Evaluation

http://prezi.com/aerkele4jygo/media-evaluation/?auth_key=d29976a89b39409ac9a178bf1fa8faea6edd837a

Album Cover

This is my final development of my album cover. I have not changed the image from the last upload, however I have added on the writing. I used Adobe Illustrator to do this because it enabled me to use the structure of an album cover so that my image did not become distorted. The font that I have used for this is called 'Sante Le Fait', I really like this font as I feel that it is quite qwerky and can appeal to both male and female. As well as adding the font I also played around with the angle, on Illustrator they have tool that allows you to make the writing into an arch, by doing this is allowed my to adjust the angle and the position of the words, I fell that this has made it slightly more interesting. Although my album cover is very simple, this is exactly what I wanted, I feel as though the audience can immediately look at the image and capture a mood. I did not add much writing on to the album cover because I feel that it was not necessary and may look like I had tried to cram to much on, the writing in the corner enables an  audience to be immediately drawn to the image, once looking at the image they can then find the text. As I have already said I have not edited this image from my last upload, however in my first upload i cropped the image so that it had a closer proximity so that it capture more of the mood I also converted the image into sepia and adjusted the levels of contrast and brightness, in the final touches of the image development I faded the image so that it would have a slight antique look, I feel that by doing this to the writing as well it enables the image to be very subtle and clear but still giving it a very modern and contemporary finish.

Development of ideas for album cover

 These are all images which I have print screened from my music video, I did take pictures throughout my video but i do not feel that they are as good as these. The three images that I have uploaded are all for the the album cover, I have chose these as I feel that they all mold into the same theme that runs through my music video. I thought that this first image may have been appropriate because the way in which the character stares directly into the camera makes it quite chilling and personal, it allows the audience to read the persons thoughts. I did slightly edit this image on Photoshop to crop it so that the image had a closer proximity enabling it to capture the emotion and mood.

This is the second screen shot, I thought that this would be appropriate because it is very simple yet it leaves the audience intrigued, for example why is the character on the right wearing pajamas? Although I like this image I do not think that I will use it for my final piece as I do not think that it is powerful enough, it doesn't capture the mood of the video.








This is my third and final development, and it is my favorite! Again this is a screen shot from my video,  I love the proximity and how clear the image is. I think that this will be the image that I use for my final album cover as I think it is very strong, it allows an audience to view it and straightaway capture a mood. I feel that the image will also intrigue an audience to lead them to wanting to watch the video. I have slightly edited this image into a sepia effect and altered the levels of brightness, I feel that this also adds to the mood of the image.  

Link for my own music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaQwS4MDFiA

Front Cover

This is the final front cover, I have not edited this image from the last upload, however I have added on the text. When choosing the text I knew that I wanted to use the same font as I did on my album cover so that they both relate to each other. Although I liked the way that the font looked on the album cover I thought that the black writing would get lost amongst the dark colors on this image So I decided to use white instead. I feel that by using the white color it has enabled the writing to be seen yet it does not stand out so that it takes over the image. One of the main reasons why I chose this image to be my front cover was because it reflects how isolated from society the two characters are, the fact that you can see the long road ahead of them helps to emphasis this.

Front cover development

 This is the original screen shot from my video, I have not edited this is at all. I knew as soon as I had screenshot this image I was going to use for my front cover, I feel that it is very simple yet sends out a strong mood, it also leaves the audience intrigued. I also really like the fact that it shows the character in the pajamas being behind her, this is something that I wanted to show throughout the film (that the girl in the pajamas was haunting the other character). However If I had to take this image again I think that I would have tried to capture it so that you can see them walking towards the camera as this would have captured their emotion.

 This is my first development of the original image, I decided to use  IPhoto this time to edit my images. As I wanted the front cover and the Album cover to reflect the same theme, in this image I converted it into sepia (like I did for the album cover), however this time I made the edges blurry. Although I like this image a lot I do not think that I will use it for my front cover as I do not think that it is strong enough, also I think that the writing would get lost amongst the picture.  

 This is the third development, I do not like this edit at all, I feel that the black outer edge shadows the whole image, If I were to have put text on this image it would have been very difficult to see. Also I feel as though I could have made the black edging far more subtle, as at the moment it is too drastic.

This is my final development of the original image and it is my favorite! I converted the image into sepia and adjusted the brightness and contrast so that it would have quite a dramatic effect, hopefully reflecting the dark and mysterious mood. I also blurred the edges around, I feel as though this gives the image a more haunting effect, it also allows the characters to be more visible as they are very clear and focused.  I will use the same font that I used for my album cover on this so that they relate back to each other, however this time instead of using black as the font color I will use white as I think that it will be far more visible.

Album cover analsysis

Album cover analsysis

Album cover analysis

Make up

For the character who played the dead woman I was trying to make her look as pale as possible, I tried two things. Firstly I tried the most palest foundation, however this did not show up on camera when I did the test shots. Secondly I mixed talcum powder and water together, this did not work very well, the powder kept flaking of and also it did not look realistic as the skin tone on her neck was an extreme contrast.

