AJbandpromotion

For this task we had to find and interview a local band to promote; including designing them a poster. We had some problems finding a band because at the start no one knew any bands, so we went online and found a website that let us get in contact with them. We emailed the ones that were close to us and received a few responses but none of them could fit us around their schedule. So we decided to try a new approach and managed to get a band from the music department at Canterbury College, that use to be called Insult 2 Innocence, and arranged to meet with them during Practical Week. We also pre-booked the equipment we needed so we knew we would have it ready, showing foresight and planning skills.

Interview:

The day of the filming we all met up in the LRC (accept one group member because he had tonsillitis, but that wasn’t too much of a problem for the project because we managed to cover his role). We had a little trouble getting a room, but we solved this problem by using our communication skills to make an agreement with the LRC staff to book a room they weren’t using. After that we got the equipment and set up ready for the band, also Dom got his camera ready so it would be easier to edit later, helping to develop our preparation skills.

Once the band arrived we explained, using our communication skills (which are still under development) what we were going to do and what we needed from them. We did a last check on the equipment, then started recording and had Conor, our interviewer, start the intro. After a few takes (which was necessary as we reminded ourselves how the intro was supposed to work, which we did as a team) we started the outro and half way through the equipment ran out of batteries, so we replaced them and continued.

After we had the intro and outro we started the actual interview. For this we had two cameras, one pointed at the band capturing the answers and one at Conor filming the questions being asked, that way we didn’t need a take of Conor asking the questions after we were finished.

Finally we re-took any shots that didn’t quite work and had a small photo shoot of the band members for the posters later, exchanged contact information, in case we forgot something, and so they can see the finished video and posters. Dom was taking the pictures, while I was helping come up with ideas for the images and helping the band members feel relaxed.

At the start of this project none of us were very comfortable in our communication skills, but we got to know the band throughout the interview and all tried to push ourselves to develop our communication skills. By the end of the interview we were all capable and comfortable, which shows the on site development we all needed to complete this interview. Next time we should all be comfortable in what we need to do in an interview situation from the start.

Evaluation:

There were a lot of mistakes and learning on the go, because we had never done a real interview before. For example, the camera and Zoom mic ran out of batteries, Conor didn’t prepare a script, Zach couldn’t show up for the interview and we didn’t prepare a room until the day of the interview (because we thought we were interviewing a band from outside the college, so we planned to do it in the park, so it was easier to get to for our planned interviewees).

The skills I have used and developed were communication, sound operation, preparation, planning and editing. I still need to work on my communication and preparation skills, because when it came to the interviewing day we all knew what we needed to do, we just didn’t know how to do it until towards the end. One way I will develop this weakness with communication skills into a strength is to work to develop them further in future projects and to build on my improvements from the end of this project.

This is the interview:

Poster:

I struggled to come up with ideas for my poster. We asked the band if there was anything they wanted the poster to include, but they hadn’t thought that far yet, because they were re-designing their band. We also made sure we had photos of the band members to work with, which shows our improving planning skills.

The poster was going to be the band in black and white, with a higher contrast and the sunglasses of one member blacked out. The problem I had was that was as far as I got and couldn’t build upon that poster idea. I couldn’t think of anything else to do with it.

In the end I changed my plan and developed a new idea, because I had a problem with the previous idea and I solved the problem by coming up with a new idea. So I found an image of a hand drawing a realistic electric guitar. I took that onto Photoshop and added the text “Insult 2 Innocence REDESIGNING THEIR ROCK” I changed the style of the text to ‘Chromed Satin (Text)’, then I changed the font to ‘Tw Cen MT’ except ROCK, I changed this to ‘Rockwell Extra Bold’ to make it stand out.

(Image reference: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3mMNCmrFWeg/hqdefault.jpg )

Evaluation:

I would have preferred to use my own image, but I couldn’t think of what to do with the images our group took of the band. Developing the old poster did help me further my skills in colouring and contrast, but that was as far as I could go with that idea. These skills I have developed will, however, help me in future projects. A strength of the actual poster is the slogan helped show the band’s current position of changing their image as a band, which helped develop my slogan writing skills including use of alliteration. A weakness would be that the image isn’t my own and would be better if I could have used one we took as a group and it doesn’t quite look like a rock band poster because I was limited in the  fonts I could access on Photoshop in the time available. Next time I would look to import fonts that had the right look for the poster’s genre.

This is the poster:

 

Radio interview:

This task was similar to the other interview, the only difference was there was no need for video. This section of the task only required a two minute interview. We didn’t set aside separate questions to be asked just for the radio, but this wasn’t a problem as I had plenty of options for interesting questions from the video interview.

I started by getting the interview video and finding a suitable starting point. Next I found  interesting questions, added them in, while making sure the answers were short or could be cut down. This was helping to develop my timing and editing skills.

Once the interview itself was finished I needed a picture, because this was done on Adobe Premiere to make it easier to upload (otherwise I would have used Adobe Audition). The picture I used was my poster. To add this I needed to flatten the image on Photoshop, save it as a JPEG and then place the saved file in Premier. I then added this to the video slot and widened it to the same length as the audio. Finally I needed some background music, so I got I2I’s Hero and imported the music and then lowered the volume. The song was also too long. To fix this I stopped the song during the chorus and cut it. Next I cut the same part of the chorus at the end of the video and deleted the middle section leading up to the end chorus. Finally I placed the end next to the middle and made sure the chorus matched up.

Evaluation:

Overall I am happy with my radio interview. I would have preferred it to be longer, to have done it on Adobe Audition and had separate questions to the video interview, but I have managed to develop my editing skills a lot, with the background music and interview itself. I am also happy I was able to add my poster as the image as it is better than just a black screen. Next time I would use my time management and communication skills to make sure we had extra questions for the radio interview and the confidence to ask the extra questions.

This is the radio interview: