Daniel's Individual Production Log

Daniel's Production Log

Week 1 September
We begin with a task to improve our Photoshop skills, recreating an existing poster to make a completely different poster

Week 2 September
This week sees the tasks of completing analysis on music videos of the pop genre, and analysing how the poster was created.

Week 3 October
As a new group, we then make a survey to ask our intended audience, using demographics and psychographics in order to choose who we would ask. We receive the results and we also analyse the results and we take into consideration what we will put into our music video

Week 4 October
We collaborated as a group to make an album cover draft, complete with the layout, and descriptions of colour schemes needed and how the text will be laid out.

Week 5 October
We begin on analysing digipaks of pop music artists in order to get an idea of the codes and conventions that typical pop CD covers have. We used the star image of the pop singer for the audience to get an idea of who he is, with a simple text showcasing his name and the name of the album. I also complete my creative influences video in which I show similar pop music videos which have influenced me and my decisions for choosing certain costume, and the stock plot for our video.

Week 6 November
I draw out a plan for my website, with detailed descriptions and drawings of where the buttons would go.

Week 7 November
Farzin and I are in charge of pitching our music video to our target audience (consisting of young adults, 16-20, of both genders) and we detail our video using MECS (Mise en scene, editing, camera, sound) for the audience to get an idea of how our video will go. 

Week 8 November
The final shot list including the type of shots (performance or narrative), and the shot type and how the actors will act.

Week 9 November
Another shot list which includes the actors needed, and further performance notes is made.

Week 10 November
Research into theories are made in order to see how we can conform or subvert from common conventions.

Week 11 December
A production schedule for the music video is made, detailing which crew will be ready for the shooting, and which actors will be required. A photography plan is also made as to how the pictures will be used, and how the main actors will pose for my digipak and my magazine advert, The final storyboard is also made to help guide us visually as to how the actors will be like. I write down a risk assessment and how we can avoid these risks

Week 12 December
I'm in charge of the potential performers task and I 'interview' a few students who could fit into our character's persona. However, these were potential performers and therefore would not be a good choice as they have shown in the video.

Week 13 December
I draw out a plan for my digipak, including measurements and what would go where, giving me an outline as to how the final digipak would look.

Week 14 January
I get more inspiration from other artists and how their digipaks look, so I planned to take out a few conventions such as the low-key lighting, and the close-up of the singer's face.

Week 15 January
As cameraman, we start our first weekend of shooting, using local places such as the park as our primary location. I film the narrative shots of our music video.

Week 16 January
I start editing the music video, placing the current shots in place.

Week 17 January / 18 February
I edit the music video, with occasional help from Farzin and Henali

Week 19 February
I upload the rough cut for our music video

Week 20 February
I complete my ancillary tasks and they are uploaded

I continue editing while Farzin and Henali film.

Week 21 February
Editing comes to an end and I finish to the deadline, and I then start on the technical run of the lyric sheet, analyzing the lyrics and how they will be 'visually' shown in the music video.

Week 22 February
I upload the final cut of the music video onto our blog

Week 23 Feb / 24 March
Evaluation questions are completed

Evaluation Question 4 (How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?)

Evaluation Question No.3 (What Have You Learned from Audience Feedback)

Evaluation Question 2 (How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?)

I believe the effectiveness of my group’s main product and my individual ancillary products is very strong, since the video showcases typical pop conventions that is very common, so the audience will feel comfortable watching it, especially since there is a narrative and performance, so people who like narrative and people who like performance can enjoy watching this product, making it cater to everyone. My individual products use a low-key lighting and this is to signify emptiness or fear. Since the audience doesn't know what happens to the actor after it ends, the audience will begin to question what has happened, such as ‘what did he do next?’ and ‘did he go back with her?’. These questions make the audience a bit scared of the unknown, so the website has dark colours, typically white on black to show contrast, as well as fear. Typical pop websites have tour dates, and news, so I included them in my individual website to make it look authentic. My digipak shows James, the heartbroken boy, walking away from camera, and looking at the camera, half his face in shadows, showing that he is becoming empty, and losing himself. The serif text for the track-list and the main head easily show that this is a pop CD cover, due to the colours, text, composition and lighting.

