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

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!):

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.

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

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.

Set Options

Hello!

So while Cata and I have been working on the website and digipak, our main focus is the music video. As of now, we have our dancer, song, and artist, but the only thing we are missing is the set for the music video. After much searching our brains for the perfect set, Cata and I thought that an industrial-looking warehouse with black walls and a gray floor would be best fitted for the song. Here are some pictures of our ideal set:

This picture was our inspiration for the look of our dancer in the music video:

We scouted for different locations and we've narrowed it down to three:

Option #1: Cypress Bay Auditorium

Both Cata and I are extremely familiar with our high school's auditorium. After taking four years of musical theatre in there, it has become our home away from home. The great thing about filming in the auditorium is that we can get our hands in professional lighting, which would elevate the quality of our video and make it much more professional. The annoying part of filming in the auditorium is that it's almost always booked, so getting a time slot to film there might be hard (but not impossible!)

Option #2: Michael's Garage
Michael is one of our best friends, and he has a spacious garage where we could hang black blankets from the wall and film. However, the lighting is awful and it'd be hard to film in such a hot place for prolongued amounts of time. Nevertheless, it's accessibility to both Cata and I is great.

Option #3: Wynwood
Ah...Wynwood. You can never go wrong with Wynwood. It's colorful walls make for an incredibly aesthetic background for our dancer. I know it's the opposite of what our image for our set was, but I think it would work flawlesly (Cata not so much...). It must be said though, that Wynwood is an hour away from our homes, and taking two 15-year-olds with us to Wynwood might not be the best as they have pretty protective parents.

Overall, we decided that the auditorium would be the best place to film. We even asked our teacher, Ms. Lutwin, if we could use it and she let us borrow it on Monday at 6pm. This would set us back a day in filming but we believe its totally worth it.

That's all for today,
Isa


Sources:
http://afasiaarchzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Jo%C3%A3o-Mendes-Ribeiro-.-Ad%C3%A9mia-Office-Building-and-Industrial-Warehouse-.-Coimbra-27.jpg
http://www.sharpeproperties.com/uploads/homepageimages/original/premier-industrial-warehouse-interior.jpg
http://www.sharpeproperties.com/uploads/homepageimages/original/premier-industrial-warehouse-interior.jpg
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSHTTy8FQWH/?taken-by=sophialucia5678&hl=en

Progress(Part 2)! Digipak Rough Draft

Hello!

Cata and I have decided on our digipak layout and we are super happy to share it with the rest of the world! I'll try to explain our mental image to the best of my abilities! However, before I start, I wanted to share with you some of the digipaks that inspired our own layout. Shoutout to Mrs. Stoklosa for bringing digipaks we could physically touch and see to class. Thank you!

This first digipak to the right is from artist Courtney Bennet. Cata and I both loved the simplistic design of it, and thought that the white space gave it a very clean look. Taking that into consideration, we will play around with white space to create a similar look.

One thing we absolutely adored was the way that the packet of lyrics was designed. As you can see in the picture to the right, the paper unfolded to create a poster with some of the lyrics of the album. We feel that this is a very creative idea to keep fans immersed in music as they have the option to not only read the lyrics to the songs, but to hang up a poster in their rooms.

This next digipak was not necessarily our favorite. We didn't gravitate towards the two CD spaces and the song list and packet in the middle. However, we appreciated the three separate panels, and decided that we were definitely going to have three panels. Especially because it gives us more opportunity to share information with Em's fan base while at the same time creating an aesthetic theme.

So, what we've all been waiting for, our rough draft. TA-DA!

I know, I know... It's not the most beautiful thing, but like I've mentioned before, Cata and I are not artists. Nevertheless, it gets the point across. Maybe it'll be better once I explain it. As you know, the front cover is being designed by one of Em's friends who can actually draw, so that will be the front cover of the album. On the inside of that panel will be a small half-pocket with the booklet of song lyrics. These two are represented by the top and bottom square on the far right of the drawing. On the middle outside cover will be the song list with a minimalist design. The inside of this panel will be the CD holder. These two can be seen as the middle squares in the drawing. Finally, the last panel is the third one which goes into the album and comes out when you open it. The outside panel of the left would be the first thing that consumers notice once they open the album, and it will have a handwritten-type note from Em to make the album as personable as it can be. The inside of that panel will be full of her website and social media, so that fans who just buy the album can find others way to interact with her.

I hope that explanation helped in understanding what goes on inside our heads, but if it didn't, Cata and I are thinking of doing a vlog which will explain the digipak more in detail once we start the actual production of it. But more now, this is it!