WE FINISHED ON TIME!!!!
and we are very happy with our finished products, just hopefully the audience will like them too!

Deadline Day

Today is the day of our production project deadline. Unfortunately we are not as far ahead as we would've liked but we are determined to finish on time and believe that we will. At the moment we are re-grading our music video with brightness and contrast, colouring in and tweaking the final bits on our album cover, and still trying to find a way to steal a banner for our MySpace.

So what's left to do is:

• Get Mrs B. to look at our music video again to check if need more grading and then screen it
• Get album cover signed off
• Either add banner onto MySpace or give up on idea
• Add the individual bio's and group bio onto blog that we have written
• Add links to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter
• Add viral marketing idea if possible

So although it seems like we have loads left to do I think we will still get it all done on time.

The Vixens UK Myspace

I've started to look around for background for the MySpace and different codes we can use to jazz it up a bit. So far, I haven't found many interesting backgrounds that would really work for a band's MySpace. It would really be best if we could design our own MySpace background completely, but unfortunately none of us are complete computer/design tech genuis' so we are going to have to settle for a bit of a boring background. I am going to wait to run through everything with my group.

New Idea for Album Cover

So we tried our idea of using the locket behind the CD with pictures of us inside but after showing Mrs B. our album cover so far we agreed that it didn't look very good and it looked too plain. So I had the idea to get Holly to do a doodle with our names and little pictures and we scan that and put it behind the album cover. Everyone liked the idea and this is the doodle we ended up with which we are all really happy with.

We coloured in our names on PhotoShop after we scanned it and we think it makes it look bright and quirky and we have followed the colour scheme from the music video and the shoes by using blue, pink, purple and yellow. The cocktail glass also ties in with our album title, 'Glam Punch'.

Flatplan for Album Cover

This is our flatplan for our album cover. On the front we are thinking of having individual pictures of ourselves in columns with the band name and title of the album at the top. On the back cover we are thinking of having a still shot from our music video of the shoes with the track listing between the shoes because this is quite quirky and fun and ties in our hit single with the album. On the inside cover we are thinking of having a picture of the four of us together in the same outfits from the front, and behind the CD we are thinking of having a picture of the locket with pictures of us inside as this also ties in our hit single.

Band Member Name Ideas

Hey Guys, I have made the MySpace page, it has nothing on it at the moment except our name and one picture but the point is we do have one up and running under the URL www.Myspace.com/thevixensUK (/thevixens was already taken but bands have that problem all the time). So I've been thinking about band member names, I think it would be more interesting if we change ours. Here's a list of names that I have brianstormed so far with the help of the interenet giving some weird ones.

• Holly Woods
• Amelia Rose
• Laura (need to think of an interesting last name, sorry no offence!)
• Charlotte (same problem)
• Heidi Woods
• Amelie Rose
• Kali Rose
• Bee
• Leilah
• Gabriella
• Lexie
• Heidi
• Cali
• Romy
• Cleo
• Hattie
• Ava
• Amy/Amie
• Sammi
• Piper
• Haley
• Jayde
• Pippa
• Ria
• Izzie
• Isabel
  

That's what I've got so far, any ideas would be great :)

Video Shoot 11/11

Today we had our second and final shoot, this one for the narrative at the beginning an the end of our music video. In the narrative we are having Laura lying on a bed, she then looks at the locket and the picture inside of her and her boyfriend (the one we are singing about in the song) and she then goes to the mirror which is where we then 'go into her mind' which is the footage from the studio and us as the sins. For the end of the narrative we shot Laura falling back onto the bed looking happy and slightly more evil than when she started. Here are some behind the scenes pictures:

I think the shoot went really well as we got all the footage we needed and a bit more. The lighting also worked out well in the end which we were worried about as we had to shoot in the evening when there wouldn't be much natural lighting. However, it turned out to be a success which we are really happy about.

Plan to Shoot 11/11

We have made a plan to shoot the narrative for our music video tomorrow at Holly's house as we are using her parents bedroom for the mise-en-scene and tomorror is the only time everyone is available due to drama rehearsals and coursework deadlines going on at the moment.

We have booked out all the pag lights, camera, and a tripod. We have booked out all the lights because we will be shooting in the evening and we need to make sure that the lighting isn't too dark compared to our studio footage. In the shoot Laura will be wearing the blue dress we all wore in the studio footage and will have natural make up.

So props we need to bring are:

• Blue dress
• Heels (in case we want to use them)
• Make Up
• Hair Straightners
• Shooting Equipment

Editing our Footage

So, once we got back to school after October half term we began capturing all our footage, and there really was a lot. Once it was all captured we cut up the footage into different timelines titled:

• Laura
• Charlotte
• Amelia
• Holly
• All Sins
• All Sins with Laura
• Mannequin

In these timelines we out in all the footage that it refers to, for example all the shots with the mannequin go in the mannequin timeline and all shots of Holly, Amelia and myself dressed as sins but Laura as innocent go in 'All Sins with Laura' and so on. This has made it easier for us to find footage to put into our video. So far for our music video we have edited a bit of the video in which we are in four boxes and we all look to the side/down on the beat to 'here come the drums, here come the drums'. It sounds simple, but actually took a lot of work getting the colours right and everyone on the beat. We are now currently editing shots to the rest of the chorus and following verse, as we are waiting for the narrative to be shot before editing near the start and end of the song.

So far I am happy with our progress, it is starting to look good and we can see that our idea for the music video actually works. I am pleased with my own personal progress as I am learning to use more effects and different editing techniques.

This is a still shot we made of the idea we were going for in the 'here come the drums, here come the drums' bit.