Final Advert

Since I had saved over the original .PSD file for the first final advert, I had to start from scratch with a black background. The peer feedback suggested we remove Thomas from the advert; I decided to use the shot of Bronte that Serena used on the digipak for two reasons. One, it helped establish a brand identity, and two, it was a photo I'd used for a recce shot previously and had already neatly cut out.

To make the white rectangle I made a square selection in the middle of the canvas and applied the smooth modifier to give it rounded corners. I filled the selection with white and then shrunk it by a few pixels. I then deleted the selection, leaving just a white border.

Staying on the border layer, I selected the outside of the layer and grew it by one pixel. I then switched to the layer with Bronte and deleted the excess of her dress.

I used the original picture of the candles and aligned them with the bottom of the border. I had to cut them out again though, as I'd cut out the original candles on the advert rather than on a separate image.

I used the same technique I used in the first advert for the candles. To do this, I selected the edges of the border (like I did in the previous step) and moved the edges of the candles onto a new layer, I then turned the opacity down to 50% to add a nice effect.

I took an orange to red gradient and applied this in a new layer over the top of Bronte, to give a feel of passion and warmth. It also helped match Bronte's to the candles as she looked too cold next to them.

Finally, I added the modified text and font. We kept the title font for the brand identity with the other objects, and edited it slightly so that the letters finished cleanly, and I chose a more suitable, readable font for the rest. I also cut down on the amount of text on the advert.

Digipak (Front)*

 

Florence and the Machine: "Lungs"  

 

I chose this photo from the shoot as the image for the front of our Digipak. On Florence's Digipaks, she usually chooses not to face people; most of her poses are looking to a side with a touch of expression. On the photo I chose, Bronte has a smile that is similar to Florence's star image. On the front of Florence's album 'LUNGS' she is looking to the right. She has no expression on her face but the pink flowers add a peaceful atmosphere to the picture, which in our photo shoot Bronte's smile could do the same job. I discussed the choice with the group, and we agreed to use it as the final photo for the front of our Digipak.

 First of all, I followed the tutorial on Youtube to smooth Bronte's skin for a better star image.

 Then I found a tutorial on the web that taught me how to cut the image out. Before designing our Digipak, I knew nothing about Photoshop, and have learned a lots Photoshop skills during this production.

I cut and pasted it on a black background. To relate the image to the back of the digipak, I used some candles pasted those around Bronte so that it make her looks like she's sitting in the candles. This also could relate to our music video where we used candles as props.

I thought a square image was too simple to be the front cover image; I want it to stand out when people see it. So I changed the shape of the image to an arch shape, I also added some different sized and different opacity circular lights in by using the brushes. The reason I added those is I think it could represent a peaceful moon and they also look like stars which could related to 'cosmic'. To make an arch shape I first cut the photo in half by using the selection tools and pasted it on a new layer.

Scened, I used the selection tools again, cut out an elliptical portion of image and pasted on a new layer.

 Then I combined those two layers.

I added the name of the band 'Florence + the Machine'. By researching Florence's albums, I found that on all of her album covers the name is on the top and the font she used was a font specific to the band. So the font I used was the one I found online which was quite similar to Florence's.

I added the name of our album. I didn't use the name of original album, instead I replaced the name with the name of our music video 'Cosmic Love'. The font I used was 'Brush Script M7'.

After discussing with the group, we changed the font used for the name of the album because the font we used was too much for the song list (as we are using the same font on both the name of the album and the song list).

At the end, I added a white frame that could highlight the image. It also followed florence's style.

 For the spine, I created a bar which contain the name of our band ('Florence + the machine') the name of the album ('Cosmic Love') and the code of our album. For star identity, I used the same font as the title for the name of our band. To make the whole album relate, I used the same font for 'Cosmic Love' in this bar and on front cover.

At the beginning, I was going to use a mirror effect on the subject. After I tried and it was not as what I imagined (and the group did not like it) so we removed this idea.

