Construction Post 6: Website Post Production

Click on the landing page below to access our website.

The landing page of the website for Layla Obi

Neither Wix nor Photoshop were software I was accustomed to using before this music video project. For creation of our artist's merchandise I was using Photoshop to take a photo of a plain item of clothing, such as a light, blue long sleeve t-shirt and then using the Amarillo font from the website 'Dafont' importing the font into the student font manager to include our 'Layla Obi' iconic font onto the clothing. As well as this I used the clone stamp tool on photoshop, which at this point I was used to using from the editing of the album cover, to take the label out of sight from the back of the shirt.

One example of a blue t shirt from the created Layla Obi merchandise

Wix was easier than I thought it would be to use. There were button features to be imported and edited simply, as if you were editing on simple Microsoft Office software. These buttons linked to the conventional pages on the website, such as the Gallery, Merchandise and Music page. 

There was a lot of personal information about the artist on the website as well that fans could interact with, i.e. one could buy merchandise on the merchandise page, order tickets from the 'Tour Dates' page, join the mailing list for more artist news and information, interact with social media buttons, listen and watch the new single for 'Blue Lights', scroll through the artist's Q&A leading to the website for the full interview at 'Love Magazine', buy the new album, scroll through photos of the artist on the 'Gallery page' and watch a 15 second short video with the artist addressing her fanbase. 

I am pleased with the website, as it managed to successfully fulfil the conventions of artist's websites, which we did take inspiration from, e.g. the video aesthetic of Izzy Bizu's website. As well as that there is clear artist branding that stays consistent throughout as well as a simple easy to use layout, interactivity for fans and successful social networking page links that were available for any user of the site to reach.

Construction Post 5: Digipak Post Production

The photo we decided on for our digipak front cover

On our trip to Shoreditch for our promo shooting for the front cover of the album, we went to one of the locations we used for our music video male narrative. The spot had very vibrant graffiti that I knew would look stunning and hold the London aesthetic we wanted for Layla Obi to appeal to her target audience. On my iPhone 7, I took a photo of Layla Obi jumping in the air on the pavement wearing a jacket I had brought that I thought would also hold the streetwear look that would also appeal to our fashionable teenage audience. I also took another photo from this promo shot of the graffiti of the surrounding wall, as I knew we would need this for the filling of the silhouette graffiti back cover I had envisioned.

The Digipak Back and Front Cover

I felt the NOVA font style I chose for the 'London Colour' album name I came up with looked eye-catching and the name of the album matched the London graffiti aesthetic of the album itself. The edited saturation and the contrast of the photo beautified the image, and the front cover itself looked just as clean as it did visually striking.

The London Colour Album Cover

I realised the album cover itself was not fully centred on both sides and so I changed this by grouping all the layers on the covers together and shifting them over until they were all centred. I realised the sizing of the letters for both the name of the artist and the album name were too small and so I used the Polygonol tool to create a layered interaction between the two names with a the 'y' from the artist's name looping through an 'o' from 'London Colour' while the other letters from 'Layla Obi' go behind the album name. The increase of sizing of the names certainly made the front cover more conventional.

The Finished London Colour Album Cover

On Photoshop, I used the clone stamp tool to take graffiti from a separate image I had taken to put underneath the silhouette layer of Layla Obi jumping. Then manipulated the brush size in order to make separate parts of graffiti myself that I liked and thought could flow together. I used the tool to put in the same distance between the lines on the wall, which was an arduous task, but I was happy with how the silhouette turned out inside the track names I thought of on either side of it.

The Photoshop Clone Stamp

The Polygonal tool

The brush size editing box for copying specific graffiti into the silhouette

Upon creation of the inside cover, the group realised the initial idea for the left panel of the inside looked very effective and so translated the same intimate, doodling aesthetic showing the personality of Layla Obi on the other inside panel instead of a simple candid photo of the artist to fill the space. I think this decision was a smart one and I love the idea of opening the album to find more of an intimate design showing the personality of the artist on the inside.

