Analysis of existing Digipacks (LIAR Analysis)

Risk Assessment

Deciding on a Logo

Here are my logo variations for my band Infamous:

Most of my font choices have a distinguished, rough brush effect which creates a grungy, urban look. I chose these fonts as they link well to Royal Blood's heavy soundtracks as well have things in common with there logo, as it also appears very hard drawn and rough, despite it being thinner and appearing more creepy. If you look closely you can see that the Royal Blood text consists of black liquid which is spilling, perhaps this links to the bands name including "Blood"

I also included a more geometric font to show some variation of ideas. I did this as indie bands like the Arctic Monkey's also have a bolder, thick font rather than a rough, scratched one. I feel the crossing over of text links to the logo of The Strokes, another indie rock band who's logo has a retro appearance, however I don't think my type is retro but rather more Gothic due to the heavy rhythm of Royal Blood's songs.

Choosing my logo 

To help me choose my favorite type, I printed out a sheet of paper with each of them on, and asked people to tick their favorite. The type with the most ticks I would choose. I chose my audience to tick the logo which they thought best fitted the genre as well as which was their favorite, here are my results: 

It appeared that the font Deathrattle was the most popular, I also agree as it is a rough, gritty font but you can still make out what it says unlike the fourth font down. I will incorporate this type with my digipak when creating my panel designs as well as making my magazine advert. 

 

Draft 1

As you can seen my first draft is the second half of my music video, I filmed the torture scene first as it is the most challenging scene is my music video, due to the various quick shots used and the rhythmic editing of the hits going to the beat of the soundtrack. For this draft I also managed to finish all the animated parts required.

As you can see, I have made little progress on my animation due to me drawing 30 frames a second. To make quicker progress, I will change this to 15 frames a second. I feel this will improve the quality of my animation also because you will be able to see each frame individually whereas on this clip, the drawings seem very blurry. I feel this is because I rendered the video in 25 frames per second but drew 30 per second.

Storyboard Comparison

Here is my story board comparison, towards the beginning of the sequence my drawings and shots are very similar however I start to improvise towards the end as in some positions I block the soft box lighting as well as some of the extras.

Initially I was going to have a long shot of the protagonist sat down with two thugs stood behind him. I quickly changed this as from a distance, the lighting was very low quality and you couldn't see the extras. Another reason why I changed it is because I thought of many other artistic close ups I could use to set the scenes. One of which is the protagonists head faced down all sweaty. I feel the soft-box light is very effective here as it highlights the protagonists dripping hair.

 This shot is very accurate, the only thing that doesn't match the sketch is the weapon as it is a baton, and the lighting as I decided on only including one light because two lights made the scene too bright whereas I wanted the location to look dank.

 I took this shot from a slightly different angle so I could emphasis the hit as well as show the protagonist spitting onto the wall. Another reason is because from this angle, I wasn't in the way of the extras who were controlling the chair from falling over.

The sketch in this panel is very inaccurate as the chair would not lower to the floor in order to include the feet in frame. Therefore I shot the sketch from a high angle with a thug in the background instead of the feet, this depicts the thug higher than the protagonist, implying that he has more power.

 In this shot the protagonist was meant to put on an aggressive performance, however I felt that after being hit, he would act more weak and dazed as this would create a more verisimilitude atmosphere.

 This close up I didn't include due to the timing of the song, I wasn't able to fit it in.

 Due to the limited space in my garage, this shot is taken closer up, I use camera movement when the protagonist gets hit to convey how painful the shots are.

 This shot is the protagonist being thrown down from the kick by the extras, I included this shot to show a match on action. I feel this increases the viciousness of the kick.

Towards the end, the timings and lip syncing was too quick for the actor to say before he got hit, therefore towards the end we had to miss some lines out.

 I was not able to take this shot from behind as I would be in the way of the extras which control the protagonist from falling (This is the same for the next shot / panel)

The shot I used to re-create my sketches was accidental. For health and safety reasons, the protagonist was going to rock the chair and lean against the wall in one shot. Then in the next shot, he would fall. During this process the extras would be fully in control, lowering him down gradually before he hits the floor. However, at the moment of the protagonist rocking to the side, the chair slips due to the water on the floor and the tape that is attaching his legs snaps, sending the chair out of frame and the actor falling on the floor for each shot.

There were no injuries however reflecting on this, next time I will make sure the floor is dry before performing any major or minor stunts.

Torture Scene Finished

Here is my edited torture scene, I am really pleased with the outcome of this scene as I think the makeup preparation really helped make the scene look realistic and gritty. As well as applying the bruising, I also made the side of my actors face look like it was bleeding, I did this by combining fake blood with black paint so it looked darker and more realistic and dirty.

The filming lighting also really helped give the garage a damp, sinister look. I was going to initially use my garage light however they appeared to bright. In preparation for this scene, I also had to clear alot of the everyday objects from out of the shot, just leaving the chair and lighting equipment.

Overall it took roughly 3 hours to shoot this scene, as I had to keep pouring water on my actor to emphasize his sweating. I also had to add more to his injuries as the torture scene progressed.

The next step will be animating the parts of the footage were the hits connect, this will introduce the aspect of animation into my music video. which will building up to the animated fight at the end.

Here is one of the animated hits I have already done:


The hit happens very quick however this happens alot throughout the 30 second clip, I also can't slow the animated clips down else my video will be out of sync.

This is the finshed animated scene:




I would have liked to animated some more parts to make the animation more consistent throughout the scene, however I have spent enough time on this scene and need to move on. When there is time at the end, i will come back to it.