Useful Links:
Mirror Effect

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/mirror-image/

Cosmic Love Font

http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/ArtBrush.htm

By Serena Chu

Filming Day Three (Museum)

What we did:
We filmed our actors Bronte and Thomas in the Museum of Hartlepool, first we did a lot of tracks of Bronte walking down the street, including walking out of various doors and looking out them. Next we filmed her lip-syncing in one of the shops in the museum where she moved down from the framed hallways towards the camera. After filming the outside scenes, we headed in doors towards the hallway; we had to be careful with the equipment so that it wouldn’t trip up any of the school children who were also visiting the museum. We wanted Bronte to walk down the hallway during the chorus, which we got several times simply because we couldn’t have children in the shot which happened a lot, eventually we managed to get a good clip of it, although in the last shot we had Thomas run after her like he’d escaped to. Next we went to a small barn and did the candle sequence of when she is holding the candles and surrounded by them, Bronte lip-synced some more and we took several shots from tilts, medium shots to close ups. For our final hour, we went and filmed on the boat where Bronte lip-synced for the final time before Thomas came and joined her on the bench of the boat. Overall we got a lot of filming done that is to be reviewed and edited into our music video. 

 

  By Abbie Smith

Filming Difficulties

Problem: 
A day before we were going to start our first day of filming, our actor decided that she did not want to film anymore leaving us without an actor and potentially leaving us with no option other than to cancel our recording session on the studio.
Solution: 
We managed to find a second actor within the same day! Bronte was very kind to offer to be out actor so we told her what we're planning to do the next day and what she would need to bring, it was even better that she was a dancer so we could have the dance sequence we wanted.

Problem: 
Trying to get permission from the museum took longer than expected simply due to problems of them losing my number several times which was frustrating as I was trying to find a date that all the crew and actors could attend.
Solution: 
I was able to get in touch with the manager via email and make arrangements to go down and film on the day, as my crew and actors are available on the condition that I bring down the storyboard to show them where I wanted to film.

Problem: 
When we were filming the frame sequence, we had to place the frame on the wall which was attempted over the course of two days, which were Wednesday and Friday. The problem was that the frame couldn't hold it's weight has we were using Blu-Tak to support the frame although this didn't work very well as it kept falling down until the point the frame has snapped partly in the corners.   

Solution:
We found out that the frame could hold it's weight if we took the glass of the frame out, so we re-filmed on Friday without the glass in which it stayed when placed so we could get a variety of shots that would introduce the narrative slowly. 

By Abbie Smith

Re-Filming Day Four (Studio)

What we did:
We re-filmed parts of the painting sequence including the 'Step out' because the narrative didn't make sense and so we went back into the studio to fix the current narrative problem. We filmed Bronte and Thomas linked arm to arm like previously and then we filmed her stepping out of the frame by altering the picture behind her so that the black on the picture will represent the ratio on final cut making it easier to edit the 'step out' effect. We did this several times including her jumping out although her dress was far to long for that effect so we stuck to step out. We also filmed her miming so that it looked like she was pressing her hand against the glass of the frame before breaking it and escaping. Afterwards we did some clips of Thomas jumping out after her, before finally finishing up. 

By Abbie Smith

Filming Day 2 (Dance Sequence)

Filming, day two. (Dance Sequence)

What we did:
We began filming our dance sequence which was filmed in the studio. Our Actor Thomas wasn't needed, when Bronte arrived she brought several dresses and we decided we would use the blue dress for the dance sequence. We used a variety of shots, so we put georgia in a low angle and I was in a long shot at the back of the studio. We filmed her dancing, from medium shots, low angles and close up of her lipsyncing.
 
The Narrative of the video: 
There is a painting of a couple on there wedding day, the female persona is sick of being stuck in a small framed space, eventually she's had enough of being a painting and decides to break free leaving her husband confused at her sudden departure. She finds herself in the museum where she explores vicariously as if she was human, passing against the houses she finds some candles and begans to light the dark world which is the realistic look on life when she escaped from her optimistic lifestyle.

By Abbie Smith

Final Digipak

By Serena Chu