Creating the band



Unfortunately my group has been unable to organise the photographing of four band members. The main reason for this is that we created the play dough men from our imagination without basing it on real people has made it difficult to find people which will be reflected through the play dough members. 
This is why I have come to the conclusion of drawing the members myself, to do this we photographed people based on height not appearance, this gave me the basic silhouette for my drawing. I then  blocked the photo out to create a shadow and then went on to tracing the basic lines of each person. Once I had completed the tracing, I scanned the drawing into Photoshop where I was able to experiment with colour. I really like the outcome because I feel the style represents the creative side of the band and also reflects the play dough throughout the music video.
I feel the inspiration for my design came from the band Blur and their colourful, creative design which doesn't show them as real people but takes an aspect from each member in order to form their own, unique, recognisable personality/ character.

Assigning roles and editing

Today my group assigned roles to each member of the group, Daisy was chosen as the location and props organiser as the majority of the filming takes place at her house. Nicola is the cinematographer as she has good knowledge about camera's and using the tripod. I was selected as editor as I edited our title sequence last year and learnt new skills on final cut pro; I now feel confident in using the computer software because I understand which tools are needed and when.

Digipak tutorial

Today I was able to receive feedback for my digipak development so far, I feel the discussion highlighted key aspects I need to improve on for example deciding on a target audience as a group and understand what they enjoy. I also feel I need to improve my typography so it stands out more. My next intension will be to continue improving my digipak and also research similar bands for inspiration into the layout and style of their digipak's.

Editing

Today I was able to edit the scene we had recently captured, I feel the editing is going really well and want to continue the speed at which we are working. The next intension will be to complete my digipak and finish the poster for ourfirst scene; I will be aiming to do this within the next week.

Filming

Today we were able to use a friend's drum kit for a scene, it was very difficult for our model to be stable on it because of the slippery, curved surface. However, with patience we were able to succeed and captured the images we needed. Whilst we were there we felt it would be better to film more than we needed just in case we had miss counted how much we need or if the visuals appeared out of time we could use one of the extra scenes to fill in the space. We didn't want the extra scenes to appear random or not thought out. Therefore used a music book and a drum stick to keep with the music theme. I feel this was a successful day and am pleased with the progress my group is making. We now have over a minute of footage for our video, my next intension will be to edit these new scenes and to complete the poster for the open scene so it will be ready when we film. 

Considering The Poster

A poster advertising Tonic's tour dates will feature in the music video, today I have begun experimenting with poster idea's. I have decided to include the logo as this is the main image of the band - representing how they are more focused on their music than fame. I have also begun experimenting by adding the coloured waves from my digipak which will create a visual relation between these two aspects. My next intension will be to continue experimenting with the poster until I am satisfied with the outcome.

Filming the car scene

Today we were able to film the car scene, unfortunately after searching shops and online we were unable to get the car colours we desired, however we used mini coopers which had the Union Flag on the roof which is a good representation of our band being very British. This shoot consisted of the most problems because the plasticine we have used has started becoming very unstable which resulted in one of the models completely breaking in half. To improve this we tried adding more material onto the models and used more cocktail sticks within the legs, even though  this worked today I don't feel the models will be in a usable state much longer. Therefore we will need to concentrate on getting all the filming done as soon as possible to ensure the models look good quality. We were also unable to use in a tripod because it was to tall for the location we were filming in (fireplace) , this proves we need to be slightly more organised when it comes to filming because we could have planned using a mini tripod. However, we improvised by using a stack of books at the level we needed, this meant we had to be very careful not to move the camera out of position because  it would break the continuity of the scene. I feel mine and Daisy's teamwork was very successful when filming as one person captured the photo's while the other one concentrated on moving the objects. My next intension will be to edit this scene and the next filming date is the 28th November where we plan to film the guitar and drum scenes, for this we have organised a tripod, camera, lighting and the props we will be using within each shot.

Digipak Presentation

Digipak Presentation from LouiseTaylor95

Animatics

I feel our animatics gives a good understanding of the narrative and pace of the video and will be a good visual when filming the footage.
We also showed it to other class members where we were able to receive critical feedback which included  positives and improvements.
The positives included well thought out pace, animation will work well to represent the narrative, interesting narrative will create multiple views, good range of shots, consideration of Goodwin.
The improvements mainly consisted of unsure what was going on but this was down to the quality of drawing not idea. Overall this feedback has helped my group understand our idea will be successful but in order to do this we will need to be organised, patient and work hard. To do this we will ensure everyone in the group understands where and when we are filming and what scenes we will be capturing so everyone will be able to bring the props we need.

New logo idea

When looking back at the logo design I didn't feel it represented the band members, and could be recognised as an individual artist named Tonic. This was due to the fact there being one man and a guitar within the 'O'. I decided to keep the same typography as I feel it fits in with the Indie genre, but this time used the instruments featured in our music video. My next intension will be to develop this onto my digipak.

Storyboards

Here are the storyboards for our music video which highlight the order of scenes and the narrative. I feel the storyboards are an important aspect of our planning because we are able to refer back to them if we get stuck with idea's or have trouble with a scene. It has also allowed all group members to share their ideas and expectations.

Blur - Tv and Coffee

Blur - Coffee and TV from Andrey Tukhtamanov on Vimeo.
In a recent tutorial it was suggested that I looked at the music video Coffee and Tv by the band Blur; this is because of the animation aspect and the similar narrative to our music video idea. The video opens with a animation of a milk carton, this links to our idea because we plan to used small plasticine men. There are many long shots showing the small scale of the milk carton - We plan to use similar shots to represent the small men living in a big world, we will also reinforce this by using life sized instruments to add a cute factor. 
The narrative of this music video involves a missing boy who's family want to find, the milk carton has the image of the missing person on him and faces a range of difficulties before finding him; this is where a live performance is used which is a convention of the Indie genre. The video is completed by the boy being found and the milk carton being crushed. This narrative is very similar to ours because we aim to create a story about small plasticine men trying to imitate Tonic the real band.. The video will consist of the small men in a big world trying to find their way round; it will then end with the real band finding the small men and crushing them, followed by a live performance. 
This music video has helped me understand what my group will need to do to achieve a successful music video, we will need to put in a lot of time and effort in order to create a good stop motion, using real people in the video will break up the stop motion, making it less predictable and boring. The live performance and lip syncing will also succeed in Goodwin's theory and complete some conventions of the Indie genre. Using a range of shots will keep the audience interested and we aim to make the pace of the video reflect the speed and beat of the song 'Bohemian Like You'.