My Own Photo Shoot

For my photography I am doing my current unit on portraiture, I believe some of the portraits i took would work well for my digipak. The photos are still in a studio set with the white backdrop, however the costume and the make up are different showing a more vast range of looks of her. Also this abides by the Pop genre conventions of the record label wanting the artist to be clearly seen and of what they look like. 

Furthermore I believe the natural make up in these photos work better so I don't have to edit her skin to much like the other photo shoot photos. I am going to use 2 photos from my original photo shoot with her and then 2 photos from this shoot. Also I think these pictures show her innocent and young side more showing her personality clearly to her fans and the public. Where as the other photos with the white lace top showing her in a sexual light, voyeurism to appeal to a male audience. 

Change of the Narrative

After are group pitch we noticed from the feedback and our own personal opinions that are narrative might be to complicated. We came to this decision after thinking about the little girl growing up to her older self we need two ballet dancers who look similar and can shoot on the same day.

We are still going to keep my little sister, Grace as the ballet dancer in the music video, however we are going to use our artist Isabel beau played by Poppy in the video more. The new narrative is going to be Grace's story which will be  the same, but Isabel Beau's early life experience of what she went through as a young girl and now she is singing about it in the present. Also Grace dancing will be in black and white to show that is the past and Isabel Beau(Poppy) singing will be in colour to show the difference between the past and present.  In addition we are going to have their hair style name so the viewer can see an obvious connection between the dancer and the artist. 

3rd Photo Shoot

After school on Tuesday we did a 3rd digipak shoot to get some new images for our digipaks. We decided to do a reshoot because they previous shoot the costume which was all black clothing did not convey the Pop genre as clearly as we would of wanted.With this in mind we asked Poppy on the group chat to wear: a white lace crop top,burgundy leather skirt and have her hair styled wavy. Her fashionable style would connect and relate to her target audience of young females between the age of 12-25 year olds, they will look up to her for her fashion trends. 

 I was the photographer for the photo shoot, I had to direct Poppy where to move and make sure the quality of the images were good. Laxmi was the make up artist and she focused on pink make up to fit with the Pop genre of connotations of pink being: happiness,love and girly.  Aaron set up the shoot which include, the white backdrop,2 lights and a DSLR camera. He also researched while we were shooting Pop artist digipaks for certain shots of Poppy, such as: Pixie Lott and Taylor Swift.  Hayley and Laxmi both helped Poppy to pose and what they could see what was working and what wasn't. 

These are some of my favourite images from shoot that i will be using in my digipak: 

First Draft of Digipak

This is my first draft of my digipak, it is a basic digipak with just the pictures included. These pictures are from the first test shoot we did for our digiapk before we changed our artist. I selected my favourite images that I believe had the best quality and fitted the Pop genre the best, I then added this to a internet template of a digipak. 

With this digipak draft I wanted to see if I wanted my digipak to be either in colour or in black & white. This is because one of our main influences Pixie Lott has one of her albums in black & white, but in general pop albums are usual are in bight colours. I wanted to make some link to our music video because this can be seen in albums such as Rihanna's 'Loud' which has a similar design to her song released from the album, 'Only girl in the world'. With all this in mind looking at this digipak i will most likely just have the album all in colour to connect more to the Pop genre and appeal to the target audience so it stands out and attracts the young female audience more. 

In addition I am not going to use any of these images in my final digipak design because of us changing our artist. However but from creating this has helped me know what type of poses and shots I want to be included on my digiapk. Also when I take the photos I can be more refined and specific with the shoot.

Feedback for Pitch

We got mixed feedback from our pitch presentation last Wednesday but the majority was positive. Some of the positive feedback back was about:

• the video has potential
• who the artist is
• use of terminology

However we also had some constructive criticism on our pitch but we took this positively and now believe as a group we can build on this and focus on certain parts to improve them as much as we can. The bad points were made about:

• the narrative being slightly confusing
• no storyboard or mood board ( even though we had them finished - forgot to use them)
• no animatic
• what the artist look liked

These are a few of the feedback sheets our fellow classmates and our teacher Sean filled out during our pitch and what we are using to improve our artist and music video.