The Finished Inside Cover

My first idea to implement this doodling idea from the Erykah Badu 'Worldwide Underground' album I drew inspiration from, was to download a handwritten font to then use on Photoshop, but I decided in order to fit in more of the artists little sketch doodles and make the writing look more legitimate, the better idea would be to scan the doodles then make each word a separate layer to be put on a white backdrop around the shots of Layla Obi taken from the promo shooting in the Media department.

Me Editing the Digipak on Photoshop

Construction Post 4: Music Video Post Production

Me editing the music video on Adobe Premier Pro

During the editing of the music video, we were able to gain advice from teachers as well as fellow people in our target audience. The constructive criticism allowed us to see what worked well from the editing of our location and studio shots and what didn't, e.g. our teacher told us that the fairy lights shots were effective at building atmosphere, so we decided to edit together a whole host of fairy lights shots from the studio shooting. As well as that we were told that our initial entry to the dream sequence in the male narrative was not clear enough and that we should pay greater attention to trying to disorientate the audience. This I feel we achieved in our editing of the music video, as we created a great variety of different shot types of Andy in a variety of graffiti environments and foreshadowed the ending of the dream at the start of the dream to add to the experimental, disorientating affect of the graffiti shots.

The pacey, disorientating start to the dream sequence

Unlike yesteryear, the role of the three-wheel colour corrector was not as prominent in the process of colour grading. Instead the colour contrast, saturation and brightness from ProcAmp were the fundamental tools that we were editing for the music video in order to create more vibrancy in the graffiti surroundings in the male narrative yet still retain the same level of skin colour and making the character look and seem as natural and unedited as possible. One of the issues, therefore was editing these qualities without making Andy's skin have a taint of orange colour to it.

Brightness and Contrast tool on Adobe Premier Pro

The ungraded first shot in the dream sequence

The graded first shot in the dream sequence

A running shot without grading

A running shot with grading

One of the obstacles that had to be overcome in the creation of the music video, was cutting down the length of our edit to three minutes. I was able to analyse the wavelength of the song in order to make the cutting out of the last long chorus verse seamless. In hindsight, I feel the cutting of the music video could have been a blessing in disguise, as our original video length of three minutes and forty seconds did seem too long winded.

The original 3 minutes 40 seconds timeline

The newly cut down 3 minutes timeline

When cutting down the length of the music video, I used the razor tool for the track audio itself fine cutting the track to delete the 40 seconds we didn't need and merging the two seamless joints of the track that could flow together.

The Razor Tool

The only real difficulty with cutting down the track was the editing together of the planned panning shot linking the male narrative with the studio footage without showing Layla Obi miming any words on camera. In order to do this I cut the original length of the shot of Layla Obi pushing the camera to the side with the Mark In and Out tools.

Mark In Tool

Mark Out Tool

Then I went on to Adobe Photoshop to create a similar background to the red lighting of the studio shots for the next mid shot of Layla Obi and put that image onto Adobe Premier Pro and manipulated the motion tools let the image dissolve before the red mid shot of Layla Obi, so that there was no black gap between the actual pan of Andy in the male narrative and the panning effect created by the red mid shot of Layla Obi. Obviously, I then had to make sure that all pans were at a similar pace. This is an example of the combinations of different tools and knowledge for problem solving whilst editing. The panning shots I created can be seen below.

The panning link between narratives

Below is our finished music video edit.

Construction Post 3: Week 3 Production

This week we were able to make a start editing and looking over our studio shots. Then we began doing our location filming.

Before starting our location shooting, it was important for us to look over the shots we had done from the Seward Studio shooting. Therefore, we could create a stable base for our studio editing that we could then add to with our location shots. This helped greatly, as we could stick to our timeline and make the whole editing process go more quickly, so that when we had our location shots, we could simply put them in and finish the music video.

An example of some of the studio shots we edited together

It was initially a challenge getting my friend Andy to arrive on time. After finally finding a date where everyone would meet at Shoreditch High Street, Andy was not answering his phone and so I was forced to phone his mum, whose number I thankfully had on my phone. Andy did eventually turn up late and was apologetic at this point, however, by this point the group knew we would have to do more shooting on Sunday as well in order to make up for lost time. We, therefore, spent most part of the weekend doing filming in Shoreditch and I made sure Andy would not commit the same crimes against punctuality on two occasions.

