GT: In Class Individual Role

The majority of my efforts have gone into helping to create the digipak and advertisement for the music video. By using stills taken from our various shoots I've been able to manipulate features such as saturation and lighting as well as adding text relevant to the song and album by Jack Garratt.

The process has a lot of trial and error involved when trying to discover appropriate filters and effects. Many of these prototypes are discarded simply because they don't continue the theme we have included in our other digipak designs.

I have to keep in mind, when manipulating each photo, to retain a consistent theme with the digipak and advert. This ultimately means using the same overlays, saturation and hue, since the product we are creating should have a recognisable theme.

Another role I have is the editing process. Editing the primary product (music video) is a vital part of the entire campaign. this mainly involves cropping and inputting clips previously filmed at various locations into Premiere Elements. Each beat to the song has to line up with each shot cut, and different colour grading has to be applied to various points of the video. similarly with adjusting the advert and digipak, different shots can be manipulated on premiere, such as adjusting the saturation.

GT: Advert Progress 3

The progress made since the previous update has been minimal, since the advert is almost complete.
We have sharpened the appearance of the image by slightly altering the saturation again, and in doing so the image appears more realistic, rather than an having an overly saturated image. This meant that again we would have to go over Corey and Dylan's faces with a blemish tool in order to desaturate them and make them stand out.

I began inputting more text into the advert in order to familiarise it with an original form of advertising by Jack Garratt, seen in the image here. This should be visible on the next update post. Also, the text positioning will be matched to a greater extent, but due to the different framing of the two images it will be difficult to match the text positioning accurately.

A shadow has been added to the text to make it bolder, especially since the background of the advert blends in, to an extent, with the light colours of the text. Furthermore, when studying the font used by Garratt in his album covers and posters we realised the missing slant of the letter 'A' was only necessary for the first two appearances of the letter.

Icons have been repositioned around the entire advertisement, in order to create space for the text in the bottom left hand corner, which is conventional for a Jack Garratt poster.

HG: Digipak Process 5

I have made significant progress on this particular image. I have managed to input the list of tracks, as well as the record label, barcode and production details. In the lesson, after doing further research into Jack Garratt, I discovered than Remnants was in fact an EP, rather than an official album. Also, I found that Garratt has announced his first album release date, along with the name of the album (Phase) and the 13 tracks included. Consequently, I created a text layer for each piece of text, so that I was able to move each track around. Also, I decided to position the track list along the outline of the headphones, to make it look more visually appealing.

In terms of the barcode, I simply added one from google by using the select tool, and copying it straight into the pane, the same also applied for the British record label Island Records. Furthermore, I used an album named ‘Submarine’ to get some expertise about the production details small print where I found that I needed to put in where the album was made, and the website, as well as claiming the copyright. Lastly, I have slightly altered the positioning of the main text ‘Jack Garratt’ putting on one line instead of two.

This image has been taken from our music video piece on premiere, due to being a very effective shot in terms of framing and composition. We would like to use this shot over our two inside middle panes for our digipak, after taking advice from Humbugs  (the Arctic Monkeys album), where they also used a landscape shot across both panes. I used many effects to make the shot look even more solemn and dejected. This included the Density tool to  bring out underexposed or dark areas of an image. As well as this, I used the levels tool to move and stretch the brightness levels of the image. It has the power to adjust brightness, contrast, and tonal range and I was therefore able to expose certain areas such as the lower right-hand-side of the image. I also used the colour balance tool to ensure that one colour dominates the frame, I chose a dark grey colour for this effect. Furthermore, I also increased the contrast vastly, and lowered the saturation .

 

 

TW: In Class Individual Role 4

I have made considerable progress with the editing of the music video, my main method being to add clips to the timeline that create juxtaposition, for example editing a clip of the two children playing hide and seek behind a tree next to a clip of George (one of the brothers in the present) walking past the tree looking upset because his brother is gone. This is effective as it constructs the representation that the younger brother is gone and represents the effect it has had on his brother very effectively as well as being a fairly simple and understandable concept.

To represent this more obviously, the use of fading out of the lost brother is used frequently in our video, the screenshot below shows one of the clips I have done this to, matching the two clips together- one without the brother and one with the brother, with the camera positioned in exactly the same place.
To the right the red horizontal line shows where I have added key frames in order to change both the opacity and the colouring of this shot. Changing the opacity gives this 'fading' effect whilst adding a colour pass and altering its presence in the shots dulls the colour as the clip goes on. This constructs the clip to look like as the brother fades away, so does the colour, becoming black and white.

I did this to construct the representation that in the older brothers eyes, a world without his brother is a world without enjoyment and happiness, really emphasizing the pain that his younger brother dying has caused. In the image you can also see the central box is rendering the clips, I do this after adding effects to clips and overlapping certain shots which makes the video look of much higher quality as each clip flows smoothly and the change of clips is not jumpy or unfocused.

In this image to the left you can see a large selection of clips of the two brothers when young, I have been constantly reviewing all these clips to make sure I use the most effective and meaningful, then making sure to position these clips next to others to flow smoothly to make the camera movements similar, for example if in one clip the camera is moving to the right at a certain pace, I will try to make the next clip also have the same movements to the right, if it does not quite flow I can make adjustments to the timings of the clip. For example I often use the TimeStretch tool to slow down, fasten or often reverse certain clips so that the same movement continues.