New Artist Digipak Photo Shoot

Friday after school we planned a digipak shoot after school to get some photos of our new artist who is modelled by Poppy. We need to get some basic pictures to show who are artist is in our audience profile and some ones to include on our digipaks. I believe some good shots were taken, however the costume for the shoot us as a group believed didn't not amplify the Pop genre that we wanted. This is due to the costume being mostly black and black connotes dark and evil feelings which would fit with more a more Indie artist than Pop.

We came up with two options to recertify this the first being, to edit the clothes in Photoshop to bright colours such as pink etc. Also we have now planned another photo shoot to do in the gallery to get some more simple background shots for the digipak. This will be alongside the digipak photos we are going to take in Greenwich. 

Typography for Album

As a group we began to look and think about the typography for the title of the album, 'Uncovered'.  When first looking at other Pop album's from female artists we found they mostly all had simple and non fancy font for their album titles.This was also supported by our own personal research into digipak analysis at the start of the project. We all believed that by using a simple and basic font for the cover it would amplify the focus of the artist which is a genre characteristic of the Pop. 

To start off the research for the album title typography we used the online website, 'DaFont' again which we had previously used for the typography of the artists name. We chose a range of simple and sophisticated types of font and end up choosing 7 different types. We also asked a sample of fellow media students to chose their favourite aswell us individuals in the group. From this doing chart and answering it in a tally we found that a certain font in particular was the most popular out of all the rest.

We concluded that, Roboto was the most popular and would fit in best with the Pop genre characteristics for our digipak. Me and Hayley decided to stick with this font for our digiapaks, however Laxmi and Aaron decided to go with, Futurist fixed-width for the digipak design. This makes no difference to our digipaks because they are all individual.


Also when thinking about digipaks I had a design idea that would make the album title stand out a bit more by having a capital, 'U' and 'C' - UnCovered, and Laxmi tried this idea on DaFont and we all decided it did not fit in very well once it had been made. So with that idea seen and it didnt feel right to us that it would present our artist perfectly we disregarded this idea.

Online Chat with Poppy - New Artist

Once we had changed the artist for Isabel Beau I began sharing information and talking with Poppy on a group chat on Facebook so we could easily communicate on behalf of my group. We spoke about certain topics such as:planning the digipak photoshoots, costume and general conversation about what kind of Pop artist she would be portraying.

I believe by having this easily accessible chat with Poppy outside of 6th form hours has really benefited our group because when we get new ideas we need to share with Poppy. This means,instead of trying to locate her in school I cam just message her at any time so both of us are updated and know what is going on.  Looking forward I am going to create a bigger group chat with all members of the group and Poppy so we can all chat and share ideas.

Presentation and Recording for Pitch

This was our final presentation as group we had made to present to our fellow classmates and teacher Sean for our artist, Isabel Beau and the music video for the song, 'Battlefield'. This presentation has no included information as for the presentation we individual scripts to read from for the audience to listen to, this was so they could relate it to the visuals on the screen.

New Location/Reshoot for Digipak

When looking to do a shoot for our digipak at Notting Hill we didn't really have any idea how to get there or how long it would take. After researching where about specifically it was we found it out it would take us over an hour and a half away from where we all live in Welling. It would be awkward travelling with the tripod and paying for travel for Poppy to come along with us to do the shoot, we found from our teacher that in Blackheath which is 20 minutes maximum away there are pastel coloured houses there also. 

We have made a final decision to do a photo shoot for our digipak at Blackheath, Dacre Park in the next coming weeks so we can also begin to create our digipak. This also has various coloured houses but not as many as Notting Hill, however there are more benefits to shooting here, such as : travelling and accessibility. With it only being 20 minutes away from where we all live it is a perfect location to use for our digipak. I believe with the right day scheduled where there will be bright sun and no dark sky we can get some really high quality and interesting photos. 

These are some street view screenshots of, Dacre Park where we are going to set up our shoot for our digipak. Also if these photos don't turn out the way we want them to with have a last option location which is in Greenwich.

Script for The Pitch

In today's lesson after Laxmi created the script for us to read alongside our PowerPoint presentation for our pitch on Monday, we decided who would be reading certain parts of the PowerPoint with the hand out to read from.

