PLANNING MY ALBUM COVER DESIGN

I went on American Eagle, Abercrombie and Superdry website to look at T-shirt fonts and logo in order to design a similar logo for our band, One Republic.
I really like the use of bold texts and vibrant colours used on these T-shirts,
I also like the use of outline, in order to make the texts more eye-catchy and loud, which I will incorporate in my design for One republic.

CONSTRUCTION- Colour correction

During today's lesson, I went on Youtube and watched a tutorial on colour correction for Adobe Premier Pro.

Tutorial

Because we used two different cameras and they had different settings on and we prefer the one with warm, golden, sun-set like lighting, so I decided to correct the colour of the footages by adjusting the brightness, contrast and colour tone, in order to create continuity.

Colour correction

RESEARCH: WHERE DO PEOPLE CONSUME MUSIC

RESEARCH: WHERE DO PEOPLE CONSUME MUSIC

I have found an infographic showing the music preferences of people in the people's poll in 2008 which was conducted my LM radio. This research has shown me that technology is advancing and more and more people are using portable devices such as phones rather than CDs to listen to music. This Infographic also shows that 74.3% of consumers need to know the name of the singer and song title when it comes to their favourite tunes. Therefore I will make sure that the song name and band name is clearly present so that consumers can instantly recognise the name and band. This will be particlulary evident on my album and magazine advert.

RESEARCH- Album Cover

CONSTRUCTION- Stabilising footages

In today's lesson, Piers and I used Aftereffects to stabilise a footage and got rid of the hand held effect. 

The hardest bit was finding two tracking points of high contrast. The footage is steady now and we are able to fit it in our music video.

Here is a tutorial we found online:

Here's another tutorial I found on VIDEO COPILOT
http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/tutorials/05.Motiontracking/

RESEARCH- MUSIC SALES

MUSIC SALES

iTunes article in Metro 06.02.13

• Music lovers have downloaded a record 25 billion songs from the Apple iTunes Store, the Cupertino-based company has announced.

• More than 15,000 songs are downloaded per minute across the world.

• Available in 119 countries, the iTunes Store is the world’s most popular music store with a catalogue of over 26 million songs.

PLANNING: QUESTIONS

WE CREATED AND CONDUCTED QUESTIONAIRES TO RESEARCH OUR TARGET AUDIENCE. WE WERE ABLE TO GATHER INFORMATION FROM 20 COMPLETED QUESTIONAIRES FROM STUDENTS IN OUR SIXTH FORM WHOM ARE AT THE TARGETED AGE RANGE.

PLANNING: CALL SHEET-CLAREMONT LANDSCAPE GARDENS (BAND PERFORMANCE)

PLANNING:AMATEUR v. PROFESSIONAL

In this post I will explain how One Republic's "Good Life" music video has inspired us.

In the music video, the band performance is taken place outdoor, and we really like this approach as it gives a free and spacious feeling. Therefore we decided for our band performance scenes will be taken place at the back of the school car park, which is similar to the scenes in the original music video ( see pictures below)

In the music video, the 'scene within scene' approach is consistently being used. This creates a very interesting effect and it seems like the people are spreading the message within the song around the world. In our music video we would like to use a similar approach, as a transition method. Since mobile phone is a device that is essential to us and it helps pulling people closer, therefore we will try and key the moving band performance on the phone screen and zoom into it or zooming out from it as a method of scene transition. When researching into this method, we realised it is also used in Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" music video.

Another thing we will try is keying the moving band performance into a poster in a train station and zoom out from it in one of the scenes in our music video.

PLANNING- MOOD BOARD

After planning on our music video, here is a mood board I created using Photoshop. These are the elements or the things that will feature in our music video. They are mainly images of people laughing and having fun as the main message of the song and our music video is about people choosing to live a good life and be optimistic no matter what the circumstances are.

PLANNING- animatic storyboard

We have done an animatic storyboard by using iMovie, after annotating the lyrics of our chosen song, in order to show what would happen in each scene and the flow of the music video. Although we might make altarations whilst we are filming and editing, but this would be helping in the planning process of organising locations and casts.  

Me and Piers drawing the storyboard

PLANING- Music Video Lyrics

Woke up in London yesterday                     Start with a close up shot of the lead singer & zoom out        Found myself in the city near Piccadilly       to the whole band - band performance

Don't really know how I got here
I got some pictures on my phone

New names and numbers that I don't know       Two people sitting together looking at their phone
Address to places like Abbey Road                - zooms into the phone- party scene -> drunk guy                                                                                      falls on the floor outside and the camera zooms up to the sky ..
Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want  Time lapse   
We're young enough to say      camera then zooms onto phone on floor, zooms into band performance

Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life                         band performance
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
This could really be a good life                             band performance
A good, good life

To my friends in New York, I say hello   zooms out to an advertising board in Waterloo station
My friends in L.A. they don't know         - a group of friends walking passed the advert and the camera
Where I've been for the past few years or so  follows them - get on the train 
Paris to China to Col-or-ado

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out
Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now   band performance
We are god of stories but please tell me-e-e-e
What there is to complain about

When you're happy like a fool
Let it take you over
When everything is out                        Stop motion of people jumping
You gotta take it in

Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life                           band performance
This could really be a good life, good life

