WEBSITE

So the myspace website is almost done. I'm still debating between a few images that I've put up. For example, the main image as soon as you open up the myspace could be either:

                                                                           OR

On the myspace slideshow I have put up photos of Loren and I during the shoot and also of us at partys to make it look as if we have reached our life long ambition of being famous dancers. The behind the scene photos allows the audience to engage with the artist and feel as if they personally know them. In the Pussycat Dolls official website, there are youtube clips of them behind the scenes. This gives a similar impact , as their target audience feels as if they feel special about knowing what goes on behind the scenes.  Here is a youtube clip featured on their website:

Reshoot

After watching back our footage from the dance studio we realised that it was not as good a standard as the other footage due to it being grainy and the mise-en-scene being cluttered. Therefore we felt it was letting the overall video down. This is why we decided to do a last minute re-shoot to see whether we could get better shots and therefore make our video look of a lot higher standard. We booked the dance studio again for 3 hours and decided to do as much reshooting as we could in this time.
In order for the cluttered mise-en-scene to be less noticeable we decided to put the camera at an angle and make us dance towards the mirror than towards the camera. That way we were shooting against a white wall instead of a wall with a piano and fire extinguisher etc. This made it look much more professional and also made the mirror shots more in context as it looked as if it was shot at the same time but from a different angle.
To make sure our beauty shots were no longer grainy we took a pag light along with us to the shoot. It allowed us to have a direct beam of light on us throughout the shot allowing the camera to focus better. When watching back these shots we noticed that it looked of a much higher quality and clearer due to the pag lights and therefore were very happy we made the desicion to reshoot them.
Overall i feel our reshoot was very productive and we achieved everything we wanted to.

Blackborow feedback

We have almost come to the end of our editing and have started getting feedback.  Here is some of the main issues with our music video.
- Mise en scene is a bit cluttered - this would look good if we are just doing dance rehearsals but not if its meant to be a studio where auditions are taking place.
- Crop the solo shots so that the framing is tighter
- Have a shot of Nisha spinning instead of simply walking past the window to make her the focus of the shot.
- Try replacing the wide dancing shots with in the mirror shots as the mirror shots look much more proffessional.
- Add effects, perhaps colour changes to the dance scenes to make it different from the rest of the music video.
- An idea is ending with a glamourous shot of Loren and Nisha to make it look like we have made it 'to the top'
- Change a shot of Lorens lipsynching to make it look more realistic.

The good parts!
- The seperate solo shots are the best shots of us
- The tight montage sequences in the beginning are really well edited to the bed and look very professional and glossy.
- The editing is unpredicatable, keeping the audience engaged throughout.
- Close up and hand held shots are the best shots in the dance sequence (try using as much of them as possible)

Website and Album Cover

As well as having to edit our music video, we also have to think about the website and album cover at the same time. As Nisha and I are only a two person group we are at a disadvantage to the others as we do not have enough people to delegate the jobs between us. After speaking about it to Nisha we have decided the more effective way to go about this would be to have me planning the website and her planning the album cover over this week. Then we will come together to show each other what we have come up with, give each other feedback and finalise our ideas. I will then begin on the website and she will begin on the album cover and once we have started it, we will each make changes or additions to each element.
This way we have delegated the jobs but yet are still putting our each individual ideas into each aspect of the project.

EDITINGGG

At the moment we are trying to complete our editing for our music video. We have been editing non-stop really from the moment we finished shooting our beauty shots.
We have been experimenting with different effects and different paces and have decided on a few final things:

1. After watching our beauty shots back on the screen, we thought in order to make it look distinctive from the other footage we would put it in black and white. Also our silohetted shots looked a lot better in black and white.
2. At first we cut up the performance with random shots of New York, however after listening to the song more closely we thought it may look more effective to have montages to the beat. After trying this out we felt this idea was very effective within the video as it gave it some pace.
3. We thought that the moments where they were getting ready for the dance scene should be fast edited in order to give it pace to make the audience know the music video is leading up to something and in order to give it a climax.

Although these are the only final ideas made we are still experimenting a lot with our footage and we will keep the blog up to date with any other desicions we make on the overall look of our music video.

DANCE SHOOT

Yesterday was our second shoot in the dance studio. It was probably the best shoot yet as we were very prepared and kept to our schedule. Although we had organised to wear dancer hoodies in the shoot in the shoot, after testing it out we decided it looked much more professional and effective without our hoodies as we had matching black vest tops underneath. Furthermore, the lighting wasnt the best in the dance studio, however we were lucky the sun came out!
We've now finished around 85% of our shooting and have started editing the footage we have. The only shots left now are those with the judges.

Shooting...

We just got back from New York and have all of our new york footage. We got a lot of the planned shots but also many more as there were so many good shooting opportunities. We aimed to make the footage make the most out of the City and i think that is what we did, shooting as many sites as we could all the time. Tomorrow we are planning to shoot our dance routine scene and hopefully this will go as well as the New York shooting :) We were perfecting our dance today and now i am looking forward to it.