This week was all about preparing for our upcoming shoot on saturday. We prepped our confetti, brought in costumes for approval and made decisions about the album cover and publicity shots.
This week's agenda
Publicity Shots
Having scheduled our publicity shots to be taken during our studio session on Wednesday 12th November we started planning the specifics. We decided on:
- LS, MS and MCU shots
- Direct and indirect address
- No props
- Plain background (white or colours)
- 2 costume changes, one for promo shots and one for the album cover.
- Specific costumes
Our notes on publicity shots
Poses
When deciding on our poses we looked at our research and thought about ones that would suit that band's image, our initial ideas are:
- The lead singer in the front middle with the other two members either side.
- The lead and the bassist in front with the drummer at the back.
- All standing the same distance from the camera but with the lead doing something that makes him stand out.
- Shots of the band messing around and having a laugh.
To provide variety and to differentiate between different setups we decided to have 3 different costumes, one each for performance, props and the superhero setups. Gauntlett's fluid identity theory states that in order to engage an audience artists need to have variations on their identity in their music videos, Pligrim's multiple costumes helps towards this by providing variety.
Research
Before we decided on the costumes we researched the styling and dress of similar artists for inspiration.
Kayvon & Gavin
For Kayvon & Gavin we looked at the style of artists such as George Ezra, Dan Croll, Bombay Bicycle Club, Lewis Watson and The 1975. Although we wanted them to look visually, similar Kayvon had to stand out as he is the lead. To connote this we decided that Kayvon would always be more dressed up than Gavin so he stood out more.
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Kayvon & Gavin's costume influences
Alice
Alice's costume inspirations were Kristen Stewart, Alexa Chung, Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldana. We liked their relaxed, tomboy style and felt it would suit Alice well. We didn't wanted Alice's character to be too girly as it would clash with Kayvon & Gavin's image.
Alice's Costume Influences
Final Costumes
Having done this research we made final decisions on costume based on what Alice, Gavin and Kayvon owned.
Performance
The band in performance costumes
We decided that this would be the most dressed up setup, as a result they are all wearing button-up shirts. However, each band member is wearing theirs differently; Kayvon has his done all the way up, Gavin has his top button undone and Alice is wearing hers open over a crop top.
Props
The band in props costumes
As this setup is intended to connote the band's playful image, it is very casual. Being the lead, Kayvon is still the most dressed up in a t-shirt with an open button-up shirt over the top. Alice is much more dressed down in a jumper and jeans; as is Gavin in a t-shirt and jeans. Their outfits are much more suitable for this setup where they are playing and messing about with props.
Superhero
Because superheroes were a part of almost everyone's childhood, we decided that dressing the band up in superhero costumes would fit in with the video's theme of nostalgia. We had access to three costumes: Superman, Batman and The Green Lantern, which were worn by Kayvon, Gavin and Alice in succession.
Publicity Shots
This set of publicity shots was intended to connote Pilgrim as a cool, indie band. The colour scheme of grey, white and black against a light grey background give the images a sleek feel. Choosing from the clothes that the group had brought in, I wanted them to be dressed up but with casual elements.
The feel of these shots is a lot more casual as the band are dressed in t-shirts rather than shirts; and trainers as opposed to leather converse and boots. This setup connotes the band's playful image which we have heavily emphasised in the music video, creating synergy between the photos on the website and the video.
This shoot combined the cool and playful aspects of the band's image. Lighter colours as well as a bright white background made it playful whereas the button-up shirts and serious poses made it cooler. I feel that this is the costume that best represents Pilgrim's image.
Hair & Make-Up
During our make-up & hair meeting with Olivia we discussed how indie artists tend to style their hair & make-up. Looking at artists such as Dog Is Dead, George Ezra and Dan Croll; we found that they tend to keep their hair looking natural and not too stylised. We felt that this would apply well to Gavin, Kayvon and Alice. However, Alice will be slightly more styled as we felt that it suited her character.
Dan Croll
George Ezra
Kayvon & Gavin
To stay with the natural look, Olivia suggested leaving Gavin and Kayvon's hair as it was and just to apply a little bit of hairspray to keep stray hairs down.
For their make-up we applied foundation to give the skin a smooth, flawless look. As Gavin has a fair hair colour we applied a light brown colour to his eyelashes and eyebrows so that they would not look washed out.
Alice
To fit with the aesthetic of the band we also kept Alice's hair natural. However, because her hair is naturally quite curly she straightened it a bit to make it look a little styled and longer.
For Alice's make-up we took influence from Hayley Williams from Paramore as she was one of Alice's character influences. Alice wore foundation to smooth the skin, a darker brown colour on her eyebrows and mascara, eye shadow and winged eyeliner to make her eyes stand out.
