Teaser Trailer - Updated

Ellie updated our Teaser Trailer in an attempt to enhance the overall quality of it. She added light effects and ambiance to all of the shots and replaced the grainiest footage with footage that is slightly less grainy.

Fast In My Car - Editing Practice

Above is an idea of a sequence during our music video. We filmed the footage and edited it to give us an idea of what it will look like. The final sequence will be a lot smoother than this. We need to improve on the timings of the individual clips which can easily be achieved through Premiere Pro.

Potential Magazine Advert

I made a potential magazine advert using Paint. I aimed to retain our band image through only using our signature font of 'Agency Fb'. The black and white elements of our aesthetic have developed naturally over time with the use of our silhouette photographs.

Zahra also created a similar looking advert. She stuck to the black and white theme to compliment the photograph chosen. We'll choose whichever is most appropriate when the time comes.

Website - UK Tour

We have added another tour to our website that will take place before Alleyways set off to America to play all dates of Warped Tour 2015. 

The page that follows has the same layout as the Warped Tour page however it shows which venues Alleyways will be performing at. 

Magazine Advert Research

Website - Store

Above is a screenshot of our newly updated store on Alleyways' website. Through this page, viewers can browse and purchase official merchandise from the band such as clothing. Our self-titled EP is also up for pre-order. 

Website - Further Updates

Ellie updated our websites' URL from "www.ellierobsonmedia.wix.com/wearealleyways" to "www.alleywaysband.wix.com/wearealleyways". The previous URL was unprofessional and unrealistic. We feel that our new URL is much more professional within the limitations of Wix.

Ellie also added the mp3 of 'Fast In My Car' to the website which can be accessed via a 'play' button.

Ellie changed the design of the website so the colours fit better with the overall design.

She linked all of the social media icons to their appropriate account:

She updated each pages title so instead of a worded title, there are appropriate icons depending on the particular page.

She also added a 'tour dates' page which can be visited by clicking the link on the header or a button on the home page.

The page includes a big header announcing that Alleyways are officially booked to play Warped Tour 2015 in America. The link directs the viewer to a sub-page. There are links to several sites where tickets can be purchased when they are unavailable. 

Below is the sub-page showing all of the dates that Alleyways will be playing on Warped Tour. The venues are all TBA as none of them have been announced yet. The page will updated when they are published publicly. 

Social Media - Twitter, Facebook & Instagram

We have started our social media campaign by setting up Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts to promote our band and keep our fans posted. We have made the profile pictures and headers synchronous to put across our Electro-Rock image without giving away too much detail about our much anticipated debut music video. Having the same profile pictures and headers on both social platforms also creates consistency in our product.

Website - Updated Design

Ellie updated the website front page with the image that will be found on the back of our digipak. The 'circle' used to feature Ellie's original suitcases design but we replaced it with our updated silhouette design. The website now relates to all of our merchandise, digipak and overall image.

Website - Photo Gallery

We are constantly updating our website with photos of us on our 'Gallery' page to create further authenticity for our band.

'Fast In My Car' Teaser Trailer

Ellie created a Teaser Trailer for our A2 Final Music Video using footage that we have shot so far. The idea of this is to build anticipation among the fans of the band for the final product.

New Digipak Design

Above is the first draft of our Final Digipak design. We all liked the idea of having a simple front design. We also liked the idea of linking all of our merchandise together after doing research into cross-media consistency. We have therefore linked the front and back cover of our digipak, the CD design and our some of our future merchandise range. The digipak will also, of course, relate to our 'Fast In My Car' music video.

Our final draft will be a lot more pristine and professional than this.

Dirty Hit Records - Record Label Research

Above is a little research on the independent record label known as 'Dirty Hit'. We believe that they would sign Alleyways as they are partnered with bands who abuse musical genre boundaries like The 1975.

Risk Assessments

 



Above are various risk assessments that I have filled out to ensure that we are always safe whilst filming our music video.

Progress - What I Have Completed So Far...

• Cross media task - cover, trailer, website, advert? ✓
• LAP chart list? ✓
• Halfway evaluations - feedback - others and yours? ✓
• Shooting schedules? ✓
• Risk assessments? ✘
• Production diaries? ✓
• Planning for all the ancillary tasks - do drawn drafts of all your designs for website, digipak AND progress of these along the way - from nothing to final construction? ✓
• Location and recce shots? ✓
• Changes made along the way? ✓
• Props? ✓
• Costumes? ✓
• Any influences - looks, costumes, videos you like? ✓
• Steal-o-matic? ✓
• Teaser trailer? ✘
• Letter to music producer asking permission? ✓
• Level 4 videos? ✓
• Top blogs like the cranford one, latymer etc analyse what did they do well? ✘

I still need to complete a legitimate risk assessment for each shoot using the forms that have been provided for us. I also need to create a teaser trailer using the footage we've shot so far and analyse top blogs from other colleges.

Digipak Changes

After discussing how to adapt our digipak to fit our band's genre and style more, we decided as a group to use a couple of photo's taken during a brief photo-shoot we took part in after completing our drama studio performance scene.

This is that idea:

The digipak features a plain front cover, a plain back copyright sheet, a CD and a back cover.