Cosumes and Props (Images taken from google)

This is not the exact nighty that the character wore in my video, however it is very similar. When planning what characters would wear I thought it would be a good idea to make the character who is dead wear a nighty, I think that it helps to reflect that the body is lifeless, the nighty was very lose and therefore allows it to blow in the wind which I feel gives a very haunting effect.

 These are not the exact pajama bottoms that were in my music video, however they are very similar. I wanted the character who was wearing the nighty to only wear that, however it was a very cold day and therefore we had to make allowances, this meant that the pajamas bottoms were used, reflecting on this I do not feel that the costume change damaged the representation of the character.

This is similar to the coat that the character wore in my video, I thought that the purple would add mystery to the video, also because it was quite a dark purple it didn't make her stand out. 

I used a diary in my video where one of the characters wrote the lyrics. My Grandfather owned a diary very similar to these in the pictures, it was perfect because the pages looked very old and tainted, I feel that this added to the theme.

In one scene I used red lipstick to write on the mirror, I chose red because as it reflects the theme of death and also it was clearly visible on the mirror.

Character review

 These are the two characters that I used throughout my video. They are both my sisters which was very helpful for me as I knew what their schedules were, so I knew when they were available.

The first image is of my Annie, she was a drama student at school and is very talented in performing arts, So when I envisioned the character I knew that Annie would be perfect for it. Both Annie and I had a discussion about the character I shared my ideas with her that the character was going to be a woman who had died but had come back to haunt her murderer, I described the character to Annie as being very scary, mysterious, dark and lifeless, Annie was able to interpret these ideas and act them out as she thought accordingly. 



The second image is of my sister Charlotte, she is currently doing a
masters at university and at times can be difficult to get hold of, however she had come back for Christmas and agreed to take part in the filming. Unlike Annie Charlotte has not had any acting experience, but Annie was able to guide Charlotte through it. Charlotte was a very good actress throughout the film as she was able to interpret what I wanted her to do, she also had some very good ideas as to what she wanted her character to be like.

Location shots (Images taken from Google)

Here are some location shots at Mapledurham church. As the theme in my video was death I thought that it was important to include scenes with the church and also in the graveyard. The location was very good to use as it fitted in with my theme, there was good use of space and also it was very assessable. When looking at the grave yard I noticed that there were different types of graves and also some were at different time periods, I thought that this could be something that I could entwine in my video. 

When planning where I would film my video, I did some exploring around the area and found that there were a lot of country roads, in my story boarding I had already envisioned filming through country roads and paths and these were perfect for the video. 

This is another angle of the church, I did not capture an image of the gates that enable access  to the church, but if I had taken this photograph from a further away I would have been able to, however as soon as I saw these gates I knew I wanted to use them as they were very rusty and captured the theme of my video.

 The image below is of the inside of the church, when choosing my location for my video I thought that I might incur some problems with filming in certain places, however once I had decided that this location was the right one I asked permission from the Priest a week before hand, I told him what day, what time I would be coming and roughly how long it would take. When I went to visit the church for the first time I noticed how dark the lighting was, even when it was daylight, this planning was very beneficial to me as I was then able to find extra lighting equipment.

Filming schedule

Saturday
3.30p.m- After organizing props and equipment was ready to leave the house

3.45p.m- Arrived at the location, light going very quickly so decided to do church scenes

4.15p.m- Finished church scenes

4.15p.m- The lighting was going down quickly, however the skyline was very good and had lots of purples and oranges so I decided to film a scene where there was an abandoned structure, I hope that I have achieved a lot of panning shots and have included the effects of the sky.

4.45p.m- Decided to finish filming as the lighting had gone too dark, have to postpone until tomorrow.

Sunday
10.00a.m- Left the house ready to begin filming again

10.20a.m- Set up camera and began filming the graveyard scene as the lighting was perfect- however was very windy.

11.00a.m- Filming of the country lanes- I did not think these lanes would have many cars coming through however it was quite busy and became quite problematic as I wanted to video my characters walking in the center of the road. I did eventually achieve this it was just a matter of being aware of cars coming from a distance.

11.45a.m- Characters running through fields scene- do not think that I will include these as I was holding the camera and the wind was strong, the videoing is very shaky and does not look professional.

12.00a.m- Went back to the house and decided to do indoor scenes i.e. writing on the mirror and diary.

Weather Forecast

This is the weather forecast for this weeks weather, I am hoping to film my video on the Saturday and the Sunday because it says it wont rain. I work on Saturdays and finish at 3pm so will have to be very quick to make a head start on my video before the light goes in.

Getting ready to film and filming

Here is a picture of me getting my characters ready, as I was trying to portray that she was dead, I was trying to make her as a pale as possible. I was glad that I tested this makeup out, as it did not work, there was a dramatic difference in her other skin tone.

This is me filming in the church, I did face some difficulties here as the lighting was so dark, however, there was a setting on the camera which enabled the camera to capture the film. 

In many of my scenes I am filming in a grave yard. In many of Ben Howard's videos and also in Birdies there were shots of characters walking by, I wanted to recreate this in my own video. I

This is a further shot filming in the grave yard.