MACRO FRIENDS

NON ADDITIVE DESOLVE

I used the non-additive dissolve near the opening sequence in order to give the illusion that the band/actors are jumping out of one another. A similar effect is also used in the System of the Down video Chop Suey, as well as Around the World by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who also tie into the rock genre which Macro Friends sits itself in. 

BLACK AND WHITE

I changed the video to black and white so that there was some synergy with the digipak as well as the website. I wanted the album titles 'monochrome' to more like a mantra than a product: but the purpose of grey scaling the image is to do just that. To sell the product. I was also influenced by Die Antwoord's I Fink U Freeky music video. 

YELLOW ARIAL FONT CAPS

Yellow against a black background is commonly known to be a high-impact colour scheme. Therefore, in order to have amore dramatic effect I overlayed lyrics on top of the clips to draw attention away from some of the messier camera cuts, and to also entertain the audience. They learn the lyrics as well as the get a taste of what the band is about. I got this idea from My Chemical Romance's lyric video of Na Na Na.

RGB Split Glitch Logo

In the Rolling Stones video mentioned previously as well as several interesting graphic designs on the website tumblr is a special effect that I wanted to use whilst making my video. On GIMP I have more or less got to grips with how to accomplish the 'glitch effect' with the use of layers, but the process of making a moving image appear to be malfunctioning proved to be much more difficult. However, using a youtube tutorial, I managed to great an RGB split effect with my band's MF logo.





Another free resource I used was a downloadable sound effect from soundcloud, which added to the illusion of the glitching-out logo of the band. This effect is probably most commonly used in techno and electro music ( the tutorial itself includes a dubstep-sting along with the logo) but I think that it works well with the genre of pop-punk due to the fact that it accentuates the point that Macro Friends are part of a subversive genre. Their aim is to 'hack the system' *general socialist student mumbles* and more or less invade the mainstream.







The finished result is less impressive that that show in the tutorial, but as far as first attempts go, I think it's do just fine for an opening or closing clips for the music video in order to establish the band's brand from the get-go.

CD FIN

OUTSIDE

INSIDE

FRONT COVER

The eye is immediately drawn to the 'parental advsory' sticker, the sign of any good album--well, good if you're a ten year old. Needless to say, it's in key with quite a few other rock CDs (Marilyn Manson, Metallica). 

The front cover is more simplistic than most punk rock albums in order to set Macro Friends apart from them. However, the black text on a square white back ground is a bit of a reference to the ransom note fonts (letters that have been cut out of a magazine and stuck with other oddly coloured letters to make words and sentences).

SPINE

The spine was kept quite simple, but the black background connotes a darker style of music and more likely to attract my target audience. Also, the yellow ARIAL text complements the lyrics of the music video as well as the website.

BACK COVER

The back cover of the digipak consists of a 'skin' background (black and white); on top of it is the image of a clenched fist with the colour inverted. The grey, Arial text contrasts the black background of the square. It's "Monochrome". In the bottom-left corner is the 'all rights reserved' text commonly seen one the backs of digipaks, along with mention of ANNA-KEY RECORDS. To further the level of authenticity, I have also added a bar code.

INSIDE - LEFT

This page was done pretty simply. I colorised the image of my cigarettes yellow and used the red option of the filter packs to make it look like a hotter shade of yellow and less washed out by black. On top of that is a white square: another reference to David Bowie.

INSIDE RIGHT

This is identical to the left panel, save for me brightening the image to represent the plastic case which holds the CD.

CD

The CD itself is plain white and there are square images of the puppet's different furs as a reference to the 'wanna do' music video.

OVERALL

I have not made a spine for the digipak because I wanted to make a digipak that looked a little bit like a vinyl sleeve: similar to Joy Division's debut EP An Ideal for Living. The cover is a black and white image of a Hitler Youth drumming.

DIGIPAK - CD STICKER

In order to make the inner CD sticker, I decided to collect the masks back from my actors (who'd taken them home with them after the shoot) and arrange them in a pattern before taking the photo.

First of all, I used the cutting tool to select the main area of the mask. After that I deleted the background so that I had one shape to work with, that could easily be added to another image once I was done.

Using the path tool again, I feathered the selection and made a line around the black areas of the mask. Once they were selected, I used the desaturate' tool in order to get rid of any excess RGB to make the part purely black and white.

Inverting the selection, I used the 'colorify' tool and selected the green field. 

I repeated these steps until I got this. The CD background will be plain white to keep in line with the main colour scheme with the album, and the digipak background will be plain black again.

