During our first meeting back at school we went through the list of songs we created, editing it by adding some new ideas and taking some away. We listened to a few songs by Black Honey and narrowed it down to two Black Honey songs - Madonna and Spinning Wheel. Both songs gave us each clear imagery of potential video aesthetics and narratives.
18/09/17 - In this lesson we decided on the song Spinning Wheel. We both liked this song and we had lots of ideas of imagery, particular shots and colour themes we wanted to use within the video. We printed out the lyrics and annotated them with corrections (as the website had got some words wrong), costume and prop ideas and ideas for the narrative.
19/09/17 - In this lesson we created a PowerPoint presentation, pitching our ideas for our music video. We presented this to class, with the presentation explaining the main ideas we had for the music video and showing a small moodboard we created. This included pictures and various clips from music videos which inspired us - for example, the video for The Hunter by Slaves.
20/09/17 - In today's lesson we presented the presentation to the class and got their feedback. The class liked most of our ideas, particularly the bright colours we wanted to use and how we wanted to portray the Western vibe of the song itself. While some people were concerned that the slower pace at the beginning of the song may lead to a boring introduction, others gave us suggestions on how to make sure it didn't leave our audience bored, which we took into account during further planning.
25/09/17 - Today we wrote a list down of the props and costumes we would need for each shot. From eBay we purchased eight metres of pink sequinned fabric which we will use for the backdrop in one of our three sets. Additionally, we began to sort through various newspapers and magazines, cutting out eccentric figures and faces that we would later stick onto the sequinned fabric as part of the backdrop.
26/09/17 - Today we continued cutting out faces from magazines for our background collage.
27/09/17 - During this lesson, we obtained white paper and cardboard, then wrote out in large block letters some key lyrics form the song which we wanted to stick onto the collage backdrop. We also filmed the lip-syncing task, with me and Phoebe filming each other miming a section of our song - from this task we decided that I would be the main performer.
28/09/17 - Today we finished writing out and cutting the quotes out for our backdrop. We really like how they turned out, as they showcase the slightly rugged/homemade look we wanted to achieve. During this lesson we also planned out which props we would use for our other set.
29/09/17 - This lesson was spent planning and organising our next actions - this included attaching the lyric quotes to the pink sequinned fabric, and sticking on the magazine cutouts in order to complete our collage background. We also completed our Timeline of Annotated Lyrics task, which will enable us to refer back to it during the creation of our storyboard to see where we want a certain scene or shot to go. We also watched and peer-marked music videos from previous years.
02/10/17 - This lesson was spent building one of our sets in the green-screen room of the media department - we pinned up the pink sequinned fabric around three walls (with the help of a classmate), then stuck on the lyric quotations and magazine cutouts. It turned out exactly how we wanted it to, so we're extremely pleased with the result of our work.
03/10/17 - Today we continued sticking our cutouts to the fabric - some had to be reattached as the sticky tape we used was quite a weak adhesive. We also filmed some test shots on Phoebe's phone to get an idea of how the lighting would look and which angles would work in our limited space (we had to make sure that the green floor and ceiling would not be visible in the actual video).
05/10/17 - Today we spent two hours blogging and creating the steal-o-matic on Adobe Premiere Pro. Our steal-o-matic consists of a variety of videos form which we have taken inspiration - it was uploaded onto YouTube then embedded into a blog post.
On our blogs, we created the shooting schedule, planning to shoot my scene on the 11th. We also edited our risk assessment.
06/10/17 - Today we created the storyboard on Prezi for our music video, using pictures representative of the shots we aimed to film. We also looked at the websites of established bands and artists, making a video with a voiceover that talked about the websites and how they worked and the different pages you could click on.
09/10/17 - During this lesson, we had our progress meeting with our teacher to see how we were progressing. We created a list of tasks and assigned them to one another to ensure we would get a good amount of work done. After this, we continued creating blog posts and made an availability schedule to document when we would be filming.