Once we had been allocated our studio sessions, I set about creating first a call sheet and then a shoot schedule for us to use on set and when preparing for shoots.
I decided to start with the call sheet as it gave us the exact times our group members were available to shoot. Our cast and crew is made up entirely of our group so I listed only our names and we are shooting in the Seward Studio in school. When writing up health and safety I thought about what risks there were based on our experiences in the Prelim exercise.
Page 1 of the Call Sheet
Page 2
With our Call Sheet complete I was then able to create the shoot schedule. Using the shoot board, which has all of our shots on it, I scheduled what shots we were going to get in each shoot. Our shots are numbered but I also included a worded summary for us to use as a quick reference on set. I have not scheduled all of our available studio sessions as we are expecting to need to re-shoot some shots.
Because the studio has to be shared between five production groups we have been allocated shooting sessions in the studio. Because our group do not have matching free periods we have been given two Saturday slots in order to get the bulk of our shooting done. In total we have 7 slots in the studio. Our shoot times are highlighted in blue and the letters on them tell us how available the group is. 'A' means that everyone in the group is available to shoot, 'P' means that only part of the group are free as other have lessons during that time.
The members of our band 'Pilgrim' are all in our group, this is because we though that it would work the best on screen and it would make scheduling easier. Our band members are:
Kayvon Nabijou
Kayvon is the lead singer and guitarist of Pilgrim. We cast him in this role as he was Matt Healy, lead singer and guitarist of The 1975, in the prelim exercise 'Girls' music video re-make. You can see part of his performance in the video below. Kayvon has had experience doing a lot of lip syncing and can also play the guitar which makes him perfect as the lead, as well as his great on-screen presence.
The lead singer's character is cool, confident, stylish and modest as well as being the leader of the group.
Alice Cahill
Alice is the bassist of Pilgrim. We cast Alice as she has on-screen experience and we wanted to break conventions of the indie genre by having a female bassist. We felt this would give our band a wider reach as she will be aspirational for our female audience.
The bassist's character is quirky, cool, aspirational and a tomboy.
Gavin Fraser
Gavin is the drummer of Pilgrim. The drummer's character is relaxed, funny and a joker we felt that these characteristic's fit well with Gavin's personality. Gavin can also play the drums which means his playing will look genuine on camera. He was also a drummer in the prelim exercise 'Girls' remake.
After we had made our decisions I wrote up a cast list for us to use while we're shooting.
Having drawn up some basic flat plans, we decided to start working in Photoshop straight away as we felt it was an easier way to convey our ideas.
Our initial flat plans
Alice had the idea of incorporating textures into the album design so we searched for textures that we liked. Some of them are below.
We decided to use the publicity shots from our research in the mock-ups. At first we just experimented with textures not text. Below are the designs Alice made using the Daughter publicity shot. The first two designs are my favourite as I like the way the texture is incorporated into the photo. I like the texture of the last one.
Liking the idea of textures, we experimented with a completely new one that felt very different to our initial ones, the results are below. I feel the first two work the best as the texture is very striking and works well with the overall design. I think that the photo in the last one is too wide to work as well with the texture. We liked these designs but decided not to go forward with them as they were more suited to the pop-punk and punk-rock genre rather than indie.
Alongside the designs that Alice made Gavin also did his own designs. He used a different publicity shot and font, experimenting with a different layout and textures.
Kayvon also created some initial designs using a different publicity shot of Metronomy. I love the cut-out effect of the text and the way the colour matches the band's jackets.
Having three lots of designs, we were then able to move on to create more designs that the whole group were happy with. Alice created more designs using publicity shots with white backgrounds as we plan to have this in our own shots.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Designs 1, 2, 6 and 7 are my favourite as I like the simplicity of them and the way they fit well with Pilgrim's image. The effect of the light behind the text in no. 7 is particularly visually striking. When we were reviewing these designs as a group Gavin realised that the logo was very similar to that of the band Muse. We decided to changed our logo design.
Muse's Logo
Following this group feedback session Alice, Gavin and I designed a new cover with a new logo. We used the Clean Bandit publicity shot because we felt that it had the same playfulness as Pilgrim. When designing we used two paper textures, added contrast to the image and used a clipping mask on the text.
We liked this design but we felt that it was a bit 2D so Gavin and Alice worked on the design and made changes to it. They added a black shadow to the text which did make it more 3D but we felt that it didn't fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the cover. To fix this a clipping mask was used on the drop shadow so the background texture came through, we all liked this effect.
