Weekly Update #8 (26/10/15 - 30/10/15)

I think that this week was very successful in terms of content which we uploaded to the blog and also in terms of productivity. This is because we have all posted out drafts of our digipak and magazine advert. 

This also meant that the research and planning which we have conducted over the previous week was finalised so that we could create our 1st draft versions by the end of this week ready for the teacher to mark. We all got this done on time which is great, and because this was an individual task we have all made different digipaks and magazine adverts which you can tell as we all have different styles when it comes to things like this. 

Weekly Update #7 (19/10/15 - 23/10/15)

This week we we decided what types of digipaks we were going to make. Me (Sachin) and Michael planned on making our digipak using a template which we found online from disk wizards. We both are making 6 panel digipaks as we fell that it will suit our genre well. 

The reason that I (Sachin) have chosen to create a 6 panel digipak is because it will entice the audience an draw them in as the digipak will be an experience in itself due to all the elements I want to include in this digipak. It will be the main source of information when it comes to song titles, and exclusive content which they will refer to and look at quite a lot and this is why I feel as though this will be sufficient. 

Weekly Update #6 - (12/10/15 - 16/10/15)

This past week has been busy, as we have all created our draft digipaks and adverts which we will hand in to get marked and receive feedback on. It was quite a challenging process because we used Photo Shop to create the digipaks and adverts which made the process slightly easier because we are all familiar with the software. 

One thing that I (Sachin) found challenging, was the fact that we had to come up with an idea from all the research which we had done. This is because I found lots of amazing albums covers and wanted to implement little bits of then into one which came out slightly wrong. But I think that I have found a universal design which I am happy with. 

I (Sachin) also conducted at the start of the week a font analysis, where I chose potential fonts which i could use in my digipak and advert to provide a universal theme across all of my products. 

Weekly Update #5 - (05/10/15 - 09/10/15)

This week we mainly focused on the research side of our coursework. This meant that we had to use the internet, books and other means to find out interesting ideas for our music video, digipaks and adverts.

I (Sachin) uploaded a blog post about why I chose to create a 6 panel digipak over other styles. I think that this was important because it is part of the research process. I feel as though a 6 panel digipak provides a better experience for the audience as there is more to look at and is more relatable to the band and the music video.

Another part of the research process was we all conducted a CD cover analysis, which meant that we had to pick three CD covers which we would take about for example the colour scheme, logos and how this is relatable to the band in some way. also how effective the album cover is at grabbing peoples attention.

I think that this was a successful week because we got quite a lot done in terms of the researching process. 

Weekly Update #4 - (28/09/15 - 02/10/15)

During this last week, we have started to plan where we will be film and taking photos for our digipak covers as well. We need to make sure that everyone can do the photo shoot together and because most of us want photos outside of school, we have had to make sure that everyone is free.  we have also narrowed it down to some key filming spots which a good portion of our music video will be filmed. 

Michael this week made a post on the audience biography which gives a brief summary of who they are and where they come from. We are treating this blog as if it is the official website for our band, and therefore we feel that posts like these are necessary. Max uploaded a post about risk assessment when film a music video and there can be some hazards. 

As well as posting relevant research and weekly updates for our blog, we have use our official Alcazar Twitter page for our band, and on there we have tweeted sneak peaks of photo shoots, potential video and little things to keep our fans interested and up to date. We feel that it is necessary to keep people up to date with our band because they can always get the latest exclusively and do not have to find out from other sources first. 

I made 3 posts this week about magazine adverts which I analysed, as part of my research. This was important because we could strip the adverts down and find out what works and what doesn't. This would also help us when making our own adverts for out digipaks. 

Milo made a post this week also, about the equipment we will be using for the music video; for example type of cameras, software for post production, and small things like a skateboard which we will we will use along with a handle grip for the camera to achieve some smooth low and panning shots. 

Weekly Update #3 - (21/09/15 - 25/09/15)

At the start of this week we analysed and evaluated all the feedback we got from our peers for the 25 word pitch which we made about our music video. This was a very important tasks as it has highlighted certain areas which we haven't mentioned which we didn't clear state in our pitch. An example of this is what style of video we are going to be making?

This week we started the storyboard which will help us to visualise our video better, this meant a lot of team effort, and collaborating off each other. I would say this has to be the activity I have enjoyed the most as we have had so many ideas for our music video. This also meant that that we have had to look at video and some movies which we have taken the ideas from to put into our music video.

We stripped our chosen song apart and so that we could analysis the song and find out what we think the lyrics mean. This is so that we can film scenes which are relevant to the song and make sure we get the message across through our music videos.

Weekly Update #2 - (14/09/15 - 18/09/15)

This week I would say that we have been very productive, as we finalised the name of our band, which was the focus over the weekend. This is because last week we came up with the band logo but wasn't sure on the band name, as we weren't sure whether it matched our genre of music and the style we are going for.

The pitch was also a main priority, as we had to be ready by the end of the week so that we could present our idea to the rest of the class. We used an online service called Animoto which helped us create a short little video explaining our music video idea, our audience we are aiming for and the style of our video. This was a big task because we had to think ahead slightly to make sure that we have all the details of our music video.

We organised a photo shoot for our band members as a test to see if the people we have selected to be featured in our band, suit the role or not. we were originally going for a four people band , but the we decided to have a duet instead.

Weekly Update #1 - (07/09/15 - 11/09/15)

This is the first week back after the summer holidays. Before the holidays we were all in different groups but some people left and therefore we are decided that two groups of two would joint to create one single group. 

We mainly looked at music videos for inspiration, for camera shot we might want to film and get produce a list of scene which we like and might want to use in our music video. This included watch past A2 music video which previous student have created and watching different artists music video and their work. 

We created a style mood boards which will help us an inspire us, when styling our band members for the music video and also the types of people which will listen to our music. We also listened to lots of songs in order to try and establish a genre that we like, once we had that done this we created a 20 song playlist of potential songs which me wanted to use for our music.

We did some audience research on UK tribes to help us understand what our audience is like to help match the music with our audience which we will be targeting. We also created band biography, to help other understand how our band came to be and what they are all about. In addition to this we created a band logo show that we can also be recognised as a brand as well and a music band. 

our logo:

Towards the end of the week we also split the tasks equally between the four of us so that we can make sure that everyone was completing tasks on the schedule and other post which we think are relevant for our research.