Casting

Casting

Now that I created my artists' name and logo, I will start working on casting for who is going to be in my video. In order to make sure that I will successfully carry out who should be in the video, I will take a note of all the applicants and have a discussion about which ones I think are appropriate and necessary, as well as which ones are not as useful etc. 

I thought about creating a poster that will advertise the chance for being in the music video, and ask potential applicants to let me know in person if they wish to help me out. I will only advertise the poster for people who know me in person as I want to keep the narrative in the song to be about the same narrative or narratives which would mean the same age group. Therefore, this makes it easier for me to narrow the most suitable people that I want to be in the music video.

Another feature that I think I should focus on relates to the auditions and the context of the song's story. For example, the story is about two separate societies although I want to maintain the same narrative, therefore I know I can't film the same person twice in different perspectives as that would mix up the story line although I do know that I should look for auditions that are quite similar to convey the idea that equal potentials could turn out to be extremely different in real life based on their social background. 

Poster

This is the poster that I've designed for my potential applicants for the music video. For the first draft, it had a portraiture-based structure, although I've changed it to landscape because it enabled me to place my pictures more appropriately around the page. The only piece of information I decided not to highlight in bold is the date, in order to draw more attention to the key detail. 

I chose the colour red for effect, which was also the reason for including multiple pictures making the whole idea and promotion more visual so it's more likely to catch a potential participant's attention. Finally, the information for the location and time of arranging the music video cast was written line by line, in order of relevance. For example, the date first, then the location and eventually the time, being more specific as the reader goes on investigating the promotional feature. 

New Poster

After multiple thoughts on reconsidering the structure of the poster, I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't look good enough for what I'm trying to make it represent. In other words, it looks too commercial in my opinion, whereas the new one above has much more stylistic choices that I've made. For example, it has a better structure that suits the colouring of the whole of the poster, and all details are clearly and consistently written down with enough opacity within the text boxes so that the text alone stands out vibrant enough. It's mostly the white & black colours that make the writing readable. The pictures constituted throughout are also film-related and cinematic looking chosen carefully. I decided to go with much less colouring since, in my opinion, it has a more staggering after-effect to the audience that helps to remember the details within the article. 

Overall, this poster is more developed so it suits better for my objective which is the reason that I decided to go with it. 

Audition Application

After I created the poster, I went on to making an audition application where I included certain questions that narrow down the area of what applicants I want. I included specific questions that instantly make it obvious for me (makes it easier to spot) whether the applicant who filled the application should either be applied or rejected. For example, if someone is above the age of 20, it will not be appropriate because the video focuses on the younger age group etc. Below I attached the application form.

Audition Process

Before the audition application process, I was already planning to be in the video as I thought it would be one of the simplest ways to shoot footage at any time for the music video, as I can both plan and film by myself or maybe with a little extra help from someone that would be willing to help e.g. my brother. This makes it more convenient for me to film as I can improvise different dates and times at which I can film and therefore, I wouldn't have to communicate as much with others and worry about external volunteers arranging inconvenient dates that would result in a lot of backlogs for me as I would have to use the times that I have, and not the times that I need.

Along with this, for me being in my music video could potentially enable me to finish filming recordings and get started with edits at an earlier time. This is due to the fact that there's more free time for me on my own to plan ideas and make them happen on camera than as if I had to work along with other people as decision making would probably tend to be slower as a result of multiple opinions influencing each other. In conclusion, this would leave a lot of time for editing and searching after different methods of combining compositions etc.

Moving on, during the audition application process there was one volunteer who wishes to help me out with my music video and also perform different dance moves during filming. This is the main reason I thought this applicant would be good for the music video. Especially, since I generally wanted to make the song more interesting by including dynamic and hard-to-perform dance moves that could be edited (speed up or slowed down) to fit the beat drop's rhythm. That brings out the visual side of the meaning of the song in a more entertaining way. Other reasons I think this applicant called Tom Marchant is applicable for the role is because he matches all the personalities that I was primarily aiming for when deciding what factors would best convey the meaning of the song's story. For example, he's roughly the same age as me and would make it more reasonable to have two similar looking people in the video to represent different sides of a Gemini, etc.

I also decided to have my brother in the video due to the fact that filming would be more convenient as a conclusion to more flexible hours. He will probably be the main actor in the video, representing both sides of the Gemini, with a few minor characters such as Tom, and maybe me performing a few minor actions to make the overall outcome better looking/suitable for its purpose.

Finally, I decided not to ask for other applicants as I think it's easier to work with a smaller crew as there is more flexibility, and communication is much simpler as messages don't have to get distorted between each other when working as a team.

