I am taking the idea from The Art of the Title sequence website idea, were they take the best or what they think are the most important shots. Then they analyse them. But I am going to do it with clips instead of stills because I feel this shows ideas clearer.
I could use this idea for my opening credits to explain to the viewer important information, and the hand interaction is something that I used in my animation already and something that worked well.
The photographs of of a stop motion, then having a photo of the photos on top of each other, this would take time but I feel this is very effective. From my feedback I got told that I need some more human interaction. Such as a picture of someone with dark hair walking (looking a little like Lily Allen)
This idea of using the photos again, moving across the page works well, I will have to experiment with this using my own photos.
This idea of having the work scrunched up and then opening again into something different is an idea I have already looked at, I feel this works well but I may have a problem using this as I have already destroyed my animation to create the magazine cover. I could possible re-do the opening keeping the style in keeping but using different techniques and using photos like they have in this animation, the scrunching up the work to reveal the better half of the animation I have already created. I am going to take some photos and experiment with a few ideas so when I go back to school on Tuesday I can show my teachers what I have and they can guide me in the right direction.
This is the idea I am going to use to practice with the photos and create a moving image. I like the way the photos appear to walk across the page.
This is also taking the photo idea and moving them randomly which is in keeping to my animation. The heart is something I may also include but I would use a animated fake heart such as the purple one already included in my video. I think this is going to be the main problem of changing the beginning section is to make it flow and make sure it doesn't look like to animations stuck together randomly.
This is another idea which folds the paper over, similar to the scrunching of the paper, this gives the sense of non realism. It is only an animation.
Another photograph idea, I like this one but I feel it may be to far away on the similarity aspects compared to what I already have as my animation.
This is practical the same as above but includes aspects which link into other ideas from this video and my animation. If I was going to use this idea I would also use this idea of having other animated things around the changing photos and I wish to incorporate some more human interaction as I feel it works well it what I already have.
This in a way is similar to my magazine advert although you don't see the transition, all the images included in the animation brought together to create a busy image full of all the aspects in the animation. I probable wont be able to do this as I have used all the images and aspects from the animation already, but this shows links in the ideas behind it, especially as I did not see this until after I created my magazine advert.
The red triangles link into my theme of my animation the fear I could experiment with different shapes.
Friday 18 December 2009
Ideas
Wednesday 16 December 2009
first evaluation
On Tuesday's lesson we got told that the previous deadline was not the final deadline, which I kind of new already. The final final deadline is the 29 Feb.
The task was to analyse another persons work, under the same brief. (music video) I looked at someones work and gave them feedback which will hopefully help then. Anna looked at mine and this is what she had to say;
Possible changes;
- perhaps edit photos at beginning, end with lighting in photo shop to create non digetic lighting eg stage lights perhaps (fade in fade out) - this is an idea which I may try
- chorus maybe use bright colours in photo shop to emphasise the energy and emotion of lyrics - especially with the beaded heart, perhaps red effect fading out as heart is scrunched up - this is a good point I will try this one!
Strengths;
- pace - wouldn't change the pace as I feel it fits in with the song and somehow makes the lyrics more powerful - I am not going to change the pace I am happy with it as it fits into the song beats well
- the pastel colours are appropriate as its a gentle song with the piano
- the red text included in the newspaper strips is perfect, the connotation and subtle effect of this really works and relates back to the song
- I feel that at times the jerky movement of the camera works as the lyrics of the song are quite quirky and it all fits in with the pace and piano. - I didn't mean for this to happen but I agree it fits into the song and style of the animation.
CD Back, possible changes;
- I don't think you need 'the fear' written on it just the track names are relevant as its the back. Maybe the examiners may think you over use this effect. - I feel that this is an important point which I will take into consideration when reviewing everything.
- maybe song names bigger - something to experiment with
- bar code stands out, maybe colour the white to match your background - I thought this when creating it but all bar codes have to have a white background
- maybe the scrunched up beads would work as the front is the heart but as the video shows the back could exaggerate the fear of 'heart' - I am not going to do this as I am showing this but the other way round, the heart undamaged and not scared and then on the back the truth the heart is in fear!
CD front;
- love the front
- only thing id say is either make 'the fear' bigger or just have it on the your advert because not all CD covers include the track name - may do this!
Advert;
- maybe make hands bigger? - I like the hands the way they are, because you can see the jewelery and a bit of the arm which makes the image a hole, but I could always try.
- I like the layout just perhaps enlarge things to us up the gaps - yes I will try this because I agree there are a few blank areas.
