Feedback

This is sound reflection on the Cd digipak design.  you make some good comments, but I feel that you need to start providing more detail, to the points you make.  In particular in relation to your contribution to the construction of the CD digipak cover and the need to address all the set evaluation questions.  Please can you revise these posts this week.

Digipack Evaluation

For Digipack, we went to the studio to retake Sophia's picture for our front cover and back cover. During the process, we tried out various poses and expressions and finally we thought of that this pictures would be great for our front cover. 

We used Adobe Photoshop to help for our digipack design.

We split our group work to make our progress quicker by Sophia and Vlad working on Digipack while Sophie Ritter and I working on editing our music video.

(Please check Sophia's blog for our process in digipack design :))

http://hurtwoodmediasophiakounopias.blogspot.com/2011/11/digipack-cover.html




                                                                                            This is our front cover

  The reason why we used a contrasting dark background with Dummy was because we were hinghlighting the image of Dummy.

We wanted to present her as sophisticate with dark edgy personality. 

It creates a mystery for the audience,making them want to know about her as she is a three dimensional character ( Dark make up with white innocent night gown and a red underwear). 

This represents her type of songs as ambiguous allowing the audience to percieve and listen differently. We are trying create an image that people would not forget

For our back cover, I deliberately made her red bra stripes placed out for the shoot because I wanted to give 'Dummy' a star image of inner sexiness, something mystery and giving the audience a sense that this singer has different layers of skills/characters to it which makes it very adventurous and exciting.

Similarly with the front cover, we used lots of low saturation and low key lightingto enhance the dark nature to the song. 

I purposefully chose a different hairstyle for Dummy on the back cover  to make the audience realise  that there is something not quite right about the picture.

I tied her hair in this particular hairstyle because I wanted to made her look class, Victorian style reinforcing that her imager is classy and sophisticated and that this is a singer for an age range of 17-34 audience.

This is our rough Digipack cover

We had to to redo the inside cover because it was more for EP single release rather than the whole album as we were using shots from our music video shoot day. Nevertheless, our concept was solid as we want to have an idea of police report for our digipack design.

Feedback

This is a good diary account of production. i feel you need to add a technical dimension to your blog in terms of set design, technology used and what brand image you were trying to create for the band.  I t is important to link the process to it's intended outcomes.  So consider in this instance what went well and what could have gone better for you.

Evaluation of the shoot day

8:45 - 9:50am

As soon as we arrived at the studio, we dashed off to get everything ready for the shoot. 

I helped Sophia to start putting on her costume while Sophie Ritter helped her with make up right from the start because we knew that it will take awhile. To save time, I went to help set up the bedroom set when Sophie Ritter was busy doing make up for Sophia. Meanwhile, Vlad was setting up the camera and adjusting the lighting for the room. 

THis is how the set looks like:

It was great set and we were all thrilled by the achievement as it was better than what we have expected. We were ready for the next step- Filming !!!

I took the role of a director during the shoot. Since Sophia was the singer 'Dummy' in the music video, I feel that it was my responsibility to ensure that Sophia finds herself the character 'Dummy' and how she was going to portray, what does she want the audience/her fans to feel or think? I kept referring back to Star Image (innoncent, yet dark and quirky). So I constantly reminded Sophia that she is innocent, pure but dark at the same time. The reason why she is dark is because she had a painful past where she killed her lover and that she feels guilty. She is mentally disturbed.

In order to make her feel comfortable in front of the camera, Sophie and I asked her to dance and do whatever the music made her feel. The first take was good and she was beginning to warmed up. So I  told her to use her hands and legs more and be more snakelike. On the second take, she was beginning to feel more confident and she took in my advice very well as she was beginning to have disturbed, manipulative character as she was beginning to have the images in her head. With Sophie and my help in hands choreography, she was beginning to understand the character and it became natural for her. She became 'Dummy'. That was what we were aiming for.

Half of our day had gone so quickly, but we have finished the shooting shots of her present day on the bed, close up shots of her, pull focus shots and tracking shots. Our next aim was to shoot her past with her lover(Walter) after lunch at the Radnor’s bathroom.

However, we changed our plan, as we were happy with the marvelous set we had so we decided to shoot on the same set inside. Walter was very professional as he did what he was told and it was easy to work with him.

Since this was the only day we would be shooting, so we really wanted have our best shots for editing, so we took many different shots such, tracking, bird eye view, etc for the same shots, so we stayed longer at the studio. 

We decided not to have shots of cards in the water tank because we realized that what we have so far were so good that we might ruin them if we put in shots of cards which were no longer relevant to our video. . This time, my role was working with the camera and how to use it and I also did playback, During this process, I realized that it is important to use media terminology such, standby, action, playback,etc.

We finally finished at 4.45pm with the shot of broken wine glass (slow motion), it was our best shot ever and we are so proud of it. I was our best shot because we used a special effect and we used to shoot it with two cameras.

We were happy with our work as we worked efficiently.

Evaluation of the day before the shoot day

The day before our shoot day (Monday,2pm), we went to the studio to set up by puttiing wooden floorboards, putting up wallpaper, creating the window and the curtain to make it appear like a bedroom. There were come changes with our concepts such as we were meant to be shooting a cross burning. Then we thought about the impracticality of burning the cross as we would not be able to do that. However, we came up with a better idea which not only gave the room a better lighting and but also made our theme ideas more significant in our music video.

Another significant change was when we decided not to have a set for bathroom scene as we have decided to use the real bathroom at Radnor, boarding house instead to give a real sense of a bathroom from the screen. I thought we have managed our time real well and worked efficiently because we each have divided our task individually such as Vlad and Sophia went to do screen test with Walter in one of the classroom whereas Sophie and I worked on setting up the set by applying glue on the wallpaper. I was also popping in and out to help giving directions and rehearsal techniques for Sophia and Walter on what they should be focusing in front of the camera so that we would not have to waste time on the shooting day sorting out what we want the actors to do. I also thought that by having a screen test for the actors before the shoots would helped them to feel comfortable with each other especially they have to kiss and required an intimate relationship on screen and be prepared for the shoot.