Sunday, April 16, 2017

Creative Critical Reflection

Wow. My last post. Wow.

I've attached my creative critical reflection below. I posted the script on a previous post in case something wasn't understood.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5xkpse88XtpUzZtQjNqMXNSWG8/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for following me throughout this all.
Bye!
-Isa

Final Project

I can't believe it's all finally done. I hope you love it as much as Cata and I do!

Here is our music campaign-

Video: https://youtu.be/ojAozH_vrPY

Website: http://emsasson.weebly.com/

Digipak: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_d1UeccEiX8VkxxZ3ZMSW9XbW8/view?usp=sharing
For a closer look at each of the digipak panels:
https://www.canva.com/design/DACSI4H7fJA/tfyG4BXWXpMj5QrR_BXEIA/view?utm_content=DACSI4H7fJA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton


Until next time,
Isa 💗

Saturday, April 15, 2017

CCR Script

Hello, my name is Isabella Armas and this is my A level Media Studies Creative Critical Reflection. This year, I did a music campaign for Emmanuelle Sasson with my partner, Catalina Castro.

For my AS level project last year, I did a film opening for the movie, Lasting Leah, which portrayed  a struggling artist as she channeled her emotions into art. I think that the main difference between last year and this year was the difficulty of working for a real life person. Rather than manipulating all of my own products to my liking, this year I had to consider Em’s opinions. This caused me to be dependent on another person for my work, which definitely took some getting used to.

However, I’m extremely proud of this result and can obviously see the improvements I’ve made over the past year.

-How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
I used an array of different technologies to accomplish all of the aspects of my project.  I used my HP notebook to access the internet and download any apps that I needed to use. Additionally, I used the internet for research purposes, and blogger.com to create my blog.

For the music video, Cata and I filmed on an IPhone 7 Plus to maximize the quality of our video. A struggle that we had on the IPhone 7 Plus is that although the camera was very advanced, it absorbed the lights of the set differently every time we started a new video, without us actually changing the brightness. This caused the editing process to be way harder than we expected as we needed to balance the coloring of the shots to the best of our abilities. Catalina and I edited on my computer with the software Wondershare Filmora, a great app that works similarly to iMovie.

For the digipak, Cata and I utilized the online program, Canva. The great thing about Canva was the flexibility that it allowed us to have with the designs. Cata and I were able to create various designs and then compare them to each other right there.

For the website, we used the online program Weebly. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use Weebly because it's extremely user-friendly, especially for those of us who aren't really tech-savvy. One of the best things about Weebly is the template or theme options that can b e selected, especially as Cata and I found a website template that was specifically for a musician.

-How do your products use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
While researching conventions for alternative pop/rock, both Cata and I did case studies on single artists similar to Emmanuelle. We picked Alessia Cara and Ed Sheeran, both extremely successful artists who seemed similar in personality to Em. From them, we drew inspiration to make our website, and included traditional conventions such as having a mailing list, and about me page, etc.

In addition, we embraced conventions by creating a promotional music video as Em’s first video. We decided on a promotional music video as Em isn’t well known yet and consumers must be able to connect Em’s music and sound to her face.

For the digipak, we used a traditional four panel design. However, something unique that we included was Em’s handwritten-type note, which we wanted to include in order for her audience to picture her as personable, something that both millennials and gen-z’s are attracted to. Instead of feeling like they are being marketed to,  it feels more friendly.

-How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?
My main purpose while producing each component of the music campaign was creating a sense of cohesiveness. To start, Cata and I had to figure out Em’s brand. Since her music is mostly alternative pop/rock, we tried to portray her in a very androgynous, dark, yet quirky look.  Once we nailed her brand, we did a photoshoot that had a lot of street style, which goes hand-in-hand with her personality, fashion and music.

