Progress Log ~ 18th December

Today, we are submitting our first drafts of all of our products.

This is the first draft of our music video to Jack Johnson's "Better Together." We have left three gaps within the sequence, for all of which we have discussed what we would like to see in there and how we can get hold of this footage. Across the three gaps we would like to use footage from childhood. For this we would like to include some old fashioned video tapes of children playing. Because we have explored adult relationships, we see the need for some footage of the younger age group. We also thought about getting some footage over Christmas. This will be good because it will be lots of family together, enjoying themselves and spending quality time together which perfectly encompasses our theme. We will get as much footage as we can between us and then see which sections fit best in the gaps, alongside the lyrics and music. We are also going to include a montage of lots of different couples right at the end. For this we will split the screen into sections and present lots of people spending time together. We feel this will bring everything together and finish off the video nicely. We have started to work on this but still haven't got the rught footage that we would like to include in it as of yet.
We asked Miss Dolby for some feedback a few days ago to see if there were any last changes or improvements that we could do and she suggested the following;
- Move the sunset footage to the instrumental
- Disgard some footage of the artist in the alley as it was unclear and we couldn't see him very well.
- Lighten some of the clips so the colours were more crisp.
We made these changes. We are happy with our first draft and have spent a lot of time on it and feel, at this time, it is the best it can be.

This is the link for my webpage which I created on Weebly.com

http://jackjohnsonofficial.weebly.com/

I am really pleased with how this has worked as I had never used this site before so had to learn how to use it as I went along. Although I originally used a template, it now looks completely different with a completely different style and colour scheme.

This is my Digipak. I have kept it simple but with the original colour scheme of the autumn colours. I am really please with how it has turned out as I feel that all three of my products look as though they come together through one artist and style.

Progress ~ 16th December

Progress Log ~ 13th December

This evening, I went over to Horseshoe Lake in order to film the sunset. I set up the camera on the tripod and left it to record for 45 minutes. I then went home and sped it up down to about a 3 second clip. This means that we can use it as a quick transition from dy to night for our music video. 

Progress Update- 12th December

Today we have had a productive day. We had two lessons today; the first we used to make some good progress in terms of editing. We hope to submit a draft by the end of Monday so getting this finalised enabled us to see where the gaps were and what needed to be done. We were very critical about our music video and looked very specifically at each shot, making sure the lengths, transitions and flow of the video is consistent and works. We found that we have a lot of focus on couples that are adults and so we need to get some footage of younger relationships. This weekend we will all try and get some footage which we will insert on Monday. In the second lesson we took the time to have a look at other music videos so on Monday when we're making final touches we know what needs to be done in order to get the highest grades. We acted as a teacher almost and marked the videos which helped us see what was needed to secure a place in each band. It allowed us to be objective about our piece because we could be critical and see where improvements needed to be made.

Production ~ Night Lip Sync Footage

Progress Log ~ 6th December

This evening, I took some more footage of Ben lip syncing when it was dark.  We used an alleyway that is down the side of his house lit by a single street lamp. I made sure that he was dressed the same way that he was in the previous lip syncing footage in order to keep up the continuity. The street lamp amongst the trees gave off a nice warm light which will work well in our music video.

Another minor element that I think adds to the continuity of our music video was that it was cold and that you could see his breath as he sang. This can make it seem as though the music video is happening all on the same day as it develops from day to night which is what we were aiming for.  

We also went on to film the final clip that we want for the ending of our music video in that we see that our artist also has someone that he is "better" with. We felt that this would add to our narrative and also enhance our message throughout our music video. We filmed this by setting up the tripod then I would walk up to him as we continue to walk up into the dark alleyway and fade away as I thought that this would be a nice ending to our video.

 This took a few attempts in order to get the shot that I was looking for but by watching it back straightaway, I could instantly see what changes I wanted to make rather than waiting to get home and look at the footage on my laptop and see what I would have wanted to have done.  I also ensured that he had his guitar on his back in order to continue selling him as a performing artist. Overall, I feel that it was a successful evening. 

Progress Log ~ 5th December

Today during the two lessons we had, Antonia and I focused on the editing side of our video whilst Simeron and Rhianon continued with their ancillary tasks. We achieved a lot so we think we will be ready on time for our deadline.

We have added in some transitions to fade in and out of each clip. This was because the clips seemed to sharp and bold which doesn't really suit the genre of music we are using. By using the fade in and fade out it gives the video a smooth relaxed feel to it. We also added in some more footage and decided to change around a few clips. We did this because we thought it would make sense to keep the clips in a chronological order. The clips we changed were the wedding clips, from walking down the isle and exchanging the rings to their first dance.

We have also decided to definitely use split screens. The screens will include all of the couples together, which will be joined by our main artist show will also be in a couple.

This weekend, I am going to film some more lip syncing with Ben when it is dark in order for our music video to make more sense and so make it realistic and relatable for our audience.  

Progress Log ~ 28th November

Today, we continued with our editing of our music video. We decided to move our clips around as we felt that our music video was not making sense when we had a clip filmed at night in between two clips of him singing during the day. Rather than losing our footage that is dark, we have decided to get more footage of him singing again but in a night-time setting in order for it to make sense and seem more realistic and relateable for our audience.   

Progress Log ~ 28th November

Today I asked for more feedback on the changes I had made. I need to: 

• Change the text colour to match the site logo
• Move the quote to the top in order to bring everything downwards. 
• Use a different front image to make more of a link between the artist and the text on the page.

Progress Log ~ 27th November

Today, I put the lip syncing clips on to the Mac to start adding them into our music video. We then started putting them in to place ensuring that we used a varied range of shots and angles throughout. 

I also asked Miss Dolby to give me some feedback for my webpage. From this, she liked:

• The layout and background. 
• The logo used in that it stands out and that it was appropriate 
• The colour scheme I used. 
• The elements used. 

However, the improvements I need to make are: 

• Make the font a bit easier to read.
• Make the page links clearer by possibly changing the font also. 

Progress Log ~ 26th November

I have now made huge changes to my webpage. I have changed the logo at the top to be less formal and I would also say that it reminds me of his "surfing background" with the flowing text. I aslo changed the fonts that I have used in order to  vary it and make it look a bit more relaxed. I have also added more promotional elements as this would be the first page that people would see. These promote his new album release with link that takes you straight to the store and then that his world tour has sold out. I added another image in order to break down the page a bit more. 

I went on to design some more of the webpages such as adding a photogallery with a slide show and then the store page. Here I added merchandise such as a CD and Vinyl version of the album in order to reflect more of the vintage side of acoustic music. This also means that I haven't limited my target audience. I have also added clothing as another form of merchandise to promote him. 

Progress Log ~ 24th November

This evening, I continued to edit my webpage on Weebly.com. Due to being unfamiliar to the site, it has taken some time to get used to the editing techniques and functions. I looked up a few YouTube clips to show me the basics that I was struggling to understand but I have found that by just moving different elements around and pressing a range of buttons was actually the easiest way to come to terms with how the site works. I am really pleased with the progress that I have made as it now looks completely different to the template that I started with and is now starting to look more like an artist's homepage and fit with the theme of our Jack Johnson work. I have used a warm colour colour scheme in order to look inviting but to also represent the autumn colours that are in our music video. I have used an image of Ben who is playing Jack Johnson in our music video with a guitar. This is so that the audience make the direct link between the webpage and him as an artist. I have set the photo up to look like a polaroid as I fell that it is a vintage type element that represents the vintage side of acoustic music but it also links to the line in our song "shoe box of photographs".

Production ~ Photoshoot