CD Products

 

Band member silhouette

 

To integrate an element I liked from the 5 Seconds of Summer website I got my models to jump in a fun pose. I then imported the photo into photoshop and added adjustment layers to adjust the colours to look better. I then cut out the subject in the photo, removing the background. I then selected the subject and used a paint bucket to fill the shape with white. Then on Wix I added an image button and set the regular image as the white silhouette and the hover state as the regular cutout, adding a dissolve effect between the two states.

Creating Merchandise: CD

 For this I went to a charity shop and bought a Greg Davis CD so I could use the case and disc to make a fake CD of the album titled 'After a While, Crocodile'. I quickly designed a simple case design using the album cover design I'd previously designed, and then printed it out at an appropriate scale for it to fit the case.

I removed the existing pieces of paper in the CD case so I could put in the new ones. After printing I cut the designs out and glued them together to strengthen it a bit more. I also glued a simple disc design onto the actual CD.

Tour Dates

 To make the list of tour dates I made a list in word of some of the venues that one direction had visited on one of their tours. I also added dates to each venue, leaving somewhat realistic times between shows for the band to travel and also to rest. I made a button that when hovered over would change colour and when pressed on the homepage would take you to the full events page on the website. I made a list of these buttons with the name and date of each show on them. I titled the tour that the band would be going on the 2kNTour to fit with the brand identity. I also added text besides some of the boxes to say either 'SOLD OUT', 'NEW SHOW', or 'LOW TIX' to make it appear that there is engagement with these events and that they are popular.

Newsletter Popup

 Here is the process of me designing the popup for the newsletter on my website. I used a photo of an instax mini photo I took and cut out the photo in Photopea. I then placed a photo I had taken of a couple band members and added adjustment layers to make the photos look more like a polaroid photo. After adding the photos in I decided to add a gradient to the box to make certain elements pop.

Fake Spotify Embed

 

Here is a screenshot from Photopea showing the layers involved when making my spotify embed for the website.

Creating the Brand: Making Album Covers

I would like my band I have created to be a well established, popular group that has made many songs and albums prior to the music video. To do so I have created several album covers that can be repurposed into merchandise later on and stand as vinyl records and CDs that fans could buy on the bands website.

Album cover #1

Here I have used Photopea to create a debut album cover for the band in the style of NSYNC and the Backstreet boys. I screenshotted moments from my footage to have all 4 members featured on the cover facing the same direction. I used adjustment layers for brightness and contrast to have all 4 photos look similar with lighting and shadows and added a glow effect around them all to make them pop against the background. After reducing the saturation to 0 I then increased the saturation and adjusted the hue to achieve a warm, light brown colour. I then chose a handwriting font for the title and used the eyedropper tool to select colours that complemented the rest of the cover well, applying a drop shadow to it to make it create depth. At the end I applied a dirty paper texture to give the image a sense of age and wear.

NEA Footage Day 1 Contact Sheet

 Here is a contact sheet of all the footage I captured from day 1 of shooting for my music video NEA. 

I recorded all the necessary footage including the whole band together so I can easily get one member at a time if I need to do any reshoots. I still need to shoot footage for the narrative section of the video.

Here is the current timeline using the footage recorded from this day. I have tried to fill as much of the timeline up as possible while keeping the video exciting and dynamic. However, there are many gaps where I will film narrative scenes at a later date.

30 second audio visual planning

 For the 30 second audio visual component of the website I would like to create a short video about the band doing a stage performance in a stadium with a large crowd chanting the name of the band in the background to create the effect of excitement that the fictional fans have towards seeing the band perform. The video will build up anticipation to seeing the band members emerge on the stage, using different camera angles such closeups on the crowd, an overhead helicopter shot of the packed stadium, and a shot on a dolly slowly moving towards the stage. I am aiming to create these effects in the 3D software blender as it will allow me to create my own unique footage rather than using stock footage for no money, which suits my budget as I am hoping to use as little money as possible on this project. By using 3d software I will be able to position the camera in any way I wish and can move objects at will to achieve the exact look I am going for. While it may be an extremely ambitious idea I believe I may be able to pull it off.

Inspiration for my idea comes from videos of bands and artists performing on stage with crowds of people all amazed by the spectacles they are witnessing.

Videos like these can be seen back in the days of 'Beatlemania' with mostly female audiences screaming at the sight of the Beatles. There are countless recordings of this occurring as fans were constantly crazed at the sight of the band. With many creating banners to gain the attention of the members on stage. Due to the extreme popularity of this behaviour, it was covered in countless newspapers and reported on television stations.

Nowadays this sensation is seen all the time online as now people all own their own personal video capturing device in the form of smart phones, allowing them to easily self publish their recordings of performances. However, professional recordings of concerts are still around for a cinematic capturing of the excitement showed by fans when their favourite artists are performing in front of them. The news still covers large-scale music events, therefore I would like to include a news report in my 30 second audio visual element on my website to create the idea that the band has gained an incredibly large audience worthy enough to be covered on nationwide television.

A good example of a professional recording of a band performing on stage is One Direction's 'Best Song Ever' live from San Siro Stadium from 2014. This song is just one part of an entire recording of a concert the band performed, from their 'Where We Are: Live From San Siro Stadium' DVD. It uses techniques that I mentioned in my opening paragraph for ideas for my own take on this style of video, such as dynamic camera movements and a range of shot types. It makes sure to have a good ratio of the members of One Direction actually performing the song and shots of the crowds.

Another example is the Justin Bieber film 'Never Say Never', which similarly to the previously mentioned One Direction DVD is a recording of an entire concert that fans can go back and watch. What is also similar is the use of footage of both the crowds at the concert and of Justin performing. The film also shows behind the scenes footage of Justin outside of his artist persona and also backstage footage from before and after he is on stage performing. I would maybe like to include a bit of behind the scenes footage of the band as well as them on stage to break up the video and also create the feeling that the band is made up of real people and not larger than life celebrities, which would appeal to a secondary audience that would see the band as similar to them and as a role model due to their humble nature despite incredible success.

Character Profiles

Character Profiles- The Conventional Tropes of Popular Male Music Groups

To work out how to make the ultimate boyband I researched the different character tropes associated with the stereotypical boyband. These conventions have come from decades of pop groups such as NSYNC, New Kids on the Block, and the Backstreet Boys.

I looked at an article on PennLive.com which outlined who's who in several bands writing a small paragraph about each member's personality, which helped me see examples of specific tropes. https://www.pennlive.com/go/2011/07/boy-band_breakdown_your_guide.html

Another source I used to establish some key character tropes of boybands is a reddit post I found on r/kpopthoughts that lists some conventional ideas of personalities presented in K-pop bands. Whilst this slightly differs from the Western boyband I am aiming to replicate the style of, K-pop shares many similarities with Western boybands, especially regarding fandoms where groups such as BTS's 'Army' can be directly compared to the craze of 'Beatlemania' in the 1960s. https://www.reddit.com/r/kpopthoughts/comments/14uzvro/lets_do_something_interesting_with_boyband_member/?rdt=45256

Below I have evidenced character profiles for my fictional band members, outlining each characters' inspirations to provide context to their role.

NEA Pitch Feedback Response