Possible Font Ideas/Experimenting

It is important to have bold and aesthetically pleasing fonts on the digipak and magazine ad, so I did some research to find the perfect font types for my products. I want my fonts to match both the indie genre, and the style/image of my artist, so I went on dafont.com (which I know is a really useful site with a wide range of font styles due to using it for my coursework products last year as well) to start looking at different styles and see if they would work well with my product. Above are my favourite fonts I found on the site when using the song title 'Foundations' as a sample. I thought handwritten and brush style fonts would suit my products best due to them seeming more personal and original than the more traditional fonts. The brush style fonts also match the use of painting in my music video, so this would create a nice cohesive quality. I have not decided which fonts I want to use for definite, but I will continue to experiment with these styles and see which ones work best in my drafts,etc. 

Digipak & Poster Conventions

Filming Diary 27/01/15

Today I re-filmed the scenes of Emily in the green room. I think it went a lot better than the last time, and the shots look much more effective. I had already made a shot plan, both a written version to have to hand in the green room and another version in a previous post on this blog. Firstly, I did Emily's hair and make-up and she got into her outfit. Then when she was ready I set up the lighting to see which positioning looked best. Later in the filming session, Tim showed me how to make the lighting look better by re-positioning the studio lights, so I used this lighting style instead. I then made my way through each of the shots, checking them off as I re-shot each one. Jack, the actor who is playing the artist's boyfriend in my video was also around during the filming session to help out. He assisted by taking some behind the scenes pictures (which are below), and also helped me with one of the scenes in which lemons are thrown at Emily, so I could focus on the camera work. The only issue I really had today was that the handle on tripod I booked out seemed a bit loose when we first started filming, and we panicked a little bit thinking it might be broken, but we quickly sorted that out when we realised it just wasn't screwed in properly...The handle that you twist to make the tripod taller or shorter was also quite stiff so this was quite frustrating at times and meant it took longer to frame/position each shot properly, but this did not prevent me from getting everything filmed. It was also much easier to film today due to the music actually working on my phone, so Emily knew exactly when to do certain movements, etc. so they fit perfectly to the beat, as well as making lip sync possible as we could ensure it matched up with the song timings. Therefore, I am hoping that these shots will be exactly as I wanted and look professional enough to be in my final music video, so I can focus on getting the rest of my shots filmed.

Idea For Ancillary Texts

I came across these images whilst reading Rookie Yearbook Three. I really love the style of these images and how the photographer/artist has mixed simple portrait pictures with illustration and shapes to create completely unique and quirky images. They have the aesthetics of the later work of  Henri Matisse, in terms of use of colour and cut-outs. This gave me inspiration for my ancillary texts as it fits the representation/image of my artist that I want to promote through my products. It would also appeal to my target audience because, as seen in the audience profile I created, they stereotypically will like this kind of style as it is very creative, fits well with the ideology of the indie genre, and features in Rookie (a magazine-style outlet created by teens and made for teens). I am not entirely sure how I will create the shapes, etc. for this style but I will research and practice multiple different techniques and keep updating my progress on this if I decide to use this as my final idea.

Ancillary Text Inspiration - Album Posters

Ancillary Text Inspiration - Existing Album Covers

Name of Artist

I decided it would be a good idea to come up with an original name for my artist rather than just calling her 'Emily' (my actress's name). This will make my artist unique and completely my own creation, as though I started off with a blank canvas and created a representation of an artist which directly appeals to my target audience. It will also allow me to be a bit more creative with my products, adding a nice touch to my ancillary texts. I wanted the name to complement the indie genre well so I searched on google for 'indie girl names' and found the website nameberry.com - some of the suggested names were:

From these names I particularly liked Summer, Juno, Cora and Violet. However, after looking into the meanings of each of these names, I decided Juno was my favourite and most suitable for my artist. Juno is of Latin origin and means 'queen of the heavens'. As stated on the nameberry website: 'Juno was the sister and wife (hmmm)of Jupiter, and mother of Mars and Vulcan.' Juno is also the 'patron goddess of Rome and protector of women and marriage.' The name also became popular after the release of the indie film of the same name, which provides a link between my artist and an existing product of the indie genre. This name has a quirky yet feminine feel to it, so is perfect for my artist because it matches the representation I want to create really well.

Re-shoot Planning

As seen in my 'first draft' post, I will need to re-shoot a few scenes due to reasons such as incorrect timing, reflection of lighting in Emily's glasses, etc. I also will have to re-shoot these scenes due to Emily getting braces at the end of this week. If I didn't redo these scenes then my video would look inconsistent and therefore, not professional. Braces will be a good aspect to the MES of my video because it will give Emily an adolescent, innocent look, which matches the style I want for the product and will allow my target audience to relate to the artist, being teenagers themselves. After Emily has her braces I will continue to film and (fingers crossed) I will have all filming completed by early next month so I can focus on creating my ancillary texts and the editing process of my video so it will look as effective and slick as possible.

I have now booked the green room for filming during mine and Emily's free period on Tuesday 27th January. I want to get all of the footage I need to re-shoot done so I can use them in my second draft, which I will have to have completed by Friday 6th February (a week earlier than the actual deadline due to going on the New York trip the week after!!).

Shot Plan:

Tuesday 27th January
Shots = 1 (3, 5, 7, 40, 69), 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 17, 21, 24, 29, 33, 36, 41, 48, 55, 60, 62, 67, 76, 77, 87
Location = Green room
People Needed = Emily
Props = heart shaped glasses, lemons, fan, party blower
Costume & Make-up = look one hair & make-up (but hair down with two buns at back of head rather than fully pinned up), no glasses, high neck stripy top, black leather skirt, black belt & tights

Update (26/01/15):
Today I pre-booked a camera and tripod from Ben, which I am really glad I did because the majority of cameras have already been booked out this week and only a few were available, so this prevented any disturbance to my re-shoot plan. I have also confirmed with Emily via text about filming tomorrow to ensure she is still available (the screenshot of this is below):

Inspiration/Originality Quote

I've been reading Rookie Yearbook Three over the Christmas holidays, and I came across this quote by Jim Jarmusch from a 2004 piece in MovieMaker magazine, which is referenced in one of the articles:

'Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with your inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of light and shadows. Select things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work will be authentic.'

I really like this quote and think it links to my media work well. For example, not only does it help with the inspiration and creation of my products, but it can also be linked to media theory. Kate Domaille (2001) states that every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types, and Michael Shore (1984) highlights that music videos are recycled styles. Therefore, like Jarmusch states in this quote 'nothing is orginal', everything is inspired/influenced by something that already exists.