Sn-oh no!

I just checked wednesday's weather report, because we were thinking of shooting the remaining scenes this week but despite the fact it's going to be pretty cold, there's going to be snow on the ground! This would affect our continuity so we're gona have to wait for the weather to settle again before we can continue shooting. This is a set back but I think we'll just have to focus on editing the footage we've got in the mean time.

Posted by Lorna.

Music Video Editing - Stage One

We have now imported the music track and all of our video footage from last wednesday into IMovie and began the preliminary stages of editing. We have cut down several shots and began the first 30 seconds of the music video. The band shots turned out well from the shoot, however a change in the speed of some of the shots was necessary to fit with the music.

George and Lorna.

Colours Colours Colours...

So with the font sorted I started to mess around with the colour of the font.

I started off simple with black then white:

Also I changed the background of the front cover - which is where this text is going to be - to the same one as the website background as we all like the misty affect in the photo itself.
Both colours stand out and I think it goes will with a simple theme - common of the indie genre.

Next I looked at purple and blue:

They - in my opinion - do stand out and bring some colour to the front of the digipak.

After a discussion with Lorna and George we all agreed we liked the black and white - especially the white as we agreed that seemed to stand out really nicely. They also suggested a shadow affect on the text. So on photo shop I made the font white then created individual black boxes for each letter, so that each would have as it would seem a shadow of their own. This is what I created:

I really like this style of font. The white stands out much more with the black shadows. Lorna and George also agree so I think it's safe to say this is the text for the front cover is about done.

- Steph

NothingYouCouldSay - Digipak Font

I really like this font - NothingYouCouldSay - it's very simple in it's design and I feel it goes well with the forest theme we have. Even with the opacity changed on the inside cover it still works well. Its very easy to read - which is essential to the digipak.

I think for the final design we'll use a combination of Earwig factory for 'The Wombats' to keep inline with the website - so fans would recognise as the logo for the band. Then for the rest of the text so it's able to read we'll use the NothingYouCouldSay font as it's simple and goes well with the design.

-Steph

Levi Brush - Digipak

This font is Levi Brush - one from my font research. I like this font anyway as I like the paint brush affect - gives it a creative feel I think. I changed the opacity of the font on the inside (image two) to see how it would look slightly faded. Lorna thinks the question mark looks like blood and I feel it doesn't really work well in this font. Another negative point about this font is that of the box shape in place of the apostrophe. It just doesn't go well with the rest of the text and makes it stand out unnecessarily.
I don't think we'll use this font because it doesn't go with the idea we want it to.

- Steph

Earwig Factory - Digipak

This is the design I've made using the font - Earwig factory (the same as the website) - on the digipack. At the moment the font is black, so it does get lost in the back ground on the front cover (top image) but I just wanted to see how it would look as a general idea. I've used the same image as the back ground for both but I think the low angle tree shot works better on the inside and we'll use an image of the band for the front cover. The question mark on the CD stands out because it's red, however I feel that it could be a little to bright for the final design.
I like the font as it would it go well with the website as well however I don't think it entirely works on the CD as well as I'd hope.

- Steph

PANDA - a.k.a Bloopers!

Here is the video we've created from all the clips we will not be using for a final music video.

The shoot went well - we got all the band shots we wanted. As the actress didn't turn up we're going to shoot her parts at the weekend hopefully so that all the filming should be done.

-Lorna and Steph

Take Two!

Due to the weather last wednesday - the 16th - we couldn't get all the filming for the video done. So today is take two. George checked the weather yesterday and all should be fine - just a bit cold but we can handle that!
Also with the line-up our bass guitarist had to drop out due to work commitments BUT we found a relpacement very quickly so all is well.
While we're filming we're hoping to get some more shots we could use for the digipak and/or website as well as the blog to show our construction stages.
I feel that we'll get all the filming done today and be able to start editing it all tomorrow afternoon.

-Steph

Guinea Pig Drama

Today we uploaded the guinea pig footage onto iMovie. We wanted to create a sort of 'dream like' effect to make 'the reveal' of our plot clear to the audience. After looking through the effects myself and Steph thought that 'soft glow' created the most dream-like feel. However after some consideration we thought that maybe it wouldn't be clear to the audience how the guinea pigs are relevant to our music video plot.
After making some last minute alterations to our shot list we have decided to input the use of a mirror to emphasize that the girl and the lead singer are animals, by looking through the mirror as opposed to falling into a dream.

-by Lorna.