One of the running shots we filmed in Shoreditch

We learnt a lot from the test shoot about filming on location. Firstly, we knew we needed a greater variety of running shots, so in the shootboard process, we devised more handheld running shots from different angles. This involved mainly me holding the camera on a tripod and running backwards in front of Andy from multiples with the framing changing to the different shots we devised. The shots above our some of my favourite in the running sequence. We were luckily given the opportunity to film Andy running in front of two policemen in a very vibrant area of graffiti with a train running past. The train and graffiti were two of the visual motifs in the music video that successfully connoted the urban, London aesthetic. It was an example of the more interesting variety of shots we completed in the main location shoot rather than the simple shots we created in the test shooting.

Naturally, I felt guilty for Andy arriving late for the first day of shooting and so took it upon myself to pay for a hot drink for the other two members of my team. Then on Sunday I felt it needed that I should pay for Andy's lunch meal as well as his travelling money, seeing that he was sacrificing his time for my media project. 

Due to the changing winter period, we found that we needed to be as efficient with time as possible in order to not fall into the trap of shooting all our footage in darkness, which began around four. The only shots we knew we could suit in darkness were the last shots in the narrative of Andy being shot by a shadow in the dream sequence and looking behind himself scared that someone was following.

Louis' part in the filming

As well as being lucky with the inclusion of policemen in our footage. A friend of mine and Andy's called Louis said that he would be able to act in part of the filming, knocking into Andy and judging him as he went past. Having Louis on camera, looked far more intimidating than I did in the test shoot, which was what we wanted the character to look like on camera, so as to show more of the terrified mentality of the character Andy was playing in the male narrative.

I feel that this week may perhaps have been the most crucial week of construction in the project, as in this week we started editing together our studio clips into a comprehensive bed for editing and started planning the location filming shots to work chronologically with our studio footage. This ultimately, therefore was where we worked out what was succesful from our studio shooting and then working tirelessly on our location shooting. 

Construction Post 2: Week 2 Production

This is the week we did shooting in the Seward Studio for our music video. Unfortunately our group had to adapt to some broken lighting in the studio, but this process was not impossible. It was a long difficult week of filming, where we had to overcome some technical challenges as well as giving in as much time, effort and enthusiasm into making the process as efficient and professional as possible.

Main Shoot Timetable

Here is our main shoot schedule. The different colours represent our different set ups and the yellow colours is when we were not filming.

Monday

Behind the Scenes Footage

The Intertextual Mobb Deep reference Projection

We decided to begin the week with our projection set-up. This was one of the more challenging set ups to prepare, but we had learnt from the test shoot of how to effectively position the projector behind the camera, so as to fully cover the space over and behind Layla Obi for the shots. All Studio lights had to be turned off, so as to allow for the most effective exposure from the projector itself on set. We decided to mix up the shots we were using by also utilising the dolly on set for more interesting mid and close up shots of Layla Obi on the projector. As well as this, we experimented with long shots that could emphasise the shadow of Layla Obi on the projection behind her.

Tuesday

We started afresh with the strobe light set up on Tuesday. With the use of the dolly we were able to do very interesting shot varieties with some shots of Layla Obi sitting on the stool as well as ones with her standing up. I felt pleased with how the shots played back from the dolly and I felt the success of these shots compared to the boring shot types we used for our test shoot would be one of the key factors to show how the quality of the music video drastically improved from the test shoot to the main shoot.

Strobe lighting dolly shot

Wednesday

On Wednesday we had both the Fairy lights set up as well as the Microphone red and blue flashing lights set up. Focus pulls for the fairy lights with Layla Obi dancing built a great atmosphere. On the dolly I did some walking shots of Layla Obi underneath the fairy lights in order to add to the variety of shots building atmosphere and this type of shot improvisation as well as following our storyboard allowed us to build a healthy variety with our different shot types. As well as filming under fairy lights, I was very pleased with our red and blue flashing lights set up. We filmed a lot of powerful dolly shots as well as stool mid shots of Layla Obi. It was during this time that there was a sudden spark of improvisation of Layla Obi to push the camera to the side on the dolly, as we thought this could dissolve well into a pan of Andy in the male narrative in order to establish more of a connection between both locations in the music video.

