Getting photos for the website

We needed some photos  of our band for the website : in the section GALLERY and ABOUT US, for example, therefore we have arranged a photoshoot on Wednesday before the lesson. We asked the band to bring/wear black clothes as it would suit the image of the band in  the indie-rock genre.

We went to the Photography studio, and Jacky(as he is good in photography - he does A-level photography) has taken photos of the band all together  and also individual photos of  each member.

 We would need to arrange another photoshoot (or more than one) as we need a variety of photos on website:

• Studio photos - posed
• Candid photos - may be somewhere outside ?
• Photos of them playing instruments 

Brainstorming ideas for our digipak and website

One lesson we gathered our research and looked into the genre and briefed on each idea and wrote it down on two separate a3 papers. We finalised that we wanted an image of a phoenix for our main logo of the band matching the name "Ace of Phoenix" with the colour scheme of black and white.

Researching more into the genre of our Digipak

To look into the specific genre of our digipak for our band, we researched into similar digipaks involving the same genre such as indie rock, rock and alternative:

 We found examples of digipaks (e.g. Arctic Monkeys's abum of The XX's album ) , using the internet , by visiting the local record shop in Guildford and a big franchise HMV (which sell CDs , DVDs, etc.) in Guildford.

 We noticed that many digipaks in the indie-rock genre involve graphic design (some drawings ) - rarely photos of the band. Most often , indie-rock digipaks are simple , and many of them are white drawings/symbols,writing on a blac background.

As a result , we came to conclusion that we would make a simple digipak with a logo and the name of the band+name of the album on a front cover , and we would use white font/logo on a plain black background.

Research for Digipak

Another rehearsal practice with the band

Today during activities we had our 3rd rehearsal with the band in order to work on our performance side of the video for our final shooting day next Thursday. Unfortunately both our guitarist and drummer were absent due to other commitments so therefore we were not able to rehearse properly with the track as a whole band. However, looking at the more positive side we were able to focus on our lead and singer Gustavo and his performance with lip syncing which is obviously a very important aspect in our video. Thankfully he had improved with is confidence on camera with the mic from the last rehearsal however, he still needs to work on remembering the lyrics more specifically and his impressions on camera which we will work on with future rehearsals.

Make-up ideas for the make-up artist

For the shooting day we are having a make-up artist in order to help allow the characters in our video to look more presentable and realistic on camera. These are some of the initial ideas we want to have on the day which i will then develop and send to the make-up artist in order to be prepared and ready on the day.

LEAD SINGER - GUSTAVO:

The only character we need for make-up would be our main cast member Gustavo due to the boxing element. We would like him to have a bashed up look on his face to show the result of him fighting as a boxer with a black eye, bruised lip etc and scuffed up hair and clothes.














In order to make sure our make up artist knows what we are planning to achieve and have on the shoot day, i sent an email to her with the pictures of Gustavo and the ideas we wanted so that she can be prepared and aware on the day of the shoot.

Shooting Schedule

Due to needing to plan out our timing schedule on the day of the shoot, Anna create a shooting schedule to present what we are planning to shoot and in what order:

1. Leave school at 9:00
2. Arrive at location 9:30 and set equipment 9:30-10:00
3. Film lip sync (30 min) 10:00-10:30 
4. Film fight scene- boxing match (45 min) 10:30-11:15
5. Film corner scene (30 min) 11:15-11:45
6. Film referee and ring girl (30 min each) 11:45-12:45
7. (IF FINISH EARLY )Film bandages, opening scene and training sequence (punch bag, sparring , skipping, weights, pull ups) (30 min) 
8. (IF NOT FINISH EARLY) Leave location and drive back to school 13:00-13:30
9. Arrive at school and have lunch 13:30-14:00
10. Set equipment in the studio 14:00-14:30
11. Film the performance in the studio 14:30-16:30(17:00)

As seen above, firstly, we will film our narrative in the location as the owner of the boxing club prefers that we film earlier rather than later. We would have about 3 hours of filming in the location.
Then we will come back to school for lunch and film the band performance in the studio after that.

For location, we need the main character- Gustavo, the ring girl- Lauren, referee- Phil, and boxing trainer- Adam, and also a boxing match opponent.

For performance, we will need our band members - Gustavo, Joel and Tom.