DIGIPAK - BACK

Inverting the photograph of my hand (painted white), I then overlayed some vaguely punk-sounding song titles onto the top of the image. These song titles were made with the help of a drunken brainstorm at the weekend with a few friends. The initial song is the unknown track that I chose. The font style is 'Sans'.

Using the square tool to wrap around the text, I then inverted the selection and filled it white. I was initially going to mimick David Bowie's The Next Day album by having a white square on top of the image with text on top, but thought I might have a go at reversing that look to further draw attention to the fact that Macro Friends are a subversive band who like to parody more professional acts.

In order to include technical stuff, I used a smaller font and set the alignment to 'fill', turning the font black to contrast against the white background. Anna-Key Records, fake guest performers, my name and my band's name are included.

In the end I also used another image from my white-paint dabbling for the background image, and instead of using a bar code, I thought of my band having more of an online presence, so created this bar code on Barcode Generator so that it their fans can actually scan the digipak for the music/gifts after buying the artwork, so that they may also purchase copies on Itunes for free.

Outtakes

DIGIPAK - front cover

First of all, I started with the picture of my face paint, desaturated it and then inverted the colour - giving it a bit of a 'minimalist' look which will tie in nicely with my pop band, wrapped in a punk band, wrapped in an art pop band, who are also virtual.

( Honestly there are too many genres which my unknown song can fit into, and so many that now physically and theoretically exist. )

I then wrote the title in bold ARIAL lettering, adding a space between each letter. I then inverted one half of the text and changed its background to white. Changing the 'colour to alpha' to black, the black letters became transparent, showing off the textured background.

Et voila! -- this cover also suits the website nicely.

More to panels soon to come.

Re-filming

After a brief spell of editing in order to refresh my braintatorimagination, I've found that although the content of my music video is odd enough to attract a viewer, the video needs more content.

 

As specified in the music video brief, my final piece must at least include:

• A variety of camera angles
• A show of editing skills
• Sufficient lip-syncing
• Shows the conventions of its genre

Due to the fact that I've been working with puppets, the use of camera angles are minimal. I should add a narrative beginning, end or intercepting-segments in order to keep the viewers on their toes and be energetic: exactly in key with the pop-punk/neo-rock genre.





This rough draft is definitely recognisable as a media student's work: haphazardly put together with minimal edits taking place.

 

This is great for authenticity due to the fact that Macro Friends is an up-and-coming punk band, but leaving as it is will not get me marks.

 

Additional plot brain storm:

• Café/Cantina/Public place with the bands drinking coffee with the puppets afterwards
• Change the ending: Puppets were on TV and the band were watching them, crowded around a TV, then peel away their masks. (over shoulder shots, pan/tilt shots of house, close-ups,-mid-shots, low angle)
• Kid painting a picture of Macro Friends ( close ups on scribbling, child's insane expressions, his dishevelled house, etc.) -- but where do I get a kid???
• DEFINITELY a different location--either outdoors or somewhere more mundane. sunrise? sunset? night sky( torches needed to create sufficient lighting)?

Wix Tinkering

Unlike a conventional Punk website, I have instead decided to opt for a minimalist look: A plain-ish background with a simple black and white colour scheme, with the addition of yellow to make the navigation pages stand out. As you may have noticed, the record complany "Anna-Key" is a combination of my middle name and "key" as in music--the pun sounds a lot like "Anarchy": Puns are important...for comedy value and a reference to Macro friends' genre. The title is white, atop a black background. I did this in order to make it look like the name was taped onto the website in a rustic fashion, like a post on a prick wall.

I am not entirely happy with the pictures of the band and may replace them with the cover of the band's new album or the music video at a later date.

Also for the background, I have recently see this picture of mexican masks hanging on the wall and would like to do the same with my band masks--perhaps in a strip on the right hand side.

On this page, I have yet to change the about second. perhaps one day something witty we be in the place of the Wix default text.

The Merchandise page will display a large number of products, all at ridiculous prices: Pretty commonplace on your average rock website. How else are you going to stick it to the man without official merchandise from a manufactured punk band?

The gallery pictures need to be added to: i would like to perform another photoshoot and also take some pictures of stage venues and fake gigs.

The social links to twitter, blogger and 8tracks are all actual links, but ones that I have yet to make. Also on the bottom bar are tour dates and the address of Anna-Key Studios

Sub Pop Records WIP

Sub Pop is a record label founded in the '80s by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. It was the first record label to sign Nirvana, Soundgarden and Mudhoney. Many and most bands on the music scene from the late eighties to early nineties on the Seattle music scene. They're well known to be one of the fair few to popularize the grunge genre; they still grasp onto critical and commercial success: modern bands including Fleet Foxes, Foals, Flight of the Conchords, and The Shins. 49% stake of the label now belong to the Warner Music Group (one of the big six production companies). The label are famed for their blunt letters to aspiring artists who they decline signing to their label: notes open with "Dear Loser".

