Branding Improvements

During feedback it was pointed out that our blue lace texture is our main visual on our album cover and website. We felt that this was an issue as it was a found image and not one that we had created ourselves.

Our blue lace texture

We also realised that, when selecting the texture, we had not given enough thought to it's connotations and what that reflected on our band. As a result we had a group meeting and conducted audience feedback sessions. We concluded that:

- The lace texture is very vintage looking, which suits Pilgrim's image as a cool, quirky, indie band .
- It reminded us and our audience of textures you would find at home on curtains, pillows and blankets and evoked feelings of home and welcoming; this worked well with Pilgrim's friendly, approachable image.
- The lace is slightly feminine juxtaposing conventional indie albums which are usually quite masculine. It also reflects Ash, our female bassist, as part of the band.

Our Album Cover

Our Website

Having concluded this, we decided that we wanted to create our own texture. At home, I scanned in a lace curtain with various fabrics laid on top of it. Below are our favourite three:

As a group we chose the blue texture and edited it in photoshop by brightening it and turning the saturation up. We then added it to our album cover and website.

The texture on our album cover

The texture on our website

I am very happy with how the texture turned out and think it actually works better than our previous texture as it is brighter.

Adobe After Effects

Throughout editing we have noticed a few shots that we felt needed editing in Adobe After Effects to improve them. Once we had our final cut Gavin, who is experienced in using After Effects, made the changes to these shots.

The shots we wanted to change

Opening Shot

Using the shoulder mount and the quick camera movement resulted in the opening shot being very shaky. Gavin used the 'Stabilise Motion' tool to fix this.

The stabilise motion tool

Nintendo 64 & Tape Shot

Both the track backs of the Nintendo 64 and the pile of tape were shaky, and the floor was dirty with rips in it. Because we shot these shots the same way we were able to fix them in very similar ways. Below is a video of Gavin talking through how he adjusted the Nintendo 64 shot.

We are very happy with the way these shots turned out as they greatly improve the quality of our video.

Grading

Before we started grading we looked at some of our influential music videos to see what was conventional. The two videos we mainly looked at were George Ezra's 'Budapest (Alternative Video)' and Paramore's 'Still Into You' which are below.

George Ezra - Budapest (Alternative Video)

Paramore - Still Into You

We liked the way these videos were graded to make them look very natural but still with a crisp, clean aesthetic. We decided to go for something similar because we liked the way they looked; and, because they are of a similar genre to our video, we felt that it would fit aesthetically.

Once we were happy that we had a final cut of our video, we started to grade using Adobe Premiere Pro. We used the ProcAmp tool and the Three-Way Colour Corrector.

The ProcAmp Tool

Three-Way Colour Corrector Tool

We wanted our grade to look naturalistic but also warm because we felt that this fit with the band's playful and down-to-earth image. To achieve this look in most shots, using the ProcAmp tool, we increased the contrast and saturation to make the image sharper and more colourful. Using the Three-Way Colour Corrector we graded a lot of the shots towards orange and yellow to make them warmer.

Below is a video I made. It shows shots from the beginning of the video before and after grading; The left side is after, the right side is before.

Once our grade is finished, we will add any other details such as titles.

Website Progress

Since our initial design we have made quite significant changes to our website. The basic design and layout is still there but we have changed the background to match the album cover, chosen 3 colours for the posts to be and made the post boxes slightly opaque so that they blend with the background better. Below is a video of Gavin navigating and talking through our current version of the website.

Before we applied these changes to the website, Alice and I drew up flat plans for most of the pages that we wanted to add to the website. These are below:

...

With the whole group in agreement on the flat plans, I started to build the rest of the website using Wix.


Store

Before we started designing the merchandise and the store page, we made a list of all the merchandise that we wanted to include in the store.

Our merch list

We compiled this list while taking influence from indie/acoustic artist Lewis Watson. We included conventional products such as t-shirts, hoodies, posters, physical and digital copies of the album, backpacks and pullovers. 