11/10/17 - Today was our first day of filming. We spent 3 hours filming in the green-screen room, filming the whole song at least six different times to ensure we have a variety of shots to choose from when editing. We repaired some of our set which had fallen down during first lesson and stuck on some more magazine cutouts as the bottom of the set looked very bare compared to the top. In the next couple of hours, I changed into my costume and makeup while Phoebe took some photos of the set and updated our shooting schedule.
I had purchased a pink pair of kaleidoscope glasses which we held over the lens to create a kaleidoscopic, trippy effect for our opening shots. While it was initially quite tricky to keep the glasses held over the lens and prevent the lens itself from focussing on the glasses rather than the set, we eventually managed to find an angle we could hold them at and get the effect we wanted. Phoebe then filmed me miming the song with and without the glasses, from various heights and angles. We filmed some close-up shots for the intro, using the kaleidoscope glasses, then wider body shots for the rest of the song.
12/10/17 - In today's lesson we researched different band names. We used the Name Generator website for help and Survey Monkey to help us narrow down our choices, and eventually decided on the name "CAKE".
13/10/17 - Today we uploaded all our footage and spent an hour going through each shot and deciding which clips to keep and which ones to delete. We started out with around 100 videos but ended the lesson with 60.
16/10/17 - In today's lesson, we started to edit the intro of our video, cutting together clips of myself lip-syncing and various shots of the set.
17/10/17 - Today we filmed in our other location (my living room). The set we created had a sofa as the central point, with old magazines, CDs, shoes, food, food wrappers, clothes, posters, lighters, cacti, and alcohol bottles strewn over the living room floor. We also brought in an old TV set which would later serve as the main motif of our video. We intentionally created the messiest set we could in order to reflect the slightly dernaged personality Phoebe was trying to convey.
18/10/17 - Today we had a research lesson about Digipacks, websites and branding. We decided to rename the band from CAKE to "can't sleep", as CAKE and the photoshoot we'd planned alongside having that name had no relation to our video, whilst can't sleep gave us a lot of freedom in terms of how our video could relate to it (the phrase "I can't get no sleep" is actually shown in our video as one of the magazine cutouts) and the photos we could use for our digipak.
19/10/17 - Today we continued editing and uploaded the new clips onto the media drive. While I did this, Phoebe began creating the website on Wix.com. We decided it needed to showcase our band image with bright pink and kaleidoscopic imagery in order to fit in with our synergy - we also have our logo shown at the top of the page.
20/10/17 - Today I continued editing on Premiere - both myself and Phoebe are pleased with how our video looks so far. Phoebe continued creating the website and made pop-art titles of our band member names (Bea and Coco) using the same font as our logo.
30/10/17 - In today's lesson we completed the Risk Assessment and begun creating our Halfway Evaluation presentation. The presentation includes artist details, band image, target audience and a teaser video. This will be presented to the class who will in turn provide us with feedback on how to improve what we have done.
31/10/17 - We continued creating our Halfway Presentation and editing the video on Premiere. We also created a To-Do list of any remaining tasks.
1/11/17 - We started to work through the To-Do list, creating a prop list and costume mood board. We also continued working on the presentation.
2/11/17 - In this lesson we continued the presentation and editing. We also drew out the storyboard, drawing small pictures of what the shots will look like and then captioning them with a brief description of the shot. We also did research into videos of a similar genre.
6/11/17 - In today's lesson we presented our Halfway Evaluation to the class - afterwards, every member of the class filled out a feedback sheet for us to take notes from.
7/11/17 - In today's lesson we put together the feedback from the class and put it into a table on Microsoft Word. We then edited the work we had done so far according to the feedback we received.
8/11/17 - In this lesson we watched other group's presentations and gave them feedback. This was beneficial to us as it allowed us to gain inspiration from other people's work.
9/11/17 - Today we continued with the editing and conventions of a digipak, and edited the official website. Due to the feedback on the website, we decided to completely change its layout and visuals.
