Digipak Practise - Eyes

For my digipak I wanted to make sure our main colour scheme of black and white show to be the theme of my digipak which lead to me using the black and white effect to get the look I wanted. I took a screenshot from the footage where Noxa opens her eyes and decided to put it into Photoshop:

I started by using the blemish fixer to make Noxa's skin and eyebrows look neater and then put a black and white filter on to the image and played around with the fade and contrast until I ended up with this image:

This image makes Noxa's eyes and lashes look much more defined and match the theme that I wanted to display in my digipak. However I wanted to see if I could add a darker feel to the image showing that Noxa is not someone to be messed with. I put the image above into PicMonkey and began to put shadow effects and darkened the overall image. I also added a dark frame around image to make the whole picture darker. This is what I ended up with:

Similar to the second image this effect makes Noxa's eyes and lashes stand out against her skin. I love this effect as her eyes are completely black showing no emotions at all - which matches her character in 'Narcissistic Cannibal'. However I think this image really stands out and may clash with the other images that I have planned so I will have to consider which image I want to use carefully.

Photoshop Practice #2

As I will soon be starting my digipak I wanted to practice some more photo editing on Photoshop. I decided to edit something with meaning behind it and choose to edit a screenshot of Noxa wearing the white mask:

I wanted to simply add another picture on top to add something else to a already meaningful image. Sticking with the theme of innocence being lost I decided to make the mask cracked and chipped to look like her facade slowly begin to fade - linking to the loss of innocence. I faded all of the cracks to make them look old and different sizes so the mask is still intact but will so be broken:

Practising Photoshop

In preparation for making a digipak I decided to practise editing images in Photoshop. I have briefly used Photoshop before however I felt like I needed a refresher in the basics. I took the behind-the-scenes picture we took at the forest, on top on a hill and I wanted to remove my group and I from the top of the hill and replace it will Noxa on top instead and then put one of the logos in the corner:

Simple yet it was good practise with removing one object and replacing it with another, adding some text and trying out the colour contrasts. It was overall good practise with Photoshop basics and it will help when I come to editing my digipak images.

Wix Practise

During yesterdays lesson we had practice using the site wix, which is a website making site. I have used wix before for one of my AS evaluation questions but since then the site has been updated and is a lot easier to use. The site is really easy to use and this is a good point when a beginner uses the site for the first time. I wanted to see what was new since the last time I used the site so I tried out everything. I liked the backgrounds that moved as it added something different to the site and made is visually interesting and the background was easy to change. The banners are all professional looking and the pictures can be given boarders to make it match the site. There is so much customisation available to the user which I really liked as it gives me the freedom to make the site how ever I wanted it to look.

This screenshot is of the layout of wix and my testing of the website to see what had changed and how easy it was to move things around and add new objects.

Editing the Lighting Workshop

In today's lesson we started to edit the footage we filmed during the lighting workshop. We had to make it interesting and different by changing the green screen, using effects and experimenting with the different camera angles. I think this exercise is a good way to practise my editing skills and to learn some effects that I could potentially use in my own music video. I worked on the lip-sync first as I wanted to match up the music and the lip-syncing and merge them together so I can edit the clips apart later on and use different camera angles.

Animation

Today I spent the day creating an animation. I followed a YouTube video as I am new to animating and wanted to have something to follow. Overall I think the animation looks good but there are certain problems that I could not find a solution to. The shadow does not move with the text but it is there and I could not find a way to fix this without messing up the text or background.

Lighting Workshop

Today (15/09/15) the class went to do a lighting workshop. We went to the drama room, as the black interior would make the lights brighter and better, to setup the green screen, lights and cameras. We had 3 tasks to complete during the workshop: lip-syncing in front of a green screen, reciting a horror narrative with dark lighting and an interview scene. However before we could start any of these tasks we had to setup.

After we had completed setting up we went straight into the first task: the lip-sync. The person lip-syncing would be singing "California Girls" by Katy Perry and could do whatever felt natural to them. We had two classmates do this, one lip-syncing and the other dancing with some props, in front of the green screen. The green screen would allow us to make the setting match the song lyrics (or not if we decide something else) rather than having a plain background.

Next up was the horror narrative which I had to perform and despite not being the best actress I think the effect makes up for my acting! The effect darkens half of my face to create a mysterious look which matched the script I was reading. As I did not get to see the effect until we had finished filming I was surprised and happy with the outcome. I would love to use this effect in my own music video, if we choose to have a dark theme or song.

The last task was the interview scene. We decided as a class to have the person being interviewed in front of the green screen so we could change the background, similar to the lip-sync. We had the interview off-screen so only there voice could be heard and the person being interviewed would have to make up the answers which were perfect. Overall effect was really clear and nice and it will be interesting to see how this piece is edited.

As an extra task we were ask to make a lens flare effect however we ended up making a silhouette which, in my opinion, was even better! A classmate held a rainbow coloured umbrella behind her and in front of the camera so the colours glowed and created a silhouette. This technique would be really good to use in a dark themed video as it creates a sense of mystery and the unknown.

All of the footage that we collected today will be edited together so we can test our editing skills. We can edit images into the green screen and use Adobe After Effects to make the sequence more exciting to watch.

Overall I have learnt a lot about lighting and how much it can impact a shot. There are so many techniques that would be interesting to use depending on the song of the music video. Lighting is something I will defiantly keep in mind whilst shooting our music video.

Finished Lip Sync

We have finished our lip sync task! Our sequence was to 'Let It Go' and overall I think it was good. However some of our footage did not quite match the song but it could not be fixed because the mistake was made while filming. This is the end product:

I like that we never used the same shot more than twice as this gives our sequence more variation and makes it more visually interesting to watch. If I were to do it again I would get even more shots so we have more options when it comes to editing, that way if there are any filming mistakes we could replace them with another shot. This would also make the editing process easier as well as finding a shot that matched the lip syncing would be easier as we could choose the shot that best matched the lip syncing rather than spending a long time trying to make it match.

Lip Sync and Editing Practise

We were given a task to create a minutes worth of footage where someone must lip-sync to a song of our choice. My group decided to go for the hugely popular hit "Let it Go" from the Disney film Frozen's soundtrack (however it is a mash-up version) as we feel as though it has a lot of potential shots and themes. One requirement for this task is that the actors must sing out loud so the footage looks more realistic. Our goal is to use various locations and never use the same shot twice as the sequence is only a minute long. This is also a good practice for our editing skills. The music has to match the lip syncing of the singer in order for the sequence to look realistic which makes the editing process a bit more difficult but also a challenge which I will enjoy.

Green Screen Practise

Today we practised using the green screen for the first time by recording someone lip-syncing to a song for 30 seconds in front of the green screen and changing the green to a image of our choice. We had a short tutorial to follow which turned out to be a simple process. We chose a simple field of flowers to be our background but then later added a space theme alongside the field to see if we could follow the process without using the tutorial. Here is our 30 second clip:

We had a small problem with the shadow being in the background therefore ruining the green screen effect. We did manage to remove part of it with some effects but I have learnt that the lights must be placed in a certain way to prevent a shadow forming and will make the overall effect look smoother.

EDIT: Unfortunately the footage was lost before it could be uploaded to the blog