Thursday, 7 June 2007
Wednesday, 6 June 2007
The music video shoot
On the 30th May we did some shots for the music video, again the studio was not available so I decided to shoot it at my house. By this time I had 50 seconds of a track to use that my brother had produced for me in just one day! (the person I was relying on for the track backed out at the last minute). I had already planned out the music video so I new exactly what shots I wanted. I planned to use after effects to try and make the video look more professional. I styled the girls and did their makeup then directed them whilst they performed in front of the camera, again they performed really well, I was so pleased with the result.
I am currently editing the video and am planning to create a small city in after after effect and have the live footage playing on the billboards within the city. The style of the video will look similar to the image above.
I'm planning to put the music video up in about a months time, I want to see how much interest we get just from our myspace page and website which only contain images of the band, no music.
Designing the website and writing the bio
I started by looking at lots of other girl band's websites and also looked at lots of pages on myspace. Reading the blurbs about the bands on their sites all seemed to merge into one, it was like reading the same thing over and over again. I decided to cut and paste different parts of different blurbs into one to create Diamante's blurb. The rest I just made up, I decided to sell us as an international girl band as each of us were born in different parts of the world, I think this would have been played on if we were a real girl band.
I did rush the design of the Diamante website as I wanted to upload it as soon as possible. I kept it very simple and only used black and white as wanted more attention to be payed to the images, as I had seen on other girl band sites.
I made an About Us page, a News page, Diamante Fashion page were you could order a Diamante fashion catalogue were you could buy exclusive Diamante t-shirts. I also made a gallery and contact page. I completed the site in two days, this did not include the time to photoshop the images.
Jame N had some free space on his site and said that I could use it, I decide to call our record label Obstacle3music in case anyone got confused by the web address or sussed out that we were fake.
I also created a myspace page were I have only used images of the band, there's no music on it, I thought that this would be a good way to see if the industry is all about looks, I wanted to see how much interest we would get without any music.
The shoot at university
At Chelsea we're lucky to have some really beautiful buildings. on the 29th May I decided to do another shoot there to make it look we have done shoots for different publications.
Seeking advice from the professionals
I managed to speak to a top producer Fayyaz Virji who has worked with many big names in the industry (Google him) and is currently playing in Jules Holland's rhythm and blues orchestra.
I asked for some advice on carrying out this project in terms of producing a track, he said he would help with producing one.
I also asked him about the music industry and does he think that the point that I'm trying to prove is true, he completely agreed with the project and commented that the industry is very fickle. Hearing this from someone who has been in the industry for so long and is so respected in his field, I found myself even more determined to push the project and to prove the point.
I asked for some advice on carrying out this project in terms of producing a track, he said he would help with producing one.
I also asked him about the music industry and does he think that the point that I'm trying to prove is true, he completely agreed with the project and commented that the industry is very fickle. Hearing this from someone who has been in the industry for so long and is so respected in his field, I found myself even more determined to push the project and to prove the point.
Choosing the name of the band and logo
I spent ages doodling girl band logos in my sketch book and trying to think of names for the band. I wanted the name to reflect the fact that we are not actually a real girl band.The first name I thought of was Diamante, I thought this would be good because diamante is basically fake diamond made up to look like it's real, exactly like us, a fake girl band made up to look to real. I carried on thinking of names but kept going back to Diamante, after seeing what reaction I got from other people when I told them the name I decided to stick with it. I new in my head how I wanted the logo to look but couldn't find the right type face to work with so I got some help from James N who allowed me to look through his font book then helped me design the logo.
Photo Shoot
The shoot took allot of planning and re-arranging. It was vital that we got professional looking pictures in order for us to be convincing. I tried to book the studio at university but it was all booked out for the following three weeks. I tried contacting local photography studios but they were all far to expensive, time was running out fast so I decided to do the at home. Luckily my mother is an experienced photographer and was happy to help out. She took the pictures, and I directed the shoot, this is were my experience in working on photo shoots came in very handy, although it was quiet a challenge to direct as well as be in the shoot. I was really pleased with the outcome, the girls performed so well especially having never done a photo shoot before.