Cage’s dark and heavy beats emphasized Em’s troubled mind, yet the dancer in the video symbolized Em’s expressive and artistic side. The website’s white space allowed for a very clean and friendly look, but the pop of colors in all of the visuals highlighted the diversified sounds that one can find in her album. Her digipak was one of the things that Cata and I struggled with cohesively, as each panel had to be a remembrance of the next. At the end, to accomplish this, we kept using the inside images of the cover design as backgrounds or pop of colors.

I think, overall, the sense of branding in our products is definitely there, as we used some of the images on all of our components and tried to maintain the same color palette and tone throughout.

-How do your product engage with the audiences and how would they be distributed as a real media products?
After much discussion, Cata and I decided that Em’s music was best targeted to young millennials and older gen-z’s, in the age range of 15-30.  As research has shown, Millennials and Generation Z’ers have the most purchasing power as of now, which would work to Em’s benefit.  They’re also the biggest social media consumers, which is why we placed a huge emphasis on Em’s social media through all of our products, and tried to make her music campaign as personalized and interactive as possible. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are all linked to her website and mentioned in her digipak, as well as her Youtube.

The main way we are planning on distributing our product is through Em’s Youtube Channel. With over 280 subscribers, she already has a small fanbase that she can expand upon. Her website will be promoted and linked in all of her social media. Since she is an upcoming artist, it’s unlikely that she will produce the actual physical album. Rather, she will just use the digipak cover and stream her album in iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify.  Depending on its selling success, she will produce the physical digipak.

The full ‘Cage’ music video will be posted on her Youtube channel, so that interest will spark interest i her fans to listen to the rest of the album. Hopefully, the video will also stream in sites such as Vevo, and clips of it will also be posted on the rest of her social media.

-Final thoughts?
In conclusion, I just want to thank Catalina Castro for being a great partner for this project. We motivated and pushed each other to do our best, and supported each other every step of the way. As for Emmanuelle, I thank her for letting us help her to the best of our abilities, and I don’t doubt her future success. I’m sad that the journey this class has taken me in is coming to an end, but I’m grateful for the skills that I’ve learnt as a producer, director, and as a person.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Updates

It's CRUNCH time!!!

Cata and I met yesterday and today and have been working tirelessly with this project. It takes a long time to just put everything together and make it cohesive, but we are making very good progress!


Some things I didn't discuss before:
  • We are using Weebly.com to create Em's website. Cata and I love Weebly because its very user-friendly, especially for those of us that aren't very technologically inclined. We are having a scrollable website because our target audience uses mostly their smartphones to reach websites. Another special feature is that we are including a merchandise tab. Cata and I love the interactive feature of having merchandise, as her fans get tangible materials that link back to the album...and who doesn't love hoodies? Additionally, we are including an email subscription so that her fans can keep up with her latest news and marketing. The URL will be www.emsasson.weebly.com
  • For the digipak, we are using Canva.com . We decided on Canva because, similarly to Weebly, its very easy to use and understand. Although it is a bit limiting, it's the best that Cata and I know that we can also work with. Due to time limits, we choose to do a four panel digipak instead of the originally planned six panel digipak. However, I think we made our information more concise so it ended up being better for the overall image of the digipak. The girl that Em hired to do the cover art is behind schedule, so we don't have the finished product of the cover yet. Nevertheless, Cata and I already designed a digipak without the artist's cover art in case she doesn't finish on time  (See! We learn from our mistakes!). Here is the last update that we got from the artist:

  • As for the music video, we are using Wondershare Filmora. Although iMovie would've been ideal, both Cata and I have laptops with Windows, so we settled on Filmora. It's the only video editing software that Cata and I foung to be most like iMovie, and it really gives us the freedom to do what we want. It also lets you play with saturation, brightness, contrast, and some very cool filters. Our main struggle with the music video editing so far is matching up the visuals with the words on the audio, and trying to balance the overall lighting, as the lighting kept changing for all the videos without us changing the actual lights.
That's it for today,
Isa




Friday, April 7, 2017

Photoshoot

Hey everyone!