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

Eyes Shut - Josh Dylan (Final Cut)

Technical Run of Lyric Sheet - Daniel

Poster Advert (New Media)

Digipak (Print Media)

My digi-pak consists of dark colours to give a sense of abandonment and loneliness. Although this isn't typical of conventional pop CD covers such as Taylor Swift's Fearless or Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. I subverted from these pop conventions and this makes it intriguing and interesting to the audience as they believe that this new artist is groundbreaking and influential. Because of this, I can target different demographics instead of my initial target audience of young teens to adults of both genders, coming from a working class to middle class background. The bottom three panels show a story, where he is shown being separated from a dark, shadowed figure, presumably his past. The bottom middle panel shows him with his hand on his head, possibly thinking about what happened. My digi-pak shows a story and the consumer would immediately know that this album is about heartbreak.

Eyes Shut - Josh Dylan (Rough Cut)

Institution Research

Institution research from Dan09876543

Album Cover Ideas

Humans are a very visual species, utilising around 80% through eyesight. The eye reacts extremely quickly to movement, and as such, an appealing looking CD/digipak cover pleases the eye. We want to create a connection between the digipak and the audience in order for our digipaks to become successful. Underneath are some ideas that I believe suit our own digipak cover idea, and extra content ideas:

I enjoy these digipak/CD covers because of their high contrast, making it very easy and appealing to look at, while looking at the purity and natural beauty of the human face, while also showing imperfections. The portraits range from mid-shot to mid close-ups, focusing on the person's emotions

Extra Content:

• Because our music video is a story about the suffering the girl goes through with the heartbreak, perhaps the digipak will include a booklet with pictures, maybe drawings of a stick person getting heartbroken.
• A sheet containing lyrics to the songs.
• 
  

Ancilliary Draft Planning

I built the digipak template on Photoshop from scratch. I used a black box for the background to easily highlight and show the different measurements. I had researched on other digipak templates and I had copied the basic template, including measurements of normal CD cases, which is 4.75'' by 4.175'', although the height and width can vary. The unfinished CD digipak show the CD in the top middle. Usual CD covers have it on the top left, or inside right. but since it is in the middle, it can fit additional pictures that we might use to tell the audience the narrative without needing to view the music video. The boxes were made and measured using a grid so that they were all equal, and the CD was made using the ellipse tool, under the shape section. This is our main guide for the actual digipak.

Potential Performers (Auditions)

Risk Assessment

Photography Plan

Primary Photographs Needed

1) Mid-Shot of Main Boy leaning against the wall (Used for CD front cover), wearing long-sleeve shirt with v-neck, face facing towards camera, body at 45' counter-clockwise

2) Evelina and boy giggling, shallow focus, close-up of faces from left hand side, boy wearing long trench coat, navy coloured. Girl wearing hoodie (Used for website)

3) Long shot of empty highway, or empty street during dusk or day (cloudy and dark), boy with hoodie on, walking away from camera. (Front cover of Digipak or website)

4) Close-up, half of boy's face, one in light and the other in shadow, looking towards camera, black and white filter, v-neck top (Back cover of CD digipak)

Secondary Photographs (May not be used)

1) Broken frame, close-up (Used for Website)

2) Mid-shot behind Evelina and boyfriend, two holding hands (Used for website)

Storyboard

The beginning shows the shots used and approximately how long they will last. The storyboard can help us visually in what we need to do for it to finish as close as possible to the storyboard. As a typical storyboard has, the additional notes are present in order to give us extra guidance as opposed to just visual art. I added exact seconds and this strict timing can help us edit it more professional and make it flow easily.

Production Schedule for Music Video - Daniel

Institution Research

Further Research - Theories