to repeat their trick however, they repeated them a few times for us. Then our friend turned up and we managed to get a variety of shots of him skating around and doing tricks however, unfortunately it began to rain so we had to cut that short but, we also had managed to get loads of shots done anyway. We also just edited these into our video when we had got back from filming and added the 'tint' effect over them to make them more interesting and when showing it to other class members, we found that they liked this effect. 

Production Diary: Week 10

• This week we did more lip syncing shots, we tried them in front of various backgrounds, at first this didn't work so we re-tried them using lighting and different backgrounds, we then found these shots were more successful and once we took these shots we edited them into the video.
• This week we took shots of the narrative, we tried these in a park to create a more child like theme. We also found a sign in the skatepark with "keep out" on it which we edited in the section "danger zone" so that the shots would reflect the song. After watching these shots back on the computer we found that they had come out a little childish which is something that we didn't want in our video therefore, we didn't use any of them. 

Production Diary: Week 9

• This week we didn't film anything, we just began to think about our digipak that we had to create for our artist. We wasn't too sure at the beginning but after looking at previous years and on google for some inspiration we decided to sketch out some of our plans and discussed how they would link to our video and our artist in general. By drawing them it helped us see them more visually and give us a vague idea as to what it may actually look like. We came up with two rough ideas however, the one we preferred was more based upon the photobooth idea and showed images of us all messing around with our artist also in the photobooth this time, we were also going to follow the generic layout of a photobooth picture with the skinny vertical row of images

Production Diary: Week 8

• We then started to edit our shots that we had taken in London. Our main editing was changing the brightness and contrast on our shots so the colour would stand out more to the audience and relate to our use of colour throughout, which worked well with our song as its upbeat and happy. However, after editing all these shots we realised we needed far more lip syncing shots so they didn't get too boring so we started to brainstorm more local areas but also, with the same urban feel to them. 
• We also re-filmed our photoshoot shots with different people this time, they came out better than the practise shots but after asking for feedback, many people said that the quality of them wasn't as good therefore, we are going to re-film them again but we played around with the editing on them and cut them to the beat.
• This week we also took more shots of our narrative and this was more based upon her partying with her friends. Since watching these shots back we have decided not to use them. We realised these narrative shots were looking at the camera too much, this again made it confusing with the artist and who was who. Also the lighting was very dark and dim which didn't fit in with our bright theme we have used throughout. We also decided that partying showed an older angle of our narrative so decided to make her do more teen activities.

Production Diary: Week 7

• This week was our first week of filming where we were going to start our actual music video but before doing this we felt that we should take some practise shots. We started off with the 'photobooth' shoots that we wanted in our video and from shooting these we realised that we couldn't have our artist and actors in the same shots as it would become difficult for the audience to establish the difference between to artist and the main narrative character. We also felt that these shots would look better if there were more of us in them which wasn't a problem as we could ask our own friends and plan to do it in a lunch or a free available study period. 
• We then began to film our actual music video which we had planned to do around London, we aimed to get quite a lot of lipsyncing done that day as our artist is supposed to be quite urban which meant it was easy for us to do so. When filming we shot some of the artist in front of a graffitti wall, on a rooftop, in a small enclosed area surrounded by trees and tbbles, fountains etc. However, we filmed some of our narrative in these areas which we didn't use in the end due to it being too confusing for the audience and then decided we wanted the shots of the narrative to be in a variety of different places. During the day we faced many problems, the majority being, filming in a busy place but also, due to us filming for most of the day our camera had ran out of battery and memory. Luckily we were near a Starbucks which meant we could charge the camera and there was a lot of old work which we could delete off the camera therefore, our problems didn't last too long. 

Production Diary: Week 6

Week 6:

• I decided to take a look at some aspects of Mise-En-Scene and decide upon some basic ideas for our music video, more or less just researching into most of it other than lighting and actors. First off with our initial music video idea I decided to look at places in London where we could shoot and not have to ask for permission to use the locations so I searched places like Camden, Brick Lane, Embankment etc. as we thought these were locations that fitted our music video but also locations that the audience could possibly relate to as they're quite well known.
• This week we planned to get the basis of our shooting schedule down therefore, when coming to filming it would be easier as we could follow the list of things we had to shoot and then the dates which was helpful as it allowed each member of our group to know when and where we were shooting but also, it helped to fit it into our school timetable. We also created our risk assessment therefore, it would help when filming as we would be able to prevent any of our group members being at a risk. 

Production Diary: Week 5

Week 5:

• We decided to look up the lyrics and then decide upon what we thought they meant therefore, we read through verse by verse and analysed it very briefly as we were going to analyse it later on with timings and what we thought was going to run along side this when creating our music video. We decided that the lyrics were about the girl getting over an ex-boyfriend of hers, meaning it had quite a structured leading narrative, not leaving much imagination if we were going to do narrative and performance. By looking at this it means it gives us some ideas for our music video and creates a sense of the sort of music video we wanted to create 
• This week we started to plan our storyboard and get our ideas together. We all wrote down our individual ideas and we sat down together and swapped our ideas with each other, which meant we were able to all have a strong input into the content. We spent some time going over the ideas and writing a general list of what we wanted in an order which we all liked, by doing this it helped get us into the flow of storyboard and to have a set idea of what we wanted before transferring it on to an actual storyboard. After all agreeing on our shot list and our content we began to draw out our storyboard and by having this it meant that when we went filming we could follow our storyboard and get all of the shots we needed done.
• I decided to create 3 different mood boards, an indie one, an R&B one and one for our music video. By doing this it meant that I was able to take inspirations from both Indie and R&B music videos as the genre for the song is Indie and R&B. Therefore, when creating the final mood board which was a mood board created for my own music video it meant that I was able to look at my previous mood boards and then decide which aspects from which genre I wanted, meaning my final piece would consist of both Indie and R&B. Also by creating any mood board it helps with inspiration when thinking of ideas for a music video