Even though the shoot was done in my front room I was able to make it look like it had been done in a studio using photoshop, I even managed to rescue pictures that didn't come out very well. Again having had experience working on shoots and photoshop, really came in handy.
Go to http://www.myspace.com/diamanteforever to see more pictures from the shoot.Finding my girl band
At the beginning of this project when I was deciding what to do, my tutors said to me that I should use this project as an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone. So when I had made the decision to create a girl band I forced myself to become not just a member of the group but the lead singer, I really appreciate the advice from my tutors because so far, as nerve racking as it's been, I've really enjoyed it and have defiantly pushed myself out my comfort zone!
I started looking for two other girls, I decided to speak to friends who were dancers first, I figured they would be more convincing as they would be used to performing, I also spoke to friends relatives. I would have liked to have held auditions as suggested to me but I soon realised that I didn't have enough time, I also realised that all I need were two or three photogenic girls.
I did get two girls but unfortunately their timetable wouldn't allow for a tight scheduled project.
I spoke to many others but had no luck. Then at a meeting at uni, I saw my three friends Rishika, Tala and Ese sitting across the room, and realised how perfect they would all be for the band. They all said they would help with the project and the week after we did our first shoot.
I started looking for two other girls, I decided to speak to friends who were dancers first, I figured they would be more convincing as they would be used to performing, I also spoke to friends relatives. I would have liked to have held auditions as suggested to me but I soon realised that I didn't have enough time, I also realised that all I need were two or three photogenic girls.
I did get two girls but unfortunately their timetable wouldn't allow for a tight scheduled project.
I spoke to many others but had no luck. Then at a meeting at uni, I saw my three friends Rishika, Tala and Ese sitting across the room, and realised how perfect they would all be for the band. They all said they would help with the project and the week after we did our first shoot.
Who is our target audience?... Realising our target audience
Notes from sketch book...
I always thought that girl bands were aimed at boys and boy bands aimed at girls but after actually doing more research into this I found it's quiet the opposite. Girl bands are manly aimed at young girls from around as young as 5 yrs to late teens or even early twenties. As a friend described they're windows into adulthood for younger people. young people look up to them as role models, they want to dress like them, behave like them, even be them.
When I realised this I saw that this was the exact audience that I wanted to target with my youth project. My youth project is designed to get youths to start thinking for themselves and not to take what ever messages the media throws at them. For example the research funded by dove shows that as a society, we have unrealistic beauty ideals that all come from the media e.g. adverts, music videos, T.V. etc. As a result so many young people are very insecure about themselves and have extremely low self esteem.
Through the youth project we want to promote REAL TALENT, help youths to achieve their goals, in a way were they are not degrading themselves,which will help boost their self esteem. We want to show them that the messages given to them through the media are not real, it's all photoshoped to look good.
Through doing this girl band project, I've found a new tool to communicate with. If I succeed with this project and people actually believe that we are a real girl band, I will be able to wake people up and highlight how we are being fooled into ideals. I plan to share all my findings from this project with every single person who believes that we are a girl band.
I always thought that girl bands were aimed at boys and boy bands aimed at girls but after actually doing more research into this I found it's quiet the opposite. Girl bands are manly aimed at young girls from around as young as 5 yrs to late teens or even early twenties. As a friend described they're windows into adulthood for younger people. young people look up to them as role models, they want to dress like them, behave like them, even be them.
When I realised this I saw that this was the exact audience that I wanted to target with my youth project. My youth project is designed to get youths to start thinking for themselves and not to take what ever messages the media throws at them. For example the research funded by dove shows that as a society, we have unrealistic beauty ideals that all come from the media e.g. adverts, music videos, T.V. etc. As a result so many young people are very insecure about themselves and have extremely low self esteem.
Through the youth project we want to promote REAL TALENT, help youths to achieve their goals, in a way were they are not degrading themselves,which will help boost their self esteem. We want to show them that the messages given to them through the media are not real, it's all photoshoped to look good.
Through doing this girl band project, I've found a new tool to communicate with. If I succeed with this project and people actually believe that we are a real girl band, I will be able to wake people up and highlight how we are being fooled into ideals. I plan to share all my findings from this project with every single person who believes that we are a girl band.
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