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight                      band performance
This could really be a good life
A good, good life

Hopelessly
I feel like there might be something that I'll miss
Hopelessly
I feel like the window closes oh so quick                      ?
Hopelessly
I'm taking a mental picture of you now
'Cuz hopelessly
The hope is we have so much to feel good about

Oh this has gotta be the good life
This has gotta be the good life
This could really be a good life, good life    band performance

Say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight
Like this city is on fire tonight          band performance
This could really be a good life
A good, good life

Oh yeah
Good, good life   band performance
Good life
Ooh

Listen
My friends in New York, I say hello
My friends in L.A. they don't know                Friends from second scene sitting under tree still, lead singer walks in and sits with them and looks at phone, camera zooms in on phone.....
Where I've been for the past few years or so
Paris to China to Col-or-ado

Sometimes there's airplanes I can't jump out
Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now    train      phone shows lead singer walking along a train platform (camera positioned on opposite platform), singer walks down platform and train zooms past and camera blacks out.
We are god of stories but please tell me-e-e-e
What there is to complain about

PLANNING: HOW MY BAND DEVELOPED ITS STAR BRAND

I am investigating how One Republic publicize themselves and how they attract and address their audience. For Steve Archer, 'the meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist.'(Media Magazine February 2012)

They reach audiences online through their own website, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Spotify playlists and video links. 
For example- 
Facebook

Facebook is a platform where audiences catch up with the band's most recent activities, for example like new single release and the next tour etc. They chose to use the cover of their new single- Feel Again as the profile picture and an artistic photo of the band in red as the cover photo. It is a very eye catchy combination and it grabs the audiences' attention.

The band also posts their own Spotify playlist on Facebook.

The band put up pictures of their tours on Facebook and they attract and retain audiences by saying " We'll be back before you know it"

Twitter

Twitter is also a main platform where One Republic shares all their news and thoughts with their audiences.  In this tweet, they are sharing the new song titles from their new album.

The band also posts pictures  on Twitter. When audiences go on their Twitter, it almost feels like they are their friends, as they can see pictures of the band and all their latest activities and places they have been. It gives the band a really friendly image.

Official website

One Republic also has their own website. They post video of the band in the studio, and they also have direct links to their iTunes, Youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook and Amazon page.

Every Beat Matters campaign

OneRepublic’s new music video for “Feel Again” was released in August — escorted onto YouTube and Vevo with a social good initiative benefiting Save the Children and Ad Council’s “Every Beat Matters” campaign.
Dubbed The Heartbeats Project, the online initiative from ad agency BBDO began when production company Rabbit Content recorded heartbeats of healthy children in Malawi and Guatemala. OneRepublic used the heartbeats as inspiration for “Feel Again”.
Every paid download of “Feel Again” on iTunes throws money into the movement’s coffers, eventually helping to prevent the death of infants and kids across the globe.
The campaign is spreading on social media. At EveryBeatMatters.org people are clicking on the “Tweet This Heartbeat” button to tweet this message:

The site also lets you listen to the kids’ heartbeats and has a Heartbeat Portrait Maker, which takes one of your Facebook photos and transforms it into a portrait created from mini heartbeat waves- which is how the band created their Facebook cover photo.

“Every year, about 7 million children die of largely preventable and treatable causes, such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia,” says OneRepublic’s record label, Interscope. “‘Feel Again’ was inspired by the heartbeats of children in remote villages where children are in need of life-saving care.”

I think it is an excellent marketing strategy because it shows that the band has social awareness and create a very positive brand image among audiences. Since every paid download donates money to the campaign, more people are likely to buy it as they can get the song and raise funds for the charity at the same time.

Television
"Secrets" was used in a promo for the sixth and final season of Lost. It was also used in the 2010 film The Sorcerer's Apprentice and in promotional material for the TV series Pretty Little Liars and Nikita and was featured in 90210, 30 Rock and CSI Miami (Season 9 Episode 6) as well. 

Four songs were featured on The Vampire Diaries, "Say (All I Need)" and "Marching On" in season 1, and "All This Time" and "Come Home" in season 2.
Other songs have also been featured on the TV series One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, and Castle.The song "Good Life" is featured in the trailers for One Day and Eat Pray Love, as well as in the film Easy A, an episode of Cougar Town and in recent Disney Resort commercials. It has also been used in a Honda commercial.

PLANNING: SHOT TYPES

Shots likely to be shot using tripod:

Medium shots

Medium close up shots

Close up shots

Wide shots

• Cutaway shots (To scenes without band performance)

Focal Lengths :

• Extreme wide shots
• Multiple wide shots
• Medium close up shots
• Close Up shots

Shots with movement which is likely to be filmed on a handheld tripod:

    

• Wide angle pitching shots
• Wide angle panning shots
• Wide angle pitch/pan/tracking shots 
• Medium close up pitching/panning shots 
• Arc Shots
• Shots with lens flares (a convention of music videos which usually goes ignored)

PLANNING- LOCATION REPORTS

In today's lesson my group mate Piers and I went and looked for possible locations in school for our music video. Since One Republic chose to do their band performance outdoor in the 'Good Life' music video and we really like that idea. We chose to look outside to see where we could base our band performance scenes. When exploring we came across a few locations we felt would be suitable to use in our video.