Artist and Logo

Artist Name and Logo

Artist Name

I decided to call my band 'Lil Gems'. The ''gems'' in the name stand for Geminis since my band is made up of a duo. The meaning of a Gemini is a person usually with two distinct personalities that are completely different. In most cases, people are never sure which personality they are to expect and therefore, it could be an interesting experience for people who haven't witnessed this before. Each member of the duo represents one side of the Gemini concept and what the word and the meaning behind it represents. 

The first name 'Lil' is a reference to being little, which is what modern day mumble rappers use to represent themselves visually and for artistic purposes. However, even though my artists are not related to this musical culture either music genre look-alike wise (meaning that they aren't actually so little), they decided to go with it for effect. 

In relation to the song alone, the reason it's called ''Day 'n' Nite'' is because it's supposed to reflect on the Duos name and how they feel in general. Also, the video may not exactly show how they feel, but more like metaphorically represent the personality that comes with each side of a person who is considered to be a Gemini. According to general beliefs, one of the two personalities is usually ''sociable, communicative, and ready for fun'' whereas the other side is more ''serious, thoughtful, and restless''. Therefore, they are both distinctive and individuals in their own way. 

Even though neither of the members is actually a Gemini, they chose this name because either of them matches with the personality of one of the two identities of a Gemini. One of them is more uplifting whereas the other one generally feels negative etc. However, both personalities have similar interests. For example, being ''fascinated with the world'', also being ''extremely curious, with a constant feeling that there is not enough time to experience everything they want to see''. In relation to this, both members have this interest and they feel like this word describes the most of what they are. 

Artist Logo

This is the logo I decided to go choose of all the other ones that are below. I think this is more consistent and appropriate in relation to letting the artists' audience know about this duo. For example, the reason I think this logo clearly dictates the promotes the duo is because their name is clearly seen in the logo, which makes it easier for the audience to be aware of them. Every time this logo would appear, it is more likely to the extent of my knowledge that it's more likely to remind the audience of the artists, than as if a symbol would've been used for their logo, which requires more thinking to identify its origin. 

I chose these colours because, in my opinion, they are quite relaxing. It also represents some aspect of being a Gemini due to the change in dark colour to light. This would reference the evil and the kind personality of someone with two distinct personalities, but also the openness as well as the alienation of someone to society. I only added the word 'productions' in the logo to create effect and make the duo appear more professional to the intended viewers, as it not only references a group of performers but the fact that it could be a conglomerate business with a lot of money invested in it making people think it's a good band to listen to. 

Development of my Logo

Below, I have included my previous;y developed logos that I think are too under-developed and unprofessional for such a band as Lil Gems. This is both for structure and choice of colour.

This is my first designed logo. Primarily, I thought these colours are quite realizing and that they fit with the fonts used for the text. Later on, I thought they are just generally good for effect especially because of the fade from dark to light. However, when I asked a few people around about how easy it is to interpret the name or figure out what the audience makes out of this logo, they were misinterpreting the name because of the design etc. Therefore, I decided to change it.

At this point, I was convinced that this logo would be clear to read the name, which makes it easier to remember the logo and therefore, be more remarkable. However, I soon came to see that the lack of colour options and design makes it less appropriate for the purpose. In other words, even though it is easy to remember, the level of simplicity would mean not as many people from the audiences would pay attention to it. This makes it useless.

Then, my logo took another step back with a bit more precision than at the beginning. I used the structure of having levels in the names, but putting the first part in one line, and the second one in another. This makes it clear which artist's logo it is, while making it stylistic.

In order to make it more interesting, I added 'productions' to it just to make it sound professional. When I got to this stage, I thought this would make the best of all due to the symmetry from all sides,  but then I decided to talk to have a chat about it with my teacher, and then I realised it's unnecessary from certain perspectives. In conclusion, I decided to go with this anyway because it wouldn't do any harm overall. In the worst case, it wouldn't catch an eye but that wouldn't be because of the that part alone, but because the whole logo itself is not interesting.

After my conclusions, I made this final version. However, it's more complicated and not as good as the earlier one since I find it much less recognizable. Therefore, I rejected it and decided to go with my previous version as the final edit.

Finally, during the development of my website, I have created a moving logo with animation which not only changes colour, but I have also applied a turbulence displacement effect which manipulates its shape and adds a strange effect to it. Shortly after, I have discovered that the starting point of the motion would be a good design for the logo, and the website alone could re-use the effect which the logo possesses, so it coverts the original brand design into a commercial success due to applying the logo as part of the website's convincing design.