Updates

We were scheduled to film the band part of our music video today, however we are unable to do this as one of our actors can't make it, due to this problem we have decided we are going to continue filming the band part next week and will hopefully have our rough cut by the end of next week. We are sorry for any inconveniences.
Yesterday we finished filming the chase scenes which means that we can upload them onto Adobe Premiere Pro to begin putting them together and adding the sound on top. We have shot plenty of different chase scenes with many different camera shots such as close-ups, long shots, point of view shots, establishing shots etc.
Although all is well we have encountered a problem which means that we cannot upload our shots onto Adobe Premiere Pro as they are too large; this means that we need to convert them to a different format which will be suitable for the editing. While we have been shooting we have been thinking of where edits can be added in and what kinds of edits to use. Due to the fact that we are using a chase scene we have decided that some fades will be necessary as fades show the passage of time which we want to show in our music video, however we realise that things might look different on screen and we will decide what edits to use when we have finished all shooting and have uploaded them. In the mean time while our file are being converted we will continue thinking about our print based products.
We are pretty certain that we are going to use the magazine advert which is black and red, we think that the gradient used between the colours is very effective and the black typography is very eye catching. But this decision is not certain and we will probably try a few other different options just to make sure we get the best one we can.

Shooting

Me and Greg shot the remaining part of the chase scene yesterday, we had to stop early due to the weather as it started raining and we were filming outside, we do have a significant part of it done.Tomorrow we are filming the band part which means that we will have all of the shots we need to make our music video. We are currently uploading our footage that we have onto Adobe Premiere Pro. The shooting went okay but we will check that everything is suitable when we watch it on the computer. We haven't had many problems while shooting except from having to stop early due to bad weather. We are hoping that snow will hold off for a while as this will affect us if we need to re-shoot any parts of our film. We have chosen pretty quiet times which meant that it was quite easy for us to get everything done quite quickly. Except one old lady who wasn't happy with us filming outside her house, although barelys any of the house is in our shot and it is pretty hard to shoot in a street with our getting some house in it. She started yelling at me and Greg saying there would be trouble if she saw it anywhere, although this is pretty unlikely unless we make it on to TV! We tried to explain it was for education and we are aiming to getan A level however she had no understanding of what media studies is so we had to move on to keep the piece. We are hoping to have a rough cut finished by the end of next week. We are not sure what to do as we cant find skull masks anywhere (not sure if this has anything to do with the fact it is a month later than halloween, unfortunately we shoould of thought of this around the time! So we have thought about just using make up but we are still looking and hopefully we will find some.

Shooting

We have shot the chase scene of our music video and we were scheduled to shoot the band scene and the rest of our shots today, however Greg is ill which means we cant film. Our new date to film is going to be Monday. Hopefully this means that we will have the shots for our music video and will then be able to edit. Up until Monday I will continue with the making of the magazine advert, however we really like the red and black idea that I previously posted. I will make a few more with different colour ideas and see which ones we prefer, we will then start thinking of a main image to include. The main image will probably be from one of the photos we take while we shoot our music videos, although we may change our minds and just draw one ourselves depending on what it looks like when it is on our template. I will post the different colour schemes I make on my blog to get some feedback.

Magazine Advert

I have been working on our magazine advert. We are still deciding on a picture to put on the advert but for the time being we are looking at some backgrounds and different colour schemes to use.

We like this colour scheme as the typography is black which is similar to some of their other typography and the red and black gradient will look very effective when we have decided on a photo. We like the mix of red and black as they both are quite harsh colour connoting death and evil. The red gives the idea that the band are 'dangerous'. We have made the text white which helps it stand out against the dark colours, the white will also look effective if we use the skull masks as the white in the masks will stand out and attract attention to the text; meaning the audience will see the information and will be more likely to buy the album. 

Research continued

I am still looking at Gregs preliminary research, I am looking at the album covers that he has posted.

This is a CD cover for a band called The Bronx, they are a band which makes the same genre music as Pulled Apart by Horses, this album cover is good as it is quite simple and only include one image of a vampie with blood coming out of its mouth; the blood then spells the name of the band. The use of blood is interesting as it represents danger and death, similarly the very little bit of background colour is black which also connotes evil and death; these may have been used to show the hardcore image the band wants. The target audience for this band seems to be quite specific; the genre is hardcore rock and hardcore punk, this is represented by the photo as the target audience of the band like vampires and other things similar, also they usually are associated with black which is shown in the album cover, I think that the things shown on this album cover will interest the target audience; meaning that they will buy the album. The image of a vampire may have been used to show the band are dangerous and link with the audience. We are going to use a similar idea to this and include darkish colours on our print based products; by doing this we are ensuring that the target audience will see them and be interested in the music and want to buy the products.

