Week beginning 16th Jan

During our production lesson on Tuesday we had to get our editing done. We editied all our footage from last weeks refilming of the masks and also editied the refilmed shots that I did with Maya at home. All of the mask shots were a big improvement on our last ones as we made sure we positioned the shots well so everyone was in the same place so it looked like it flowed better. We also put the mask on a wooden stick which made the shot look a lot tidier as you couldnt see the persons hands, which also meant the mask was held in the same position without being able to see any hands holding the mask interferring. The shots of Maya also worked better as we replaced the shot of me and Maya walking that wasnt working very well:

More examples of music magazine adverts

These are more examples of some music magazine adverts, they are both quite simple and only have limited amount of content. But they both include the name of the artist, the name of the song/CD and a picture of the CD cover. Which gives us an idea of what we should include!

Week beginning 9th Jan

Today we began by refilming our mask shots. We improved these shots compared to the original ones by lighting the shot, putting the mask on a stick so you cant see peoples hands, and keeping to a timing of when to raise and put down the mask so all the shots will be similar. We used lots of different students for this and put them in front of a large black bit of card to keep the background the same, as this would emphasise the change in people.
After we had done this, we carried on planning our ancillary tasks. We were researching examples of magazine adverts for songs. Some of the ones we found are:

We decided to look at all these as these are all song advertisements for girlbands. So we can use them for inspiration and to get ideas from. We notice that they are all quite simple as they all just have the name of the band, the song name and a picture of all the band members.

Week beginning 2nd Jan

During our Thursday lesson we began to plan our ancillary tasks. We decided first we needed to come up with a name for our band, we decided on 'Sugardolls' as although it isnt very original, we thought it sounded girly and suited our image.
After discussing our ideas we decided we really liked Paiges idea for our CD digipack. She thought that we could have our name 'Sugardolls' on the front cover in a big font with us then small sat on some of the letters. She has designed this to show roughly what it would look like.

We also thought that in the digipack we would want to include a booklet about our band, this will contain images of the band together and individual shots, and quotes and information about the members.

Planning the Ancillary Tasks

Our first ancillary task we are planning on doing is:

a magazine advertisment for the digipack (CD/DVD package)

For photgraphic images: One idea I thought of was having a large picture of the CD we are releasing and then us 3, the band members, surrounding the CD looking as if the CD is actually there and really big. For example one of us could be leaning on it or lying on top of it to make it the main thing of the advertisment. This will hopefully make it stand out to make more people take notice of it. I would make the ad very bright and colourful to make it stand out and catch peoples eyes but I also think we should keep to the colour theme of the CD we decide on to make it all link together. For mise en scene I think we should all be wearing quite stylish clothes to appeal to our target audience.

Typography and text: I think we should use quite a girly font but make sure its clear so people can read it easily like 'Comic Sans MS'. It should also be quite big so it catches peoples eye and they can easily read it. I think our advert should contain, the name of the CD, the name of our band, reviews of the CD from celebrities and magazines which would appeal to our target audience and information on the CD e.g. release date.

Layout decisions: I think the balance of image and text should be quite equal, but I think the images should be in the middle of the page and the text should be at the top and bottom. As then the reader will know the CD is the main idea of the advert as it is right in the middle.

Genre codes and indicators of audience targeting: I think the clothes we will wear in the advert will be an indicator of audience targeting as I think we should wear stylish clothes which will appeal to teenage girls. I also think the colour scheme of our advert will be an indicator as I think we should try and use bright colours which will appeal to the teen groups we are aiming at.

The second ancillary task we are doing is:

a cover for its release as part of a digipack

For photographic images: On the cover of our CD I think we should have a shot of Maya from our music video on the front cover to attract peoples attention and to make them wonder what the song is about. Some examples of CDs where the artists arent on the front of their CD are:

I think we need to use quite a powerful shot of Maya and a close up to make it stand out. I think then throughout the digipack we should have single and a group image of the band members to promote ourselves.

Typography and text: On the front cover of our CD I think we should only have the title of the CD and the name of the band to make it simple and clean cut. I think the font needs to be clear and big to make it stand out and be noticeable.

Layout decisions: I think that the balance of image and text in the digipack should be mainly images as people won't buy the CD to read but will be to listen to it so I think we should include images that the people can quickly look at and get an idea of the type of band we are instead of having to read lots. But I think it could be a good idea to include information about each of the band members which fans could be interested in.

Genre codes and indicators of audience: Again, I think the clothes that the audience sees us wearing in the images will be an indicator as it will attract people that like the same sort of stylish clothes as us.

2nd cut of our production

I have tried uploading the video several times but it keeps saying error while uploading. I managed to get this on but don't think its working! Will keep trying, very annoying!

Week beginning 2nd Jan

Today I did some filming with my little sister as once we had recieved the feedback on our 2nd draft we knew we needed to refilm some of the shots shes in.

I first refilmed the shot where Maya is reading. Before she was reading a school book but we decided to change it to be a fashion magazine to fit more in with the theme we were trying to potray. This shot was hard to film again as we start zoomed in on Mayas eye and then zoom out to see her reading, but it is hard to keep the camera steady and in focus and to make sure the timing is right when doing this.

We also agreed that the shot of Maya walking in high heels then she shuts the door and you see me walking in heels wasnt working. So I decided to put Maya in some bigger heels so you can clearly see the shoes are too big for her, put her in a dress that is too big for her so she has to hitch it up when she walks and also some socks with teddys on, all to symbolise how young she really is. Also instead of using the door for the swap over I thought that Maya could walk up to her wardrobe and open it to look as if shes looking for something and then I would walk out to show the difference.

I also had an idea to film Maya in the mirror while she is putting on bright pink lipstick, very badly! Also to suggest how young she is. I don't know how well it will work but I'll see what the girls think and see if there is a place where we could put it!