 The front cover of the digipak depicts a microphone silhouetted against a white sheet backdrop that's decorated in bright fairy lights. The band's logo will be present in plain white writing towards the bottom-right.

 Above is the plain black back of the booklet that stands within the left hand side of the CD case. It reads "DIRTY HIT RECORDS. © 2014 Dirty Hit Records. THE COPYRIGHT IN THIS SOUND RECORDING IS OWNED BY DIRTY HIT RECORDS. FULLY LICENSED EXCLUSIVELY IN THE UK."

The CD template is inspired by Ellie's original idea however instead of two plain lines on the right of the CD, there will be two lines of fairy lights on a plain black CD with a white rim around the edge. It will read 'Alleyways' accompanied by the copyright details.

I am comfortable with this idea and believe that it fits our bands' musical genre perfectly. Therefore I will be scrapping my independent digipak idea to focus on this one instead.

Rough Draft / Sneak Peek Of Footage So Far...

Above is a sneak peek of the footage we have filmed so far for our A2 Final Music Video. The final video will feature loads more cuts, some cool effects, close-up shots and lots more of the full-colour drama studio performance.

Further Video Inspiration





 

Bring Me The Horizon released a music video for 'Drown' which features a similar style to what we are intending to create in our own music video. There are lights behind the band, bubbles, silhouettes and deliberately unenthusiastic singing which is present in the footage we have filmed so far. However, this video has a narrative linking the scenes together which is not present in our own video and all of the previously stated elements are in different shots in ours unlike this music video.

Evidence of Editing

Provided are a couple of photographs showing us during the editing process of our music video. We will soon be uploading a rough draft.

Photoshoot #3

We had an impromptu photoshoot after we finished filming the Drama studio performance. We all like how the silhouette of us looked and felt that it helped evoke our band image further.

Evidence of Filming #3

After setting up the performance space for an hour, we managed to achieve our best shoot yet! We filmed multiple performances in front of a white sheet decorated with two reels of fairy lights. We also made use of the Drama studio's white spotlight. We filmed from lots of different angles and managed to get a lot of good footage. We agree that the look of this shoot fits our bands electronic image well.

The above video was taken by our teacher whilst we performed using the strobe lighting that the Dram Studio provided. We hope to use this lighting for most of the 40 seconds of instrumental towards the end of the song.

4 Key Choices - Record Company

The record label we chose to be signed by was Dirty Hit Records. They are an independent london-based company who represent artists such as The 1975, Wolf Alice, Marika Hackman and Little Comets.

 

 

 

Dirty Hit Records helped The 1975 rocket to superstardom by achieving a partnership with Universal Records and we hope that this will occur again with Alleyways.

4 Key Choices - Audience

Primary audience: We will mostly accumulate a following of rock fans. Rock is such a broad genre with many sub-genres and we may gain further fans through word of mouth as we are something new and interesting.

Secondary audience: Our secondary audience will be teenagers. As we have a fun, upbeat sound we could attract younger teenagers who are starting to 'branch out' of their music taste and want to expand from pop and chart music but don't want to venture too far out. Due to our influences, we are a mixture of pop and rock.

4 Key Choices - Artist

After choosing the song, we had to come up with an artist. We decided to be a band rather than a singer as most groups have chosen a solo musician or single-genre group and this would be something fresh and different. Our band is also mixed-gender which we think would be our unique selling point - two females and two males.

We were given strict instructions from Pete Fraser to stray as far away from Paramore's image as we possibly can. So the first thing that we changed was our genre: instead of being a female-fronted rock band, we chose to be a female-fronted electro-alternative band as our song choice involves a lot of electronic sounds such as the synthesizer at the beginning.

Ellie will be the vocalist, Dom is the guitarist and Zahra will be our drummer. I will be the bassist. We will all have to have a different personality or 'role' in the band. For example, Ellie will be the energetic, ditzy front woman whereas on the opposite end of the spectrum I will be a quiet, more reserved member of the band.

4 Key Choices - Track

After narrowing our song choices down to three final tracks, we decided on 'Fast In My Car' by Paramore for various reasons. We couldn't do Nina Simone's 'Feeling Good' as none of us would have been able to capture the soul of her voice as we all look far too young and inexperienced. We also couldn't do the Bastille's 'No Angels' because their singer has gained a distinctive voice and the song was too slow to make the video interesting - we didn't want to bore our audience.

 

'Fast In My Car' is upbeat and fun and by choosing this song we managed to make our genre different from the original song: Paramore fall under the 'rock' genre but by listening to the song we made our band electro-alternative. The song is also different from the other media classes track choices in our year which will hopefully stand us out from the crowd.

 

Outfits

Ellie, the main star of the music video, will be dressed in kooky, fun and colourful clothing to establish her and the bands personality during the duration of the music video. All outfits feature bright, clashing colours.
 

Dom, the guitarist of the band will be dressed modern and trendy to appeal to a younger audience. Dom is the cool, trendy, funny member of the band which coincides with our band's overall image. We don't take ourselves too seriously.

I will be wearing 'skater' clothing to appeal to, again, a younger trendier audience - I'm a bit more of a quiet character but come across energetic when performing.

Zahra will be wearing feisty yet modern attire to elicit her personality within the band. Her style works well with the rest of the bands.