[IMAGE OF SUB POP RECORDS]


This record label earns millions annually: not exactly your average indie punk record label, but still the company keeps up this image.


With this in mind, I decided to make my record label a parody of Sup Pop records. The simple black and white logo is also pleasing to the eyes, and I shall try to incorporate this into my final logo for the website.

Jimmy Jazz Records WIP

Jimmy Jazz Records, an independent record label from Poland, release mostly punk rock, ska, psychobilly and hardcore music artists. zine Except for records Jimmy Jazz sells clothes and other merchandise for the bands that they promote.

The image of a man in a mohawk drinking whilst another man - bold - leans on the same lamp post. Punk, Ska, Reggae etc. are written around the circular image, and also around the name of the label 'Jimmy Jazz'. As far as logos go, this one is very complex--but it is clearly identifiable as a punk rock record label due to font information and imagery. Therefore, effective.

editing

Due to the fact that I've lost the motivation to film after so long of a hiatus, I have instead turned my focus to editing

Photography

Band photo at school, near the RAC building. The members are leaning on a skip, whereas Summer is sitting (due to the fact that she is short and the height differences of the band are ridiculous).

Second photo of the band at school, looking sideways (except for Dylan); background is a yellow brick wall. They all look to be moving, representing the energy of '|Macro Friends'' music.

Taking at school, outside the playgroup. 'High voltage' song could be a reference to their 'edgy' music.

Dud photo; Summer unfocused. Still, the messiness of the photo ties in with the rock genre.

Texture taken from the bumpy texture of my laptop touchpad.

Close up of my orange shirt.

Frosted glass of landing window: outside is a brick wall. 'Icy' look may look better colorised blue or desaturated.

Another image of frosted glass from a different perspective.

Bare brick wall of old kitchen. 'Beauty in decay' and very grungy, tying into the rock genre and its subversive reputation.

Another image of a more dilapidated part of my house. Orange bricks, yellow plaster and peeling wallpaper. I my used this image as a semi-transparent overlay.

Bare brick wall and central window of my house's outside toilet. Messy paint and bare wires. The brick texture would be useful for an album cover or a web page.

Close up shot of a spider, suspended on its web alongside the murky, plastic window of my shed. Creepy and abstract; I like the colour scheme of brown and beige, and the contrasting patterns.

Wooden crates and old fences that will probably end up on our fire in the winter. They reminded me of the debris in the skip from the first image of the band, and are also reminiscent of urbanism and a junkyard; somewhere the band may perform or sing about.

A shot of the grassy floor with a fallen branch in the corner. Why not?

More firewood. I liked the different colours of the block and the blend that they had with one another.

The faded label of my dustbin. Red contrasting against grey; it also looked 'run down' and befitting punk.

A shot of the patio floor and the corner of our green house skeleton (the glass has been removed). Metal and concrete are typically associated with urban music and rock - as opposed to pop and electro, which have a cleaner, minimalist feel.

Treeline of our garden and a clear-ish sky (clear for Kirby at the very least)

Close up image of a dirty bird bath. The side of the water is only just visible in front of the red algae. I liked the colour - and the fact that it looks like the surface of an alien planet.

Close up of rotting lily pads and dead grass on top. More decay. I like this shade of vibrant green also.

Close up of a rusty saw on a wooden work bench. Reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails' album 'The Downward Spiral'.

Another close up of the saw: this time, of a whole in which the saw is usually hanged upon. Bit of a cobweb can also be seen.

A pretty picture of pretty flours with a red filter added on in the editing process of GIMP

Peeling paint on our shed door. Blue and black is a colour scheme that you don't usually see with punk bands: It's more for RnB and dance music.

Close up shot of hose brick work and cobwebs. More chipped paint and bare wood.

Image of the light bulb in our outside toilet. I really like the colour contract and the amount of light and focus I managed to get on the bulb.

Corner of the outside toilet: a popular hang out for spiders' webs and pubes. Also grimy and befitting the genre.

Cigarette tray in the outside toilet with boosted colour contract add after the editing process.

A shot condensation on my bedroom window: Could be useful for a texture overlay, or if the colours are inversed, a night sky.

Close up photograph of Summer, perhaps useful for an about page for the band.

Quite an intense shot of Danny scowling at the camera. Very befitting of the punk genre.

Dyal posing, high angle. Possibly useful for a propaganda-esque band poster.

Black and white version of the top images, inspired by the back image of Good Charlotte CD cover.