- maybe take lots of shots of the heart hands opening up and merge them all together? I am not over keen on this idea but it has inspired me to other, I could take a series of photographs with my friend who did the advert with the same jewelery forming them scrunching her hearts to and from a heart shape. I will have to try this after the holidays.
This constructive criticism has helped me a lot I am going to get a few more people to analysis my work and see what they have to say, particularly males as the target audience is female, would they enjoy it anyway?
Also because we have an extended deadline I know I have time to experiment and create more components for my digipak and I can re-look at the advert to see if I can make it better. And the main thing is the animation, my friends and teachers who have looked at it have all said that the beginning is slightly boring as there is not much going on, the second half is great, and most people don't like the ending where the camera tilts to see 'the fear' background. Once I have got more people to analysis my work I can make some decisions on what to do to improve my work.
Mr Smith showed my a stop motion animation which is complete different to mine but it could give me some ideas.
The photographs of a photograph is a great idea and the cut outs of people is something I feel I need to experiment with and the way they 'walk' across the page.
Friday 11 December 2009
The animation
I have completed my animation, I quickly went back through it and edited the beginning minute again making the clips faster, which meant I had to fade out the song, this was a simple task. Then I burnt the animation onto a DVD I bought.I tryed to upload my animation onto youtube and it uploaded then said this file is not compatable with youtube. So currently I am trying to download the video straight to blogger but I am not atall hopeful. I'l just have to wait and see... and it doesn't work. I will have to ask ict to convert it aswell but seeing as they haven't bothered to my practice one which I gave them a month ago I can't see it happening. So I can't put it on my blog at the moment but I have handed in the CD with the covers to my teacher so they can mark me from that, and they said that that was ok.
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Magazine advertisement
I need to do some more research into magazine advertisements, like I did for the CD package I am going to produce another slide show to help me with this.
my magazine cover;
Once I had completed my CD front and back cover I took the same colour background and applied to an A4 sheet on Photoshop, for my maganize advert. I wanted it to be similar to the CD covers to show continuity from the animation to the CD package to the advert. The reason for this is so viewers will recgonise them separatly and as a whole. So I also decided to keep the writing the same, the messy painted red 'The Fear which is bold but is still in keeping with the animation. I used the same type face for 'Lily Allen' as this is similiar to her font used on the cover of It's Not Me It's You album, and the black contrasts with the background, making the writing stand out but not to 'in your face.'
For the art work which appears through the hands in the shape of the heart; I cut up the A3 sheet which was the animation and rearranged the main images closley together, I also added some black and red, the red shows the FEAR and the black contrasts with the other colours therfore making them stand out. Then I photographed a friends hands wearing bold jelwery which links to Lily Allen, because of her fashion style.
I choose this photograph because it is the best, her hands don't cover to much of the art and you can clearly see that they are formed into a heart shape, this links to the CD package and in turn the animation. I gathered my ideas for this from research I had previously made. This research is in the CD package slide in the blog entry before. I liked the idea of having the hand displaying the work, this links into the animation when you see my hand placing letters onto the page. 'The Fear' in also tilted fowards as on the CD covers, this shows a sense of depth which reflects the song, two ways you can take it.
Once I had cut out the hands I placed them in the right possision on the page then added the infomation that was needed. The other songs on the single, the instiution and the relivant websites. Overall both the CD package and advert have a simple style but I felt that this was in keeping with the animation, Lily Allens work and the the song.
Below are the other pictures I took of the hands;
I tryed out having the hands in different shapes to see what it would look like but I deffinelty feel the heart is the best as it shows links to both the CD package and the animation.
Getting started on the CD package
The other week when we had a practical lesson I dedicated the lesson to do some better research on CD packages.
Here's the power point I produced;
2690615">Looking At Cd Package
This has helped me and inspired me for some creative designs.
Using Photo Shop I first of all measured the size of a CD case front insert and created a file to the specific size. Then using a few photographs from my animation I cut out bits and tryed out different backgrounds. Here are some practices:
Above I took this photograph from the end of my animation and using Photoshop faded out some of the background, I felt this worked well so I tryed it when I practiced creating the CD front cover.
From all of the above I cut out using the lasso tool of Photoshop then I experiemented layering them for the CD front cover.
My initial idea was to have the front cover as the heart created by beads with a in keeping background and then on the back cover have the deformed heart with the in keeping background (such as paparazzi revealed behind the now broken heart) I experimented with this and the heart looks good but the background is to contrasting.