So on Wednesday, Cata and I did a photoshoot of Em for her website and digipak. We decided on using Cypress Bay as our set because of the variety of backgrounds that it offered us. Also, since Em isn't allowed to be driven by us, we thought that the school was a good place for her parents to drop her off while at the same time getting some good shots.

Here is a short vlog of our experience:


As a sneak peak into our website, here are some of my favorite unedited shots of the shoot(we took over 500 pictures!):










Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Filming Process

WE FINALLY FILMED!!!

Yesterday night, Cata and I got to film all of our music video in our school's auditorium. I think one of the best things about filming in the auditorium was that we could manipulate the lighting to give the video a sultry, dark look. Our dancer, Rachel Capo, glowed in that light with a blueish, reddish tint that made the dance even more mysterious.

One of the things that must be mentioned is the skill and professionalism of our dancer. Both Cata and I were left in awe at Rachel's work ethic. She learned the whole dance in less than a half hour, and she danced tirelessly even after we made her repeat the dance countless times. Our coreography, created mostly by Cata, came to life and it couldn't have been more perfect.

Cata going over the movements with Rachel

I decided on a natural look for Em's makeup
I created shadows in Rachel's face by contouring her face




















Our main struggle with filming the dance was balancing the movement of the camera with the movements of the dancer. Many times, we were too slow to move the camera and capture the dancer's sharp movements. Also, we ran into some problems as we learned to use the lighting and curtains of the auditorium to tailor it to the set we wanted. For example, bringing down the main curtain (which you see as the black background) was extraneous work because it was extremely heavy. Somehow, I ended up being the one always moving the curtain so my hands were raw from the rope by the end. As for the lighting, we played around with the brightness of the camera to make the shots a bit darker and more glowy, but I'm worried because that might have caused the different shots to slightly differ in coloring.
As you can see, Em and Rachel bonded during the long filming session




Overall, I think filming went very smoothly. I'm grateful for the team that I worked with and wouldn't change it for the world. The song and vocals created by Em and the emotion portrayed in Rachel's dancing mixed together beutifully to create an intense, dark and yet emotional video.Now that I've filmed, I can't wait to start editing to see the final product.






Here is a short behind the scenes look into our music video experience:


Until next time,
 Isa

P.S: Filming dance scenes is a workout! Both Cata and I had to hold the camera and follow Rachel's movements so many times that we too were out of breath by the end.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Music Video Coreography

Hey everyone!

Here is the coreography/written storyboard for the music video. It might be hard to understand, but you will see once we film it. We are finally filming tomorrow and I could not be more excited. Although Cata and I are not coreographers, I have to say that it turned out way better than I ever expected.


Cage Music Video

Voices surround me, it's harder to breathe - Em looking straight out; CLOSE UP PAN

there is no escape, my head is killing me - Em hands to face with tortured look; CLOSE UP

i stand in my cage in silence and fear - Em staring straight into camera; CLOSE UP STILL

for the demons of darkness have driven me here - Em staring into camera; SLOW ZOOM OUT

Sticks and stones- Em; QUICK ZOOM IN

May break my bones but words will tear me apart most of the monsters in my head only scare me in the dark - Em making faces; QUICK VARIOUS SHOTS(CLOSE UPS, PROFILES, EXTREME CLOSE UPS, DANCER QUICK SHOTS ETC)

I'm trapped inside a cage- Dancer wall wall stomach down face slowly up

I'm like- Half extended leg and half turn

a deadly machine- Turn back with tilted leg/split

My heart is locked- Kick tilted leg twice

in chains- Squat with feet outward and then heels up

My mind is a disease- Torso spin in squat with heels up

Can you Can you save my soul?- Slowly go onto back until shoulders touch floor

Can you Can you save my soul?- Rise slowly from the floor until standing straight in tippy toes and hands touching throat

People are watching, they think that i'm insane- Dancer turn dramatically away from camera and walk in circle; Em appears in middle of circle slowly