10/11/17 - In today's lesson we continued with the website, creating more pages. We also created more merchandise and a store page on which to sell it.
13/11/17 - Today we continued editing and importing new footage. We also continued updating the blog and creating the website, then planned out a shooting schedule for the glass smashing scene that we plan to film tomorrow.
14/11/17 - Today we filmed the glass-smashing scene. We filled a clear glass bottle with sequins and glitter, and after obtaining permission from our school's site manager, we filmed Travis smashing the bottle against the side of a building at school. We enlisted the help of Bethanie,Travis, Faith and Leah when filming, shooting on three different camera including two iPhones and my DSLR. The bottle turned out to be too thick to smash on the wall, but Travis had the idea to drop it, which worked on the first try. While it wasn't what we originally planned, me and Phoebe were happy with the result.
15/11/17 - Today we uploaded and reviewed the footage we shot yesterday. In addition to this, Phoebe also did a lot of research to post on our blogs. This included performance inspiration, artist research,social media and merchandise research. This research will really help us when reviewing the work we have done and allows us to fully understand all aspects of the music industry.
16/11/17 - Today, Phoebe her time recreating the website, designing various pieces of merchandise and an online store on the website. She also created news pages, social media links, galleries and contact pages. I continued editing the video.
17/11/17- Today we continued editing and we showed our teacher our second draft of the website. She then recorded a screengrab and voiceover, giving feedback on the website.
20/11/17 - Today we worked on the digipak, creating our full first draft. We got feedback from multiple peers and then began to edit accordingly. We also updated the blog with our workings.
21/11/17 - Today we started magazine research and continued editing. Our friend Josh, who is extremely good at editing, gave us some ideas for editing which we then used in our video.
22/11/17 - In today's lesson we added another 30 seconds to our music video and began creating and designing our magazine cover.
23/11/17 - Today we carried on editing. I tried out and added various effects over the top, the result of which we were extremely happy with. We also did further research into music magazines and finished creating the first draft of our own magazine cover.
24/11/17 - Today we got the feedback from our magazine cover. We asked our teacher to look it over and some of our fellow classmates. We also did research into different interview styles and we planned out what our interview would be like.
27/11/17 - Today we continued editing and then in the afternoon, we asked our friend Travis to be the presenter in our interview. We then filmed the interview in the music room but when we watched it back we realised that the setting of the interview did not look good and therefore the final film was not what we wanted so we decided to film again tomorrow.
28/11/17 - Today we finished the second draft of the website. We added extra pages (videos, bio and news) and edited these accordingly. We also finished the second draft of the digipak - adding the borders, barcode and credits. We also re-filmed our interview in a different location with a different presenter, as the first one did not come out how we wanted it to. We then created a presentation documenting our progress ready to present to the class on Thursday and get their feedback, in order to edit and improve anything they suggest.
29/11/17 - Today we edited the final 30 seconds of our video for the first draft. We also edited the interview and uploaded it onto the website.
30/11/17 - In class we presented the first draft of our music video and got feedback from our class members. The feedback was extremely positive and gave us many ideas on how to improve. We then watched the videos from other groups which allowed us to see how our work differs in comparison.
4/12/17 - In this lesson we caught up on our blog posts.
8/12/17 - Today we focused on editing our music video according to the feedback we received in class.
11/12/17 - Today we uploaded all the feedback we received from our class mates about our website, then posted our digipak and music video. We also spent the hour evaluating and giving feedback to the other groups in our class.
12/12/17 - Today we created a tour poster for our band. We made it on the website CANVA, which is an extremely simple software to use and gives a high standard finish.
14/12/17 - In today's lesson we continued editing and blogging. We then finalised the digipak and websites and uploaded them onto the blog.
15/12/17 - Today was our deadline so we spent the day editing the music video, finalising parts of it and then exporting to post on YouTube. We are extremely happy with the outcome and can only see a few tiny things that we would want to change - the final version received positive feedback from peers and our teachers. After this, we spent some time completing blog posts.