Most recently, in order to finish the video I have been adding clips of the older brother visiting his brothers grave at the end of the video. We added these scenes as it enforces the meaning of the video in case the audience did not understand that the younger brother had passed away.

After the clips were ordered correctly in the timeline and the group was happy with them, we added a vignette effect to the clips of the brothers together in colour. We believed this gave these clips a more 'dreamy' effect as if they are constantly replaying in the older brothers mind, a representation we had hoped to achieve in the video.

TW: Digipak and Advert Process 2

Again for the digipak and advertisement process I have been in charge of directing the photoshoots of the pictures we plan to use on the printwork. The bulk of the pictures were taken in Bedgebury park, using the children from our music video and to represent Jack Garratt in an appropriate way, we believed using children was necessary as children frequently feature on Jack Garratt's EP covers, for example for tracks 'Weathered' and 'Breathe Life' shown below.

 To the right are the pictures we think are technically the strongest for use on the printwork, we have since decided that the bottom picture, with the kids sat at the bottom of the tree looking to the right is the image we will use for our printwork.

We think that both the colours, e.g. the red and blue clothing of the children are suitable and are similar to the colours used in the EP's above, one of which also makes use of an exterior location.
To finalize this printwork, we have added it into photoshop and have begun making adjustments, for example using the brightness, contrast and saturation tools to deepen the colours in the picture as well as deciding upon positioning the artists name in the top left corner of the picture, making the typography the largest so that it is  focus point when first looking at the image, to highlight the artist straight away. We have decided to make this typography either a solid black or white colour, or a combination of the two again to make it easily visible and clear to the audience.

In photoshop, we have constructed the font we will use to display the artists name, using the font 'Typographica' and using the crop and magic wand tools to remove parts of the A's to give it a modernized look reflecting the modern music genres Jack Garratt uses like electro and reflecting fonts used on his previous printwork, these changes to the font are shown above.

We have also decided that all text featured on the printwork will be positioned in only the corners of the image, this is because the main signifiers of this image lie in the centre (the two children and the tree) while the corners of the image have little significance or anything that catches the eye, positioning text in the corners will allow all information to be seen clearly whilst not affecting all of the images most interesting features.

Below are some more of the images I captured in the Bedgebury/ Grosvenor locations that we have since decided to discard. Although we are not using these images I believe it's important to note that framing and composition was considered before shooting and that these images may have been used for the two middle panes of the 4 pane digipak we have decided on.    

To complete the digipak, we planned on using an image of the artist on it's front cover. Obviously we could not use the real Jack Garratt on our digipak so I decided it may be useful to use someone who has a resemblance to him, deciding on my friend Tom who agreed to do a photoshoot.
To capture the image we needed, we set up a photoshoot with a plain background so that this could be edited in photoshop if needed and using lighting to create shadows in some shots, for example the image to the right. To construct a representation of Jack Garratt that was believable I had to direct Tom on what to use as his costume, I told him to wear a stylish hat and jacket, which Jack Garratt is often seen wearing as you can see from the image to the right of Jack Garratt.

 

 I then positioned the camera just below eyeline level and took various pictures of Tom, instructing him to stand in different angles. To the left are a couple of the many pictures I took. After reviewing these images, we believed the top picture to the left was most strong due to his central framing, all of his face is clearly visible and his eyesight direction also works nicely.

To progress from this, we will now add the image to photoshop and position text around him to construct the digipak front pane, this text will be limited as it will be just the artists name and the album name (Phase), we believe only adding these two simple bits of text makes it easy and quick for a potential audience to recognize the album.

We will also add colour changes to the image to further influence this, such as layering a black and white filter underneath a coloured filter to make the image look more effective and continue the colour scheme used on the rest of the digipak (mainly red and green) to create a cohesive digipak and advertisement for Jack Garratt.

Group: Rough Cut and Feedback

Feedback:

Advantages:

• black and white filter, creates emotional authenticity
• pull-focus shots
• attention to cutting rate
• opening sequence is very polished
• fades were effective
• framing of the boys on bench
• there is a clear platonic friendship between brothers

Disadvantages:

• there needs to be a darker sepia wash for the footage of the kids
• didn't like the shot of Harry pointing
• doesn't feel like a memory between brothers
• build up tension a bit more prior to the younger brothers being revealed

HG: Digipak Process 4

In terms of this pane, after a discussion with my team I have changed the content, this is because it does not have much potential as a front pane. Therefore, we would like to use this pane as the back cover of our digipak. Subsequently, I have inserted the album track list rather than the album name. As well as this, I have also considered the composition and framing, and I have chosen to put the text in the top left hand corner of the pane. At first, the font was hard to see, however, by using inner glow, outer glow, and bevel and emboss, the font looked much more clear. Next lesson I hope to use the polygon tool to delete the left section of the letter 'A's' as I have done previously.

I have been working on this pane for around 4 lessons now, having to make several adjustments to the compositon, the lighting, and the typography. In this particular lesson, I was able to finish off what I started yesterday, which was to move each of the letters closer together. This was achieved by using the rectangular selection tool (to select the text I wanted to move) followed by the normal selection tool to move it where I wanted. In doing so, I had to ensure that I was holding shift, as it means that the moved text will be in alignment with the rest of the text.