Research

As we are looking at print based products I have looked at Gregs initial research, this is one of Pulled Apart by Horses first single covers, the skull used in it is associated with the band a lot as they use it in merchandise as well as their print based products. The typography that is used is used a lot by the band. It is quite similar to the typography that would be used in old fashioned horror movies; this may have been chose intentionally by the band to fit in with their hardcore element. The background is black which makes the white skull stand out. The background is black which connotes evil, this links with the genre of music the band makes. The faint white lines may have been used to give an old-fashioned look; similar to that of an old cinema, this give a good effect and makes the cover look very good.

This next cover, is for the single "High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive", which is the second single from Pulled Apart by Horses debut album. It is very interesting as it has a man in a hoody, we are not shown his face which makes us curious as unsure as this is associated with crime. The back of the mans jacket is actually the CD cover, the typography used is similar to that of the first CD cover which is similar to an old horror movie; they will have used the same typography so the audience can associate between them. The background image is just a normal room which may have been used to suggest that the band are average people. The image of the skull in the left hand side is similar to the first CD cover which again shows a link between them.

Single Cover

We are still thinking of our print based products whilst deciding on our practical project. Although we are making an album cover too we have thought about the single cover, we will use the same typography which will show the link between the products. However we will take a photo of the skull masks in different arrangements and patterns, we will then decide which one we prefer and create different drafts with different colour schemes. We aim to keep the colour schemes and photo ideas similar which will allow the audience to be able to tell that the print based products are linked with the album. The skull masks will be used for the single cover as they are in the video and the album cover will include something that is related to the band.

We have got the idea for our single cover from hard fi killer sounds cover. We like this idea but might use some different colour and obviously our skull masks.

New plan

So as you will have seen we have been discussing our options and we have decided that we are going to go with the contingency plan, this will mean that we will not being filming our music video in a woodland area, we will now film the chase in a suburban area and some of it in the drama studio at school, as we have realised that we will not be able to get a drum kit in the woods. This means that we will have a black room which we think will look effective as it will allow the skull masks to stand out and will create a better effect. We have decided to change the plan as this setting will be easier to get to. Also we willl have no trouble getting a drum set into our location; this means that it will be easier to re-shoot if we need to, similarly it will be easier for our actors to get to also the time of day wont matter to much as we will be able to change the lighting. We are going to buy the skull masks soon and film at the start of the next week.

Updates

Although our main focus is to get the filming done very soon we are still thinking about the print based products. I am in the process of thinking of different ideas for our magazine advert. We both like the black background with white typography but we want to create some different ideas to see if any other ones look better. We are having trouble finding the typography as we just copied and pasted the white typography from their website. We have thought about emailing the band and asking them to email us the typography so if we don't find a different font we will do this. So, we are going to use the previously posted magazine advert as a template and keep the same information. We have used the quote 'Will rip your heart out' from Q magazine; we thought of this as the band is called Pulled Apart by Horses so it suggested that they are very good and do what they aim to. We will post our new ideas for magazine advert.

Filming

We are arranging when we are going to film our music video, we are going to film our music video over 2 days, this will allow us to get the inital filming done in the first day and then some extra shots the second day to ensure we get all of the shots we need. However, both me anf Greg have jobs that we both have to go to, so it all falls on if work allows us to have time off, but the plan is to do the filming on a Sunday and a Monday hopefully eirther the 13th and 14th of November or 19th and 20th.We will need around 9 different actors ( 4 band members, 4 skull dancers and the man being chased) as well as me ang Greg. However in order to reduce the amount of people we need for actors me and Greg may do some acting, we have thought that it might be good if Greg takes the trole of the man being chased as we know how we want it to look. We will both film some partsof the video and help each other direcr it. Our original idea for the music video was to have the band playing in the woods however it is going to be difficult to get a drum set into the woods. If this is not feasible we will change the storyline slightly and have it in a suburban area but still include the same ideas.
We are still in the process of creating our magazine advert and sorting out ideas for the digipak. I am close to finishing the magazine advert draft 2 and I will upload it shortly, we still havent decided on the image that will be on the magazine advert however we are deciding the colour schemes and typgraphy for the time being.