Shot List

In order to make sure we film all the camera shots we need on the day of our shoot for our narrative part of the video, Jackie wrote down a shot list from which Anna will produce a storyboard in order to be able to visually illustrate what we need:

Shot list

1.Camera hand held, following main character. Mid shot, walking into a gym, opening front door. (In this shot, keep tracking the character  going into the the gym, putting on gym clothes , turning on lights - getting ready).

2. Training sequence, including

• scenes with a punching bag: close up shot on punching(slow motion), wide angle shot of punching, shot of main character with camera behind punching bag, over the character's shoulder shot of punching;
• Pull ups: close up shot of pull up bar(character doing pull up), low angle shot of main character doing pull ups, over the shoulder shot of character doing pull ups;
• Skipping: wide angle shot of a character skipping, close up shot of feet when the character is skipping, behind over the shoulder shot 
• Weight training: bird's view shot on bunch press, close up shot of a face from the side,  close up shot from behind  character's head

3. Boxing Match , including

• wide angle shot of one corner of the boxing ring with main character (slow motion)
• close up shot of character's face 
• low angle shot of the boxing ring
• wide angle shot o the character resting at the corner
• close up shot of fighting
• over the shoulder shot of punching main character n hes face (slow motion)
• camera on floor, character on the floor

4. Lip Sync, including

• bird's view shot of character on floor, mid shot

Asking John for help with props

Due to the difficulty of getting the costumes such as boxing boots, robe, gloves and shorts, Jackie called the boxing coach John who owns the Guildford City Boxing Gym for help to see if there could possibly be any on the set we could borrow. Luckily he agreed to help us with providing some of what we need on the day in order to make our video look as realistic as possible. All we need now is to find costumes for our band members, training gym clothes for the lead singer and character and also the referee and number girl.

Rehearsals

Due to me being ill today i unfortunately missed one of our rehearsals for our performance side of our video with the band Jackie and Anna organised a time which suited all the band members from which resulting in our lead singer to have gained more confidences on camera and learnt the lyrics more since the last rehearsal. However, although the practice was initially positive, the singer still needs to learn the lines and gain a good understanding in order for the lip syncing to look more realistic. Also our guitar player needs more practice with the music but the drum player seemed very familiar with the song and confident on camera. Overall a very positive outlook.

Research into our genre of music for our muisc video

In todays class, our teach Phil set us a task to further look into our genre of music our music video is in, by researching and analysing the homepages of similar different bands such as Arctic Monkeys, Imagine Dragons and Muse. Here is a prezi to present our research:

Checking with updates for lighting set and design with Jack

In todays lesson, Jacky and I with permission from Phil our teacher, went to visit Jack to discuss and check our ideas for our lighting set design and to check that everything we want will be achievable on the day. After discussing with Jack what we originally wanted, he showed us a couple to different lighting techniques we could use as options on the shoot day to fit into our performance and give us a variety of designs to work with that will look good on camera. Also he showed us the lights we need in order to build our light box around the band and also a variety of colours and lighting brightness to work with. Overall we decided at the end of the catch up meeting we are going to use for the final shoot day, a white light tube style design to build our light box around the band with variety of colours to choose from, and also an array of spotlights and techniques in order for our video to look as powerful as the track.

The lighting we may use on the shoot day

Spot light we can use to light our band members

Light tubes we are going to use to build our light box with a variety of colours to choose from for extra effects

Our new location secured for our final shoot day

Before half term earlier on in our organizing for our music video production, Jackie and Anna went to our new location Guildford City Boxing Club gym with Phil to look and talk to the lead coach John, where they discussed with him about the details of the date of our shoot day and information about the gym itself and what we will need to achieve on the day. Looking at the gym we found as you can see in the pictures that it was in good condition with ten heavy training bags, weights and our most important aspect which we need, a boxing ring. This was very usefull to us as it meant we wouldn't have to build one in the studio and would be much more realistics and powerful on camera for our final product.

Here's a image of the gyms time table

The gym wasn't very busy when we visited which was an advantage for us as it will be easy for us to shoot

Here are some pictures of the boxing ring, the boxing ring is perfect for us to shoot. However, there is a big mirror at the back and there are limited spaces on the side, which will be hard for us to light however, for the mirror, we can either work on using different camera angles or just cover it up. 

We can shoot at one corner to avoid the mirror 

The ceiling is very low so we can not shoot from a high angle

The training place is big, allow us to place and us the cameras easily 

Here are some weights, we can also use it for training 

Changing room