I see them, they're talking- Dancer in front of Am going down a little

do they know i'm not okay?- Dancer swishes torso to side and smirks

(Beat)  Turn to floor and drag behind Em

Shadows are screaming that I am alone- Dancer slowly comes up behind Em; focus moves to Em

I hope it's all a dream, i'm out here on my own- Dancer walks back and disappears

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will tear me apart
most of the monsters in my head only scare me in the- Em crouches down with Em frantic movements
Dark- blackout or feet shots

I'm trapped inside a cage- Dancer runs up to Em and puts arms around her w/o touching

I'm like a deadly machine- Dancer spreads arms into scarier position and Em moves hands too

My heart is locked in chains- Dancer grabs Em's arms without touching her and tugs her from angled side to side

My mind is a disease- Dancer throws Em down

Can you Can you save my soul?- Em fallen down slowly looking up
Can you Can you save my soul? Em slowly gets up

Deep inside-Em stay still-mid shot
Where nothing’s fine
I've lost my mind
Oh, deep inside- Long shot of Em walking towards camera and Dancer behind her and one w/o
Where nothing's fine
I've lost my mind
(Beat) Dancer freestyle/creepy/zombie clicks
(Beat ) Lights flashing/Strobe lights and Dancer crazy

I'm trapped inside a cage- dancer and Em dance simultaneously
I'm like a deadly machine
My heart is locked in chains
My mind is a disease
Can you Can you save my soul? - Em close up with still camera
Can you Can you save my soul? - Em close up with still camera

Extra footage/Add-Ins:
Camera pans to Em’s medium shot
Dutch angle or 360 of Em
Pan around Em and stop in her profile

Profile of Em still

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Music Campaign Project: A Preparation for Life.

Hey everyone!

I apologize in advance, but this post isn't necessarily showing the progress we've done with the project. Actually, it's kind of the opposite.

We have lost our dancer. Two days before filming was supposed to happen. TWO DAYS!!!

Cata and I were completely dumb-founded when she told us. I know I never officially told you that we had found a dancer, but we had. I've decided to omit her name from my blog because she seems very sensitive to the whole situation, but to give you a general idea, she was one of Em's friends. Both Cata and I had high hopes for her because she is also in musical theater (but not in our class), and she has black hair, so she could've resembled Em. She had been a dancer for many years, so she would have no trouble doing the choreography that Cata and I assembled.

BUT (because there's always a but in real life apparently), one day she became overwhelmed with life. She said she had too much in her plate, and that she wasn't sure the video was going to turn out well, so because she didn't want to look bad to the rest of the world, she became hesitant. However, when Cata and I assured her of our skills and of our vision for Em, she reaffirmed that she was committed to the video and decided to stay, even though we told her clearly that it was her last chance to say no. This would give us some time before the weekend to find another dancer.

Fastforward to 18 hours later, we get a text from Em with a screenshot of the dancer's text dropping out. Cata and I were together at the time and we were fuming. FUMING. How could this girl drop out after she had reaffirmed her commitment? and less than two days before filming? It happened.

It also turns out that this girl flipped, and starting blaming us for everything, so she was incredibly rude and unprofessional. Here is where the life lesson comes in: Instead of being rude back or unprofessional, we sent her a pretty nice text. We said that we completely understood and that even though we were upset that she had dropped out on us so late, we were going to find a solution without her, and like that, we cut ties.

More than anything, I think doing this project has taught Cata and me that when you're working on real work projects, you will always depend on other people. Therefore, you need to have different cars on your sleeve. For this music campaign, it's not only about Cata and me, but about everyone who is involved in the production and is impacted by it in any sort of way.

And with that philosphical view at this media study project,
Adieu

P.S: BTW, we did find a solution! There is a friend, Rachel Capo, who is a close friend of mine and has been in musical theatre with Cata and I for years. Although she dropped out of dance two years ago, she has many years of dance training behind her back, and she was glad to help us in our state of emergency.