Lewis Watson's Store Page

We felt that making a vinyl available was something that our target audience would love and it also fit with the band's vintage and indie image.

I am pleased with the progress we are making, however we still have a lot to do. We will finish the homepage, store, sign up, free EP and landing page and edit the photos for our gallery.

Digipack Progress

Because so far we have a final design for our album cover we can now move on to design the other three panels of our digipack.

Our Album Cover so far

Back Cover

First of all, we decided to go back to our research of album back covers in the album influences post. We also looked at some other albums to see what we liked and what the conventions of our genre were.

The main conventions for indie albums we noticed were:

- Minimalist and simple design with sans serif font
- Strong visual similarities between front and back cover
- Institutional information such as record company logo, artist website, barcode and copyright notices

Below are some of the album covers that we looked at


Dan Croll - Sweet Disarray

The 1975 (Self-Titled)

Arctic Monkeys - AM

We decided to follow the conventions of indie album covers as we liked the way they looked and felt they would work well for our own. Alice created a rough design using the texture from the front cover, 10 tracks, a barcode and the positioning of the institutional logos and information. The whole group like the simplicity of it and the way it visually flowed and worked with with the front cover.

Alice's rough design

Inside Panels

Having looked at albums of all genres we found that it was conventional to have a photo of the band or artwork visually similar to the album. Examples of indie albums using this are below:

Arctic Monkeys - AM

Right Panel

The 1975 (Self-Titled)

Left and Right Panels

We looked through all of the photos that we had taken in the studio and I suggested that we use this photos from the music video shoot. We liked it because it connoted the band's playful image, which doesn't come across as much on the front and back covers, and because the pale pink colour didn't clash with the pale blue of the front and back panels.

The photo we chose

Once we had found this photo I began to edit it by removing the dark line between the cyclorama and the floor. However, because we were sharing out roles Alice finished editing the photo. She made the entire background pink, cleaned up the floor and made the band brighter.

The edited image

Once we were happy with the edited image Alice placed it onto the digipack template and, using facebook, we held a group feedback session.

The group feedback session

The next day, after a group feedback session in person, the group decided that we liked the smaller version better because it was more subtle while still being clear what was in the photograph.

Larger version

Smaller version

We will continue to make adjustments until we are entirely happy with our digipack.

Third Cut of the Video

Having made the changes we wanted to to the second cut, we conducted an audience feedback session. The main feedback we got was:

- More MCUs of the band needed during performance.
- Remove the MCUs of Gavin and Alice during the 3D Glasses and popcorn setup
- Have more of the band lipsyncing
- Change the shot at the end as the video feels like it doesn't have an ending.

Below is our third cut of the video in which we have made all of these changes as well as others that we noticed.

We feel that we are getting very close to a final cut. However, there are still some changes that we would like to make such as the beginning cutting too quickly. Once we feel we have a final cut we will then move on to grade our video. 

Second Cut of the Video

As a group, we watched our first cut and made a list of notes of what we wanted to change; We made them in chronological order to make editing them in easier. The main issues were us wanting to replace shots and shots being too long or short.

Our list of notes

Following this we made the changes in the list as well as some others that we hadn't seen initially. Below is our second cut of the video:

We think that this cut is better but there are still some issues such as the confetti section at the end being too slow and needed to be cut at a faster pace.

Website Design: Initial Ideas

Before we drew a flat plan for our website we went back to our influences and looked at other websites to see if there was anything else that we liked. We looked at our Website Influences post and chose the ones that we thought would work for our own website.

We liked the landing page, colour scheme and textured background of the Dog Is Dead website

Dog Is Dead's Landing Page

We liked the strong colour scheme, strong layout and how simple Dan Croll's website was.

Dan Croll's website

We liked the Home Page of The 1975's Website as it laid out the images, videos and news from the band in a way that we really liked. We also liked the way that, on their links page, they had customised social media icons to fit with the aesthetic of the website and the band. 

