Finalised Storyboard

Diary Entry Week 12

This has been a big week in taking steps in beginning to shoot our music video, as we have finally set a date for filming and have spent days looking at possible shooting locations for the narrative - we have made our final decisions and even made decisions just incase the weather isn't on our side. It's always important to have a back up plan.

The band we are using for our music video have agreed on a date in which we can film the performance, and we are using our school stage for this. Although the school stage does not sound the most professional of locations, I have planned a detail blog post on how it will work and why it will work for our genre.

I have also fully finished the website needed for our digipack side of the coursework, I am pleased with how the final product has came out and believes it suits the indie genre perfectly.

Location Idea's for Outdoor Filming

The location in which we are filming the narrative part of our music video needed to be accurate and portray the perfect image for the indie genre, this is why over the last week we have searched the entire town in where we live for several shooting spots. We are lucky as the area surrounding the school we attend is extremely rural looking, with cobbled streets and canal bridges so there inspiration everywhere we looked.

At first we literally sat with the lyrics open on the screen and the almost finished storyboard on the table and discussed what shot we wanted from each lyric, discussing lighting and costume, and what could really tell the story we wanted to get across to our viewers.

Brook Road 
Our initial thoughts was to set the whole running section of the video around a cobbled street, and that is what we think we are going to stick with. Starting and continuing in and around the local street. Everything about this cobbled road has came up with positive links to the indie genre, with many bands using locations similar to ours for photoshoots and album covers.

Opening Shot 
As discussed previously the narrative is going to be set around the area surrounding brook road, so we agreed that the first shot should include a possible pull focus on the road itself as the actor is initially running away. To set the scene.

Green Bridge
One thing we emphasized in our storyboard was the need for some sort of chest collision during the lyric 'stick your lack of chest out'. We wanted it to look dark and we decided one of our local bridges would be perfect for this shot. The bridge itself is green which has connotations of  envy and possession, and we plan to shoot in the dark giving it an edgy feel.

Dutch Tilt Shot
A Dutch tilt is a camera shot in which the camera angle is deliberately slanted to one side. We wanted to use this in music video for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication, madness, etc. We searched many possible locations where we could have just titled the camera ourselves, but decided it would give a more unique shot if we was to use the floor to tilt the camera on a hill. The shot used we are going to have the actor running, but the camera still and not panning - truly creating a unusual shot.

Website Update

After analyzing my own website I have decided to make some changes. I documented the before and after shots using powerpoint.

After researching some more I also added some completely new features.

Click here to see the BEFORE.

Click here to see the AFTER.

Diary Entry Week 11

This week there has been a lot of things happening.

It started when we made the official social media accounts, one on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I wanted them to all look as professional as possible so I used the same icon and header throughout, I think this makes it appear like an actual bands social media - which is what we are trying to achieve. Since I have created the pages I have been updating them regularly with fake gigs and pictures we have took of our 'fake band'.

It was then time to plan our filming and creating a filming list was something which we would swear by during the process. During the filming list I noted down the song we are using, Heartout by The 1975 and the location's we are going to be filming at. Another important part of the filming list was the actors and extra's we are going to be working with, having a list of them will be essential when checking if everyone is in the right place at the right time. Costumes is also something we thought about as a band, so I also included that in the list.

The benefits of using an actual band was that they perform regularly allowing for plenty of opportunities for filming. Therefore I thought it would be ideal to create a YouTube page for the band and upload any extra footage to it. By doing so it creates a more realistic page and helps us appear to engage with the fans. I uploaded the video in black and white, which is suitable to the genre.

YouTube Channel

So our band is very much based on the visual aspect due to the huge passion for performance and theatre therefore I thought it would be ideal to create a YouTube channel to share this aspect with the 'fans'. Also by doing so it allows me to create a video tab on our website.

Filming Information

As our first filming date is nearing I thought it would be ideal to write down what we have decided on for our week of filming. Once everyone has finalised their schedules for the week of the 24th October - 2nd November I can write down an actual filming schedule, but here is our filming information so far. 

Social Media

Social Media is an important aspect of maintaining a strong fanbase so this week we have focused on creating an account on the most well known platforms.

First of all we started on Facebook.

Followed by Twitter.

And finally my favourite Instagram.

Diary Entry Week 10

This has been a busy week for our group as we have began working on the initial storyboard for our music video. Thursday was the first time we had sat down and actually discussed what our ideas actually was and between the 3 of us we had a lot and a lot we actually easily agreed on. We decided that we wanted both the performance and narrative aspect, using black and white in the narrative and colour in the performance. We also decided what locations we are going to be using and who is going to be playing in our 'band'. So during our lessons we have just been organising our ideas using post it notes.  

I also created more merchandise for our band today, this time I created phone cases. I used the same graphic on them as I did on the T Shirt, making sure that everything is consistent and professional throughout. I just need to create a merchandise tab on our website now to be able to sell it.

New Merchandise - iPhone Cases

As I have discussed before Merchandise is vital in a band's popularity and fame, but also it is a free way of promotion. That is why I have been spending more time on photoshop creating more, I have created 3 iPhone cases, all with the band's Shh Logo on. My research shows that indie band fans demand black and white phone cases, and no other colours. I have concluded this after searching numerous indie band merchandise stores and even fan blogs.

What is a Digi Pack?

As well as curating the music video half of our coursework task is to produce a digipack, by definition "this is a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one or more discs."

A digi pack is made up of several components.

1.  Front Cover
2. Lyric Pages
3. Pictures 
4. Thank You Page
5. Back Page 

And I will be creating all of these as part of my task. 

Starting The Storyboard

During today's lesson we sat down as a group and began to start putting our ideas together in an organised form - a storyboard.

Although we only focused on the first 26 seconds of the song today, we got many ideas wrote down and it really got us thinking about the rest of the video. Something which we all agreed on was the importance of both performance and narrative throughout, with the performance in colour but the narrative in black and white. Now with our performance location confirmed as Heebie Jeebies, we can picture exactly what we want our final product to be looking like, with close ups of the band members faces and long shots of them setting out featuring throughout the first 26 seconds.

We have also nailed the narrative for the first 26 seconds, showing onscreen what the lyrics are saying on paper - rushing in a small town. We have also decided on our location for these shots, as we want it on appear like the male actor is pushing past people we believe Bold Street would be able to give us that. Bold Street also gives us the vintage, indie look we want to be identifiable from the Music Video.

For the rest of the week we are going to continue to build on the storyboard and get more of our many idea's onto it.

Diary Entry Week 9

So this entire week has been taken up by the creation of the Secret Nothing's website - which is finally live.

I wanted to take a lot of time on it because I wanted to include all the themes which every indie band uses on their websites and although this is my first draft of it, I am happy for my reasonings behind why I put things in and designed it the way I did. I put the fans comment section in, which is something which I took note of when analysing other bands website, that the fans should be entitled to there own opinion. Also by having a fan comment section it makes the band appear popular, which is something we want to portray. I also offered a free sneak preview of our new single, which is another way to interact with the fans and get them talking. I documented my analysis of my own website by using powerpoint.

First Draft of Website

A Website is an important part of the band and it's image, after researching several indie bands I know the look I want to be going for. Although this is only my first draft at the website and there is plenty of room for improvement, I am happy with how well I have managed to get the indie genre across.

Check the Website out for yourself -

http://thesecretnothings.wix.com/thesecretnothings

Website Plan

I decided to make a powerpoint of what features I want my website to include and the reasoning behind my choices.