CD - Development Stages

This is what we've been working on so far on the digipak. We started the inside cover where the CD it self will go.

We've used on of the photos from our photo shoot for the background, used the similar font as the website and added a large red question mark on the CD which follows our initial CD design. 

posted by Steph 

Weather Forecast for Wednesday 24th Novemeber

We have analyzed the weather forecast for tomorrow which should be appropriate for our shoot.

Guinea Pigs on film

Today I went round to my friend's house who has some guinea pigs that we can film for our music video. They're names are Daisy and Blossom and despite the famous saying 'don't work with animals' they were pretty well behaved. I managed to get about a minutes worth of them just on the grass and walking off shot. I've looked back at the footage on the camera and it looks ok, Lorna and George just need to see it now.

Here are our guinea pig stars!

posted by Steph

Website Development

We've added a images from our photo shoot; header with the band members on, the tree back ground, 'behind the scenes' shots and a t-shirt design. 

We also looked at changing the colour of the background to see what it would look like. We went with a earthy green colour

We changed the opacity so that you can see the background coming through. Steph and Lorna initially liked this - I did not agree. After a class poll the majority went with the blue for the background so we are going to stick with the blue.

This is the header I designed for the front page; I photoshopped each band member separately onto the misty tree background. All we need to do next is to add the drum in for the drummer as he currently isn't playing anything.

posted by George

Just a little design...

As part of the home page on the website we put a merchandise link so we designed a t-shirt to go in this!

We've used the same font as the website and our CD cover so it all goes well together. We kept the colouring simple with black and white then we added some wombat paw prints to play on the bands name. 

Steph

Band Photoshoot

Here are a few of the best snaps from today's photoshoot...

The smoky atmosphere in the last woodland shot was achieved by spraying baby powder into the wind. I think this effect is quite eerie and a little mysterious, and could potentially be used in the background of our CD cover.

I did a few quick photoshop experiments using some of the images above, composing the photos in a similar style to how they would appear on the cover of a CD. They doesn't look very professional but they're just rough drafts of how our final composition may look...

Posted by Lorna

If you go down to the woods today...

you're sure to be in for a surprise!

And boy did we have a pretty nasty surprise... it rained... not just drizzle, actual hardcore droplets of water falling out the sky and dampening all our hopes. Despite weather predicitons it rained earlier than we expected so we had to postpone shooting the video. We did however still go down to the location to take some photos for the digipack so at least we've achieved something from today.

I'll create another post with a few of my fave photos, which were shot using my Canon EOS 500D.

- Posted by Lorna

Website Development - Continued

The webpage template has now been completed including a finalized header banner and news and upcoming events section. I have incorporated several rounded boxes for the news articles to make them stand out and attract the audience's eye more effectively. The colours of the website are still to be decided. This is because we have yet to take a still shot of a forested area, which will be used for the background and we want to make sure that the colours of the website will work with background image. I also need to attain images of each of the band members which will be merged into a forest backdrop for the header image area. This task will be completed in photoshop and then imported into IWeb.

Website Development undertaken by George.

Photos!

For the CD cover we want these types of shots;

a low angle shot of trees

like below its a simple set up of the band in a line but we thought it would be fitting with both the song and the indie ideaology of making things quirky and comical. so we added party -esque items - party hat, blower and paper crown and princess crown. we would like to do this if we could find the props in time as it would fit well with the image we are creating for the band.

the generic band shot - singer in the middle with the other band members either side. they use bright colours in this photo, we will be going with more natural colours as we are shooting in a forest to fit with the song.

For the website we are looking to have more action shots - the band playing, during the making of the video. We'd also add what would be classed as 'official' photos like the ones featured on the CD cover.

Lorna and Steph

(all the images above are borrowed ones from various websites/sources, we don't own them)

Filming; the good, the bad and the ugly.

Tomorrow - 16th of November - will be the first day of shooting our music video. It'll take place at Wollaton Park in the afternoon.
We've had some minor troubles with our actors dropping out at last minute :( but we've managed to find replacements for them :)
We also plan to take some photographs while we're shooting for a website and digipack. Some shots we want are; the forest - low angle shots of trees like we'd be looking up at them, the band as a whole.

This is the weather for tomorrow - it's white cloud with a small chance of drizzle, so it shouldn't be that bad to film in.

We've also managed to find some guinea pigs for our video. These will be our makeshift wombats for our twisted narrative and I (Steph) should be filming them on Saturday as they are my friend's guinea pigs. 

Steph and Lorna 

Font Research

We looked on www.dafont.com for various fonts we could use for our band's name on our website. We looked at the bands original logo first and started from there.