The way I created the background was I found a good picture to practice with of paparrazzi then I digital mantipulated it using the filter effects on photoshop then selected it to be the background layer using the order of layering on the side of the layer panel.
From this I decided to use the same heart idea with the background as my credit photographs from the end of my animation. Using the bucket I edited the writing pictures to blend them into the white background which I am using at the moment.
As you can see this did not work, because you can not see the text, I thought you might beable to on the deformed heart, but you can't. The idea was that the front would be the full heart and the viewer is not meant to see the text. And the deformed heart on the back of the CD cover, but it doesn't work because you can not see the text.
Doc 1
This is the start of the back CD cover I chose to use, first of all I made a new document in Photoshop making it the correct size for a CD cover, then I added a layer and dropped and dragged the deformed heart into the new layer. Then after much experimentation with colours for the background from the colour palette I decided to pick up the colour from inside the heart. I applied this as the background and decided it blends well and the heart doesn't look out of place on that colour. Also this colour works well because her CD cover for the It's Not Me It's You album has a basic colour which is similar. I got this from previous research.
I also tryed to cut out the letters from Lily Allen's album as I thought this would show continuity, but because the picture did not have high enough pixel quality once I had cut it out the edges were extremly jaggered.
The idea behind the front and back cover is that the front is the full heart, showing strong and behind it has weakened, because I took these images from my animation it shows contiuity and the colour scheme is in keeping.
These are the final results, once I had completed them I printed them off, which was easier said than done. This is because although I set the size of the images to the CD case they automatically change to a sqaure so I had to have the width a little smaller to make the images fit in the CD case. As a result of this the back CD image looks to small width ways. If I have any time to review this I will try and make an insert for the small hidge section so there is not a blank space.
Also if we have any more time on the CD package I will create an in side image, I have an idea to take a photograph of colourful beads inculding the ones incorporated in my anamation and the other CD covers. I would also attempt to get the maganize advert of the busy collected images and hands around it, which I will blog next! Onto my atcul CD, I may beable to have this done at a printing shop.
The end result;
Directly below is the back cover and below that is the front cover. I am happy with the result I feel the simplistic ideas fits into the animation and Lily Allen's style. If I had any more time on this I would first of all see if there was anyway to make the images have a higher pixel resolustion to make the pictures sharper, I did try to do this but even the media technician did'nt no. And if I had a chance I would put the image which I have used for my advert onto the atul CD, I would have to have this done at a printing shop. I would also get lots of beads including the ones used in the animation and have this as part of the inside insert along with another side which I would create a collage of images from my over 1000 stills for my animation and create a picture collage like the one on the last page of the slideshow in the maganize advert blog entry.
Editing
It was decided that the best program to use was adobe publisher, as this is a windows program and there are far more computers in the school which have this program rather than using a mac. Once I had uploaded the pictures and song from my memory stick onto my school user area I upload all the photos and song onto the adobe program. Once I had done this I edited each picture, this was simple but took a long time. First off I edited every clip to 0.05 to make it easier to see were each clip was against the song Then I went back through changing the verse clips to 0.06 then I slowed down the ending (credits) to 0.20 and some 0.10. This resulted in the song and animation perfectly fitting together. I watched it through with my teachers and decided that if I have time after I have completed my CD package and magazine I will go back and quicken up the first section and fade out the song at the appropriate time. Although the likely hood of me having time is very hopeful, so if we get given a review period that will be the change I make to my animation.
Wednesday 2 December 2009
Filiming
I got the camera and tripod from school at the end of the day and came home on Tuesday and started setting up the tripod and camera. I didn't realise that trying to get camera so it was over the top and so only the white A3 paper in shot was much harder than I thought. I had to tape the tripod to the floor by one leg so it didn't fall over and even then it was a bit wobbly!
Once I had finally got that all ready, with the camera attached to the tripod on all the right settings, I started.
First of all I started as I did before with some rip out from magazine's then developed it with random paint lines which later turn into musical notes. This is representative of Lily Allen's life things that have happen to her in the past she turned into a song. 
Then using human interaction I placed on letters that spell sun, this displays the happy sun with pretty letters, but at the same time the media sun. The idea of using a human hand to place an item onto the work is to show human input, how it is created. This is also done in the Maccabees video that I have looked at. After the sun the mirror jumps onto the screen using different coloured stickers, this is the same as the sun letters, representative of an item a mirror, (which shows reflection which this song is for Lily Allen,) but also the mediated mirror. To show the media mirror and the sun (newspaper) more obviously I have incorporated a rip out of the mirror/sun heading. This appears in the animation gradually. 
