Cd cover general research

In order to help us decide which style of image we would have for our CD cover, we looked at a wide range of album cover artwork, to see which one would suit our video best.

We have a distinct 'wild' and youthful ethos to our video, therefore this needs to be carried through into our album cover and needs to be a strong look to make it appealing to our audience.

• This album cover has used soft pastel colours to portray a girly image which is not fitting for our video because we are going for a more bold look.
• Pixie Lott is posing in an innocent way with her hand by her mouth and has a soft look in her face.
• The way that her face is big on the cover is something we will definitely consider and may perhaps adopt this photographic angle int our own cover.
• The writing in this is appealing and only covers the top of the page, the colour yellow is again soft and we will most probably go with red text.
• From this cover we will take the idea of the size of the image and the way she is face on, looking into the camera.

• This cover uses bolder colours like the dark blue, however our continuing colour scheme is red white and black. 
• This cover uses two types of font, one that is elegant and swirly and the other one that is bold.
• The pose in this one is slightly stronger than the Pixie Lott one but we still want something more striking.
• From this we will take the bold writing and perhaps the pose. 

• A lot of bright colours are used here, but there is still a theme of pink and purpley colours.
• This cover is quite busy with a lot of different levels, we will most probably stick to a simpler idea.
• I like the way the Miley's head has an outline, it makes the picture stand out and look bold which is the impact we are trying to give with our cover.
• From this image we will take into consideration the text at the top and bottom of the page and the pose of the picture as she looks fierce, which is what we want to achieve. 

• This colour scheme uses dark colours with a slight hint of a pale coral red. we will probably do something similar with maybe a lack and white theme with touches of red.
• The image is centred and covers most of the page which I think makes more of an impact than having a small image slightly off centre like the Miley Cyrus one.
• The text on this album cover is quite swirly and the words that are used are long so if we were to use 'Isla' it wouldn't fit into this style of text.

• In this album cover it is all black and white themed. The image is very striking but doesn't look very fierce and looks quite dainty.
• There are two different types of text used that are very different as one is bold and simple and the other is slanted and calligraphic.
• We will only really use the idea of having two bits of text like this one, maybe both at the top or bottom or one at the top and one at the bottom.

• This album cover uses very summery, bright colours or just pink red and yellow. Personally i think the pink and red clash a bit and i would only go for two bright colours if not one.
• The model's pose is not very attractive and she looks a bit wind swept which is not the look we are going for.
• I don't like the text of this album cover and I think as a whole it looks a bit blank and plain.

Lighting research

One of the issues we had when we were filming people against a white background was lighting it and having shadows. In order to solve this problem we looked into how we could film/light the background better so it wasn't grey with shadows.

This video bellow is one of the first shots we did that had this problem:

Light the Background. Evenly light the background. Umbrellas definitely make it easy to get a nice, even spread of light across the background (but always use black-backed umbrella to prevent any light from spilling forward). You can substitute small softboxes for the umbrellas, but the umbrellas are more even, more efficient, and much less expensive. I use four lights on the background when I’m shooting a full-length portrait. Aim each umbrella toward the far edge of the background (the left umbrellas will be aimed at the right edge of the background and vice versa). This “feathers” the light and will help ensure a smooth spread of light. Using an incident light meter, I try to make every part of the background that will show in the image measure within 1/4 stop. This creates a perfectly even background. "

This is what I found on the internet to help with our problem. Obviously we do not have access to all the equipment that is mentioned but we can work with the things we do have and find a better way of lighting it. 

To start off with we changed our background to a projector sheet in a classroom, rather than the white sheet which is always very creased and had to keep ceaseless, which is probably why it didn't look very good on camera. As you can see this works much better and is brighter. 

These two pictures show how we changed the way we lit the background and planned how it would look by having 3 people standing in as models. By focusing the light more on the background and less on the models it gives a brighter look and the white background looks white rather than grey. Shadows are also minimized by doing this. 

This was our attempt at this after we had solved the lighting issues:

Projector and running down hill

We filmed Frances in front of a projector with different optical illusions and patterns. We got her to dance in front of them so it looks like she is having fun and singing. We then wrote the words 'We are who we are' on a computer and put it up on the projector so she was in front of the text. 

These videos are in front of different optical illusions and she is dancing and singing along in all of them. 

This one is one of the ones where we got her to dance in front of the lyrics 

Viewpoint

We filmed on a viewpoint with mountains and scenery in the background.  We filmed three models for this section of the video as we felt it will look more fun if she looks like she is with her friends. Their clothes are all fitting with our mise en scene and are in the colour theme of red white and black. We put Frances in shorts to make her stand out as the main character. 

We filmed a variety of shots for the practice of the viewpoint. Ones where Frances is alone sitting on the edge of a high building, to give a 'living on the edge' vibe to the video. there are others where they are all sitting down and all standing up and some with only 2 models. Again, we like to film in lots of different ways so there is a range of shots we can include to make our video even more exciting.

Re-shooting Frances at my house

Grillz and Mirror

We re-filmed all of what we did at my house the first time because the lighting was poor and the filming looked a bit orange/yellow. The first things we filmed go at the beginning of the video and are Frances licking her teeth wearing 'grillz' and then her putting on her lipstick in the mirror and writing on the mirror in red lipstick. 

The things that we done differently this time were we had much better lighting so everything doesn't look yellow from the lights in the room. We kept everything else the same because it worked well in the first shots. We filmed it better so that you couldn't see us filming in the mirror and we filmed things more times so that we had more options to chose from when we put it together. 

Dog/Fur Coat

We then filmed Frances with Lucy's dog , Max. We did  this because animals are often used in music videos and it looks really effective with the fur coat. We filmed them close up and further away with Max sitting on her lap. There are a range of shots we can use from these like the ones of her stroking him and her kissing him. By filming different things we can put them in throughout the video to look continuous yet it wont be boring with the same shots. 

Bed scenes

There are a few different shots we filmed for the bed scenes, of her doing different things. These parts are the most provocative of the whole video and show another side to her. We also filmed me with her on the bed for short parts to fill the video and mix it up with the models. 

Swing and walking out of bush

For the swing scene I was on the swing so we could change up the models. I was filmed at different angles so we could cut them and put them together so it looks choppy. 

Here, myself and Frances are coming out of a bush and running away, we filmed this before with just Frances but felt it would look better if she had someones else with her. We are filmed coming out and then separately running up the hill so you can see us running away. 

Me, Ellie and Frances- Bar and Exercise machines

We filmed three models (myself, Ellie and Frances) at a bar and on exercise machines, there shots will be slotted in throughout the video to show them drinking and having fun, we also came up with a few extra ideas while we were filming. 

These were our initial ideas that we had for these scenes. Firstly the people at the bar show them drinking and having a good time, this works because the colours of the objects we use all tie in with our mise en scene and the main colour theme is red white and black. Then the exercise machines are an idea we took from Miley Cyrus' video and we mixed it up by having three people separately on them and then 2 people on at the same time so that we could edit them all together and change the models that are on them. 

Other ideas

We filmed each person writing on a blackboard different words of the lyrics 'We are who we are'

which we will edit together so it looks quick and fits in the short space of time of the lyrics in the song. 

The last thing we filmed in this location was the three of us sitting down on a sofa and dancing with sunglasses on. the colours are again with in the mise en scene of our video and we will put this footage into the video wherever other things do not go to plan or we decide to change some things.