Original logo.

This one is called 'Rolina'

This one is 'NothingYouCouldSay'

This one is 'LeviBrush'

This is one is 'Earwig Factory'

For the first two fonts I looked at ones that were similar in style to the original with the curly chapes and handwritten format of it. I feel the look far to boring and don't really stand out and look to generic for our website.
The last two I do like; the second to last one is more of a paint brush effect which I feel fits the hand-written style but makes it look cooler.However like the previous ones I feel it might not stand out as much as I'd like on the webpage. The last font - earwig factory - stands out really well and I also like the fact each letter has an indiviual background and gives it a quirky look to it. Eventhough it's not that similar to the original I feel this would work well within our webpage for the band in which we are creating.

Steph

Website Development - Preliminary Stage

I have designed and created a basic template page for the website using I Web software. From analysis into similar websites, I've decided to keep a simple layout for the web page so fans and customers can easily navigate and access the website without becoming stressed. So far, I have incorporated a login and logout facility onto the web page, which is yet to be operational and created a title banner for the web page making use of a font that is suitable to the genre of the band. I have not yet decided on the final scheme of the website.

Website Analysis & Research

We looked into websites for bands of the same genre as The Wombats as our research into creating our own website.

The first band we looked at were One Night Only

The logo for the band - which is the bands name - is very large and dominants the main view of the front page. It's bold and simple to catch the viewers eye. Images of the band include staged photos - photo shoot - showing the band as a whole rather then individuals. At the bottom of the page you could select on the images to enlarge them and this would also take you to the bands gallery of photos - official and fan ones. They have video links and music player on the site. Icons which link to social networking sites encourage the fans to follow band activity and get more involved. The layout is very simple; black background with white text in capitals, boxes are in columns making it easier to view the web page. There is an advert for the e4 programme 'Misfits' which is directed at the same target audience as the band. The written content is basically the upcoming shows for the band, latest news, twitter feeds from fans and the band. They have an interactive feature on the page in which the fans can sign up to hear news and tour updates by entering their e-mail into the box on the right hand side. It focus' mostly on the band themselves and their music - a generic convention of an indie band.

This is for Hadouken!

The background again is black but they use a bluey green colour for their text. The text is also in bold making it stand out more and more eye catching. It comes off quite futuristic with the robot images and the style of text the band uses for their logo. There is a subtle use of the social networking icons at the top of the page to help promote the band further and get the fans more involved. On the right hand side of the page they have a 'mailing list' similar to that of One Night Only for fans to gain more information on the band. Previous videos are on the 'latest news' roll, which is set in more of a blog layout with the subheading summarising the blog post. Target audience is reached by mentioning promoters such as Radio 1, Facebook and Twitter as the audience are known to have these and listen to them. There was no adverts on the home page - apart from one advertising their new single. There isn't any photos of the band on the home page but instead images of robots which we assume is what they want the iconography to be associated with.

This home page is for The Pigeon Detectives

This has a very simple layout with the links to other parts of the entire website as well as links to social networking sites. The text is bold and white in capital letters against a black back ground but there is a faint image of the band which is part of the back ground. A video of the band takes up the majority of the page and it is in the centre of the screen making it the central focus. There are no adverts on the page or any distracting text or images so the audience are just focused on the video they can see in front of them. It fits the indie genre perfectly as it's simple and directed mainly on the band and their music. There are only four links in total on the page - its about the music, as opposed to a pop artist where there page would be mainly their image. 

This is the home page for The View

Again this has a dark back ground but with a tint of blue. It looks like a graffiti spray - which appeals to the target audience of teenagers. Text is either blue or white making it stand out against the black boxes. The information we get from the home page is 'latest news', 'upcoming shows' and links to social networking sites through icon links in the top right hand corner. These icons have been edited to look part of the website as a whole rather then just being placed on afterwards, giving it a complete look. The 'news' column is set out like a blog would be with subheading then the information underneath. There are no adverts on the home page, making the focus the band and their music. It has a very dark style with the colour scheme which goes along with the music and lyrics of the band. The only images we can see of the band are still from the video list which features at the top of the page. This promotes their music and shows the fans they have previous work they could be interested in.

What we want to take from these: 

- the use of social networking links

- basic, direct, bold text that stands out

- simple layout 

- potential black and white theme

- images of the band as a whole

- keep the band as the focus - no adverts

- include music listening/video watching links

- have interactive features to include the fans

Lorna & Steph