I have three slides to talk about we all divided the pitch up separately so everyone has an equal and talk about our artist and digipak. My first slide to talk about is the concept for the digipak this going to give our fellow students and teacher who are artist is and some brief information about her, such as: fashion, career so far and the reason for her album. Also the second slide tells the audience the narrative for the music video. Finally my final slide of the pitch that I am sharing with the audience is about why we have chosen that certain narrative and how it will connect with her fans/target audience.

Storyboard - Music Video

In Wednesday's lesson me and my group started to begin our storyboard for our music video. We had the music video up for the song so we could listen to it while creating certain scenes and shots, also we had the lyrics up also. This was because we were using Goodwin's theory of their being a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, this is not in all parts of the music video but in some shots. Also we used the song playing alongside so we could match the beat of the song to create emotions and build up.

We finally finished are first draft of our storyboard for the music video with annotations and drawings. In addition we have used timings slot from the actual song found next to certain shots/parts of the music video, this is so we know when we want specific things to be shown, start and end. The lyrics to relate to the visuals on the screen are also included on the storyboard.  This is only are first draft for our music video so the drawings are very basic and some parts of what we are going to include in the music video are still a bit faint, however we have a structured narrative for the music video and know what we want to show the audience, through the young ballet dancer and the artist performing in the video.

Group Chat - Facebook

I created a group chat on Facebook, this was so we could all discuss and plan ideas outside of lesson time so we can still communicate easily. It has helped us plan the test shoot for our digipak and this was the main reason for creating it.
However now I believe we can use this group chat through our coursework so we can keep in contact when we are not in school and discuss more planning ideas. Also I think we are going to create a new group including the model for our artist, Poppy. This is so she can be involved when we are planning photo shoots on what day and times so we can know when she is available to do them. Also planning her costume for the shoot and hair etc.

New Artist

When we was at Danson Park doing the shoot for the Digipak we was talking about the photos and me being the artist for the music video as well. We all agreed that we wanted to amplify the Pop feel and look more in our photos with a new artist and I strongly agreed with this because I also want to have more involvement behind the camera.

A girl in the year below, Poppy who is also in sixth form, she does media and photography has a keen interest in both of these subjects and we believed she would make the perfect artist. She has the look of young and innocent and blonde hair which is stereotypical to similar artist we have looked at.  Whilst being at the shoot I messaged her and asked if she would help us out with being the model for the digipak/poster and being in the music video, she came back with being more than happy to help us out. We have a new artist and I believe now are creating a very strong artist profile even more now with this change of artist.

These photos were not taken by our group.

Test shoot for Digipak

Through are group chat using the social media website, Facebook with planned a test shot to take place at a local park which was close to all of us, Danson Park. More specifically we wanted to take the digipak test shots in the 'Rose Garden' within Danson Park which is a small garden with pathways and a range of lowers and trees that are well looked after. We believed this would make a perfect and ideal setting for our test shots because of the colourful flowers and beautiful backdrop. Also prior to turning up on location I sent images of outfit opitons to my group of what I should wear and we agreed on this outfit(right) to be the outfit for the shoot. However we decided to change the heels for converse, this was due to that we felt the converse made her more young and appeal to our target audience more.

Whilst the shoot was taking place we all had roles to fulfil, my roles was to be the artist, Isabel Beau for her album, Aaron was mostly in charge of photography but also Laxmi took some shots. Hayley and Laxmi were the stylist for topping up make up and thinking of poses for the different photos. We took over 300 photos in different locations and different places within in the 'Rose Garden' these included: closes up, mid shots, wide shots and long shots etc. In addition whilst showing her to be a young and bubbly Pop artist we also wanted to create in some shots, 'voyeurism' for men to appeal to look at her because this is seen in the majority of Pop albums such as: Rihanna, Beyonce and Pixie Lott.
Below are some of my favourite images from the shot:

 

Feedback for Blog

Before half term I had a one on one conversation feedback with my one of my teachers about my blog while looking through it on the computer. This is the recording of the discussion we had. 

Final Pitch

This is a final for for our pitch on Monday, we sent all our separate parts of the pitch to Aaron and he merged them all together to create a final one. Our teacher looked over our presentation and said there were a few minor changes to be done and it will be done for monday.