Fairy Lights atmosphere being built

Thursday

On Thursday we did the stool set up, involving our different red and blue lighting utilising the lighting to have a siren-like aesthetic. However, by this time in the week, we did face lighting issues with a lot of lights being stuck between red and blue, and therefore not working. Therefore, we had to adapt our formation of our coloured lights in order to light Layla Obi's face as well as making sure the background was lit for our colour variation. We did manage to get some good shots, however despite the lighting trouble, especially ones we had of the sign language. I also made sure to come in to the studio whenever possible to set up again for the strobe lighting, as we did feel that we could film some more under this set up and by this time setting up for filming became a quick process due to our knowledge of what each set up entailed.

Some of the red and blue flashing light footage

Friday

On the last day of the week, we simply did a plain lighting set up for red and blue lighting. On this day, we did not have many plain lighting shots left to do, but we did perform the set up for the shot with Layla Obi with blood on her hands, which was a shot we wanted to redo, as in the original shooting, there was no fake blood on Layla Obi's hands and we thought that strong imagery would be very effective for blending between the studio and the narrative filming. This involved positioning sheets of paper towel on the floor underneath her hands, so that the floor could not be tarnished for the other groups to use.

The blood on hands plain lighting shot

The week was an enormous learning curve for me, as I learnt about dealing under pressure with direction on set. I had to ignore any negative impediments that may have held the group back and work positively in improving the quality of the shots that we were to gain. By the end of the week, I felt that we were successful in achieving the high quality shots we had planned in pre-production that were voyeuristic, powerful and held variety with different shot types being used.

Construction Post 1: Week 1 Production

Before our allotted time to film in the Seward Studio, our first week of production was all about making sure everything was set for the creation of the album, shooting in the Seward Studio, shooting outside of school, taking the promo shots, and planning the website.

One of the other process completed in this week was making sure we had permission for useing props and equipment for use in next weeks shooting in the Seward Studio. The props included a laptop, candle, projector, fake blood, stool, microphone on a stand, and a strobe light. Specifically the candle shot with a media technician lighting the candle supervising the use of fire and finding fake blood were the two priorities that differed from what we required for the test shoot.

Fundamentally the group looked through our test shoot for the music video, noting what worked well and what did not. We therefore brainstormed from our teacher feedback that we needed to have a greater variety of shots that weren't structured around the completion of each line in the verses of the song. After hearing that the teachers did not like the boring long shot introduction to the male narrative, I thought the best idea would be to have a hand held mid shot from a side profile of Andy to facing round him straight on, walking towards the tube stop. This shot was a variety of the different shots from the male narrative that were being drawn in the first week. Jerom and I assembled a storyboard for the male narrative, which I later converted into a shootboard for reference and structure for the location shooting.

The original unsuccessful establishing shot of Andy

One of the criticisms we had from the studio shooting was that the projection on Layla Obi blocked out her face. Therefore, we took initiative and realised that the projection video itself had to be reconstructed. I then went to edit the projection video I had created with more shots that were of a lighter balance still keeping with the same thematic idea of police brutality. Therefore, we could use the projection on top of Layla Obi as she is performing without the fear that she may have her face out of sight from the audience with dark imagery from the projection.

Projection that was too dark

After completing the new shootboard we needed for the next two weeks of construction, the group then started to think about the album itself. I created a list of song names that we could use for the album as well as coming up with the name London Colour. Each song name was aiming to be conventional with other artist's as well as keeping with the identity of Layla Obi's character with the connotations the song suggests, e.g. the name 'City Boy' would be talking about experiences with a Londoner, whom the artist found romance with and the name 'Fix Him' suggests that the artist may be going through hardship in a relationship, where there is much difficulty on helping the relationship move forward. This song name is similar to similar London female artists such as Rebecca Ferguson, who made the song name 'Too Good To Lose' or Adelle's 'He Won't Go'.