The 1975's Home Page

The 1975's Links Page

Alice recently found the Rizzle Kicks website which we all really liked as it used the Tumblr Blog style that we wanted to go for.

Rizzle Kick's Website

Having done this research, Alice drew up a flat plan of what our website was roughly going to look like. We tried to clearly connote genre and include conventions of an indie band's website such as social media icons and the band logo. We decided which pages we were going to have by looking at our influential websites, they are shown in the menu bar below the Pilgrim logo. However, we decided not to include the music page as Pilgrim is a debut band so does not have a substantial discography.

Because a large majority of our audience use social media we wanted to make our Homepage a hub for all news and social media updates about Pilgrim, for our audience to interact with. We will have our music video to watch, social media updates from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, music to listen to on Spotify and Soundcloud and music to buy from iTunes and Amazon. This should provide the audience with an interactive, non-linear and immersive experience.

Below is a video that Gavin made of himself navigating a rough version of our website.

It shows the rough layout that we want to go for and how the website will link to social media and incorporate videos and images. The finished website will have a similar aesthetic to Pilgrim's album cover to create a synergistic brand for our artist.

First Cut of the Video

Having finished shooting we were able to produce a first cut of our video. There a obviously a lot of things we want to change as it is only our first draft we will make this changes as we continue editing. Putting a first draft together enabled us to see if our concept worked and that the video flowed, seeing this we feel that it does. Below is our first cut.

When editing we used our animatic as a guide; for some parts we didn't use it as a guide because we felt that the decisions we made in the animatic weren't right. For example, we used wide shots of the band instead of MSs of Gavin and Alice because we felt that it didn't connote Kayvon as the lead enough. Below is a video comparing the animatic to our first cut.

Album Cover Progress

Having looked through all of our publicity shots we decided on nine photos that we thought would work as the album cover's focal image.

Album cover options

Alice and I decided to create a design that fit with our intended colour scheme of blue, white and grey. We decided to use the photo below because we felt it connoted the band's playful image.

Below are the two designs that we created as options for our final album cover. The brown one was based on our initial design and the blue one was the new one that Alice and I designed.

 

Following an audience feedback session of indie music fans (our target audience) we found that

- Most people preferred the blue design.

- The photo didn't make Pilgrim look like a real band.

- The white text was difficult to read.

Taking this feedback into account we created a new design which you can see below. We changed the photograph, added a blue drop shadow and moved the text above the image as we felt that it looked a bit like a calendar when it was below.

We asked the same group of people again; they said that they liked it more than the last one but that the drop shadow looked unprofessional. To resolve this we decided to use something more subtle by adding a texture to the drop shadow.

In Photoshop we added a clipping mask over the drop shadow. Below are the two textures that we liked the most.

Our different texture layers in photoshop

The first texture

The second texture

Having decided on the first texture, we adjusted our design:

So far this is our final design and we can now create the other three panels of the digipak based around the colour scheme and layout that we have used.

Shoot Reflections - Thursday 27th November

This was our final shoot so our aim was to re-shoot any shots we weren't happy with and shoot the last few that we hadn't done. Below is the shot list I created that we used to keep ourselves on track during the shoot.

Our shot list

We were given the whole day in the studio, from 9:30am until 17:45pm. However, some members of the group had lessons during the day so we didn't have as long to shoot. We decided to start with the props and superhero shots. While Gavin and Kayvon were in lessons Alice and I shot the tracking back shots of the Nintendo 64 and pile of VHS Tape.

Kayvon setting up the lights

For the rest of the shoot we did the performance shots. We also re-shot the glidecam performance shots using the shoulder mount because we found that it produced a smoother shot. Below is a short video of some of the footage we shot.

During this week we had decided that we didn't have a wide enough variety of publicity shots so once we had shot all of our footage we took some more with 2 different costumes and multiple setups. Below are some of the photos we took.

Band setup pink backgorund

Green background with instruments

Overall, the shoot went really well. We got everything done that we needed to and even had time to shoot more.