RAW Footage / Directing

Here is a montage of all the RAW footage from my torture scene in order to show you a behind the scenes look on my directing and planning.

Film Schedule

For my First Draft I would like to film the harder scenes first in order to get an idea of how hard it will be, this will also get me prepared for re-filming alot sooner. This means I will be shooting the second half of my music video first, and leaving the building up/intro for later.

I also chose to film the end scenes first as they involve the most animating which I need to start early in order to meet the deadline for the final edit.

Preparing for Scene 6

In scene 6, the protagonist is seen tied to a chair getting beaten up by 3 gang members. I want this scene to be very gritty in order to reflect the song's genre. In order to do this, I will need to prepare the equipment:

Props

In this scene I would like to follow the conventions of a torture scene shown ion many movies (Kick-Ass, Reservoir Dogs, Casino Royale)

As you can see all these scenes are shot in low lighting, in ran down locations. I am going to use the idea from Reservoir Dogs to use my garage, as that also has chains and flickery lights (seen in Casino Royal) which provides a very gritty environment:

Like in Kick-Ass I am also going to include my own lights which will be set up behind the protagonist. I also want two thugs standing with the protagonist.

I would like the men behind the protagonists to be wearing balaclava's and the man with the baseball bat to show his face, this is because I want the audience to recognize the character.

As a torture weapon, I want to be as iconic as possible so I will use a baseball or cricket bat.

The key for making for making a successful torture scene is the make-up so the wounds look realistic. Here are some video's I have used in order to prepare for re-creating bruises and cuts.






In these video's the experts say bruising is the easiest thing to replicate so that will be most of the wounds my protagonist will have. However I would like to include the odd blood drip which I have included in my animation. To recreate my bruising, I will be using various brushes, make up and face paint.

Here are some few trials I have made:

 Another thing I have noticed for the torture scenes is that when the protagonist is hit, he occasionally spits a liquid out of his mouth that appears to be blood. I will also be creating a drink that gives the same effect.

Casting, Mise-en-scene, Props, Location, Costumes, Cast List

Cast List

William Cross  - Protagonist
Charlie Moore - Animated Antagonist, Gang leader
Tim Parker - Thug 1
Javen Thompson - Thug 2
Sophie Ambros - Girl protagonist sleeps with
Will Marshall - Singer of Band

Extras will also be used that will include the actors above as well as others. There will roughly be 4 extras.

Narrative

Mise-En-Scene

Scene 1 - Protagonist Waking Up 

Costume

Will Cross - Black Denim Jacket, Black Skinny Jeans, Black Vans, White T-shirt.

Charlie Moore - Dressed all black.

Location - Car Park - Beverley

 

Scene 2 - Protagonist Walking Home 

Will Cross - Same costume

Location - Park Avenue Beverley

Scene 3 - Protagonist teleports to town centre 

Will Cross - Same Clothing

Extras - Casual Clothing, Jeans, Jackets

Location - Beverley Town

Props - Beer Bottles





Scene 4 - Protagonist Wakes Up in Bedroom 

Will Cross - Same Clothing

Sophie Ambros - Revealing, provocative clothing, a dress,

Charlie Moore - All black, lower class stereotype clothing, hoodie.

Javen Thompson and Tim Parker - All black, jeans, jackets, lower class clothing (they act as extras in this scene)

Location - My bedroom or Friends Bedroom


Scene 5 - Protagonist walking down a street, gets chased down an alley

Will Cross - Same Clothing

Javen and Tim Parker - Same clothing as previous scene

Location - Flemmingate Development and side alley - Beverley

(A good location as it is usually empty)

Scene 7 - Torture Scene


Will Cross - Same Clothing, bloody, bruised face (make up)

Charlie Moore - Same clothing, with cricket or baseball bat

Javen Thompson and Tim Parker - Stood in the background in same clothing.

Props - Rope, Chair, Cricket or Baseball Bat.

Location - My garage.



Scene 8 - Final animated fight 

Will Cross - Same Clothing

Charlie Moore - doesn't matter for clothing as he is animated.

Location - Ran Down Car Park Beverley

Performance

Location - Green Room

Props - Red Lighting, Guitar, Microphone with stand, drumset  

Costume - Casual / Retro Clothing, Vans, Black Jeans, Souvenir Jacket and white T-shirt

Here are some lighting tests to show how the scene should roughly look.

Drawing Process

This is how to start actually animating the frames you have exported, firstly to make it an easier and quicker process, you will need a graphics tablet. I use a Wacom Intuos Pro (Medium)

This allows me to draw the frames like I would on a piece of paper. Whenever the stylus of the tablet touches the surface, a mark will appear on Photoshop (Software we will be using to draw my frames)

Next I will show you how to set up Photoshop in order to be ready to draw your frames. 

Firstly, you need to go to File, Open, then select your first frame: 

Once you have opened your first frame, you need to check its size / resolution by going to Image, Image Size.

The image size depends on how pixelated of a line you will have when you draw, for example if I draw at the current size of 1920 by 1080, my line appears like this: 

As you can see, the quality of line is very bad, you have to increase the image resolution, preferably not too big as you don't want a huge file size, I am going to put the resolution at 600, this will change the size of the image also. 

Next you want to duplicate your layer with the picture of the frame on. 

Then fill in the original frame layer in whatever background colour you want, in my case it is black. You do this by going to Edit, Fill. 

Then create a layer above the Frame Copy, this will be the layer you are going to draw on. 

By drawing on a separate layer, you aren't damaging the original picture. It is like using tracing paper. 

You then start to trace round the picture on the Drawing layer.