Musical notes appear through out to show that music is very important aspect to the song, and Lily Allen. The drawn musical notes created with a permanent black pen are messy and appear on the animation in a slightly backwards way this is to show the down sides of the music industry and although its great it brings a lot of bad IE the negative media.
The first beads are the same colours used in Lily Allen's music video of The Fear. This shows links to her video and also the idea that in her music video she has precious things, and this necklace is precious to me. This also links into the research I have done for a magazine advert and CD digipak, random items creating one whole image. 
The purple heart is see through so you can see the musical not behind and where I have place it shows the love for music, at the end of the note.
The cupcake is an image I used in my draft animation, I thought this was a good image as cupcakes are an aspect included in Lily Allen's real music video and it also fits into the paisley colour scheme. 
The light yellow paint covering the newspaper title represents that Lily Allen doesn't care, covering over it but then it still manages to reappear, (when I pull off the newspaper later, leaving the stickers showing 'mirror.')
The gem flower and heart show more nice things like Lily Allen's actual video.
The beads at the end forming a imperfect heart then quickly deforming shows the fear that something will always be wrong even with all these lovely things around.
The idea of the asitate at the end is so I can inform viewers of the song and who created put still keeping the conntiuity and feel of the animation.
Orginally I was going to paint over the whole animation in red to show the fear using the connitations of the colour red but then I decided to try out tilting the camera upwards to show different angels and again a sense of space like the zoom which I previosly explained. This shows links to the Maccabbees music video which I looked at. 
Now for the editing I have put all of the pictures onto my memory stick ready for tomorrows lessons were I will talk to my teachers as to create my animation on a mac or use windows movie maker like I did for my practice animation. Then I will up load the pictures to which ever is decided and firstly cut out the images which are not suitable. The ones where the flash decided to go off or there is a shadow from me leanign in to much. I looked thrrough all of the images and there only a few which are like this so that shouldn't take to long.
Tuesday 1 December 2009
Letter to Institution
This letter to the institution is for permission to use Lily Allen's song The Fear. The Fear is of Lily Allen's second album called It's Not Me It's You, which was certified 2× platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Her record company for this album was EMI and Parlophone.
Dear MR Down
As part of my A2 coursework at Lutterworth College I am creating a music, I am writing this letter to ask you for permission to use Lily Allen's song The Fear. The music video would not be distributed or publicised in any way apart from being on my Blog.
I am fan of Lily Allen, I have seen her live at many Festivals and the way she puts feeling and meaning into her songs is fantastic. The reason I chose this particular song is because it show venerability and the effect media has had on her.
Many Thanks EMILY
Unfortunately I never got a reply to this letter, but I tried!
Getting Started
I have organized to get out the best digital camera out tonight with a tripod so I can get started on my animation! I have set up on my wooden floor a piece of blank A3 paper and have got all of the materials I need.
Because I am working on my own in my bedroom there are not that many risk assessments to take into consideration except for making sure I don't give myself a paper cut or cut myself with scissors.
I worked out from my practice animation that I created using 208 photos and using windows movie maker. Unfortunately I have tried time and time again to put this video onto my blog through youtube and straight to blogger but It will not work. The last resort was to send it to ICT and see if they can sort it out. Until then here are some of the photographs I took.
These images are just a few taken from my practice animation. I worked out that 208 photos equals 1.14 so I will need 795 photos for my song which is 3.27, but to be on the safe side and make sure I have enough photos and so I can cut any out that I don't want I am aiming to take 900 photos. Also the beat in the chorus is faster so the editing will be faster so this will use my photos.
For my real animation, I am going to use most of the same materials that I used in my practice animation. Hear is a photos of some of the materials I am going to use, others are, acetate, jewelry and a cupcake.
To add another camera angle I am going to try writing on asitate and puting it on a board so an upwards angle would mean you can see read writing on a white board. This relates to the Maccabbees video were they also do a upwards shots to look out of the window. This gives the animation a sense of space and the fact that it is a drawing on a piece of paper.
Above are practices I did painting on acitate. In the end I decided to write the 'Lily Allen's' and 'Created by' in the light turgouise colour from in the video as this stands out when over the top of the whole animation. And 'The Fear' and 'emily' in red. The fear because of the connotations of the colour read displaying fear, danger, worry in itself. And emily in red because its bold and contrasting with the rest of the animation.