CD Cover- Drafts

These are two example of a album artwork that I created using Photoshop that we could use for our CD cover. I like the idea of having something interesting in the background but not too much that it will take away the focus of out artist. Our main idea is to have a close up of our artist's face as the main focal point of the cover. We decided to do this as during the research stage we discovered that most CD covers in the indie-pop genre shows their female artists to be independent and strong using close up of their face. I also like the idea of her looking away from the camera in these drafts as it gives the image a deeper meaning however I think it would be improved if the artist is looking straight into the camera as it will show her as strong and powerful. I also like how the font is consistent on the cover which adds a sense of professionalism. Also as the name of the artist is bigger than the album name it shows that her brand image is more important. 

Below is a short video I made to show some other ideas I had for the CD cover. 

When we create our final CD cover I think we should focus more on taking a better publicity photo and plan out a costume and facial expression beforehand. Also I believe we need to establish a colour scheme that we could also use within the music video to link the two products together.

Brand Identity BY EMMA HOLT

Planning posts - checking your progress Oct 16th SJA

WWW:

• Your posts for 'Intial Ideas' and 'Job Roles' are brilliant Gemma - lovely idea, and really creative use of video to communicate effectively
• Thoughtful comments for your 'Lyrics Annotations' - your group has some brilliant ideas, and I am really looking forward to seeing them come to life in your video

EBI:

• Gemma, your planning posts are not as compelte as I was hoping they would be? Some work that should be here is missing??
• Improve your post on 'Technical tutorials' by providing a thoughtful,  written explanation of what you did with the green screen and on Final Cut, and how these technical aspects might influence your own ideas for the video
• Where is your photoshop work for the CD cover practice? This needs to be included.

Overall assessment of 'Planning' so far: Unfortunately, it has to be IN (Improvement Needed). I know you will get this sorted out this coming week Gemma. To reach the top of Level 4 (which is what you are certainly aiming for) you need to continue to show your excellent grasp of creativity, innovation, imagination and ICT technical flair for every post. The 'Planning' section of your blog really should provide you with loads of opportunities to demonstrate all of these things.

You and your group have selected a great track from a really interesting artist, and it should give you lots to experiment with in terms of mise-en-scene and representation. I am really looking forward to seeing what your group comes up with.

Final 'RESEARCH' Assessment Oct 11th SJA

WWW:
- Well done for investing so much energy and time in getting your Research section completed to a fantastic high standard Gemma. I have really enjoyed reading through your posts.
- All posts are visual, with many of an 'excellent' standard of thought, creativity in presentation and revealing excellent subject knowledge. I really like the use contact sheets, images and some use of gifs throughout. The gif you chose for 'The Fix' - just the four lights - is really effective in getting your point across that attention to good lighting is key.
- Your analytical posts are really interesting to read, as you clearly are thinking carefully about how artists working within different genres choose to represent themselves. There is a real sense that you are really enaged in this task, and that you are genuinely thinking about your ideas, influences and how you can create the best possible music video for your coursework.
- Your analysis of the audience questionnaire was excellent and really thorough, and I hope the findings will be of good use in your planning.
- I haven't officially marked the Planning posts yet, but I really liked the ideas and level of creativity shown there so far...

EBI - For 'Planning and Evaluation' sections now:
- Always think of ways (and be prepared to allow yourself time) to continue to come up with creative and unique ways to present each posts - make sure you use functions like the YouTube tagging feature, or a voice over commentary to talk through any analytical posts. Use JING to 'show' technical skill - this will boost your mark in this aspect of your blog. This will help you to secure a high Level 4 grade overall.
- Be super organised in the Planning stages of your music video now - None of your work over the coming weeks can be thrown together - you will need to storyboard, plan effectively, try out lighting, etc, etc... Always document this visually, and keep on top of blog posts.
- Really work at developing your level of technical skill in the use of Final Cut - and eventually in the use of Photoshop for your Ancillary Tasks - come into Media perhaps at lunch on a Thursday to experiement - this a good time to try out new ideas, as the technicians are on hand to help you.

Overall mark for RESEARCH section: Level 4 - there is really some excellent work here, please make sure this continues, with no inconsistency in the quality of your posts.
The 'Planning' section should give you the opportunity to really show off what you can do in terms of presentation, use of ICT, and clever, creative communication of your thoughts and ideas. This will be the key to securing the highest possible mark for your coursework blog.

Concept

We have decided to approach the music video in such a way that shows the natural side of the artist's brand image whilst also showing their quirky, individual personality. One plan that we has was to show the artist riding a bike, that has a basket on, with balloons.

Although we will be doing a number of costumes changes we have discussed a few possibilities. We want our artist's brand image to be natural but glamorous at the same time. This might be achieved if style her hair to look natural while wearing a dress. This will also create the girly feel to the music video that we want. Opposite to this her costume could be casual while her make up and hair are glamorous. We have taken her style from a cross of Ellie Goulding and Little Boots.

Another idea that we had is we want to put glitter on to a drum, then make our artist hit the drum. This will hopefully create a nice shot of the glitter flying in the air. We could then slow this down during post-production which I think will create a nice effect. Throwing powder paint at the artist or around a room is one of our main ideas as we think this will look good and will link in with our genre and brand identity. In the image to the left is an example of the effect we would like to create.

Looking at our questionnaire and other music videos from our genre we decided one of the locations we will be using is an empty, white room. This will be the room we used for throwing paint. Another location we had in mind was a busy street where the artist could be shown walking down it while singing the some. We took inspiration from one of Eliza Doolittles music videos where the artist is shown riding a bike down the street-while singing. We liked this idea and think we might adapt it to fit our song choice.

Image Annotation

Analysising images of an artist of our chosen genre has helped me understand the type of brand image we have to create for our artist. I think it is important that she has a quirky side that is different to other artist while also sticking making sure she is girly. These images not only help decide costume and makeup but also helps us to plan the body language and facial expressions of our artist when we do the photo-shoot and throughout our music video.

Song Details

The song we have chosen to create a music video for is Ellie Goulding - Your Biggest Mistake. We chose this song as it fits in well with our research and we believe we can make a successful music video and also create an effective brand image for our artist that will fit this song. This song also gives us the chance to use the information we learnt during the research stage. For example we will be able to use the questionnaire to help us to create a music video that works well with the genre.

'Your Biggest Mistake' is by Ellie Goulding and is on her latest album called 'Lights'. The song we have chosen does not currently have a music video and therefore it will be easier for us to create new ideas.  

Technical Tutorials

During the technical tutorial we learnt how to set up and use the green screen. We done this to allow us to understand how it works and to develop our ideas for our music video. We used 3 different cameras to film the performance so we had a range of angles and focus points to make the video we created more interesting. While performing we took turns in different roles so we learnt how to do each one like filming or holding the green screen.

In the editing stage we learnt how get rid of the green screen and replace it with something else using Final Cut. We done this by applying the Chroma Key to the clip we were using by clicking on effects and dragging in onto the clip. We then added a picture underneath the clip that we wanted to use as the background. At first using this was difficult as we had never used it before and didn't know what we were doing but after a while of playing around and getting used to it, it became easier to use.

Lyric Annotation

Roles

Initial Ideas

Assessment 'RESEARCH' SJA Oct 3rd

WWW:
- Gemma, I have thoroughly enjoyed looking over your blog and reading your posts. You are clearly really interested in the topic, and this really shines through in your work.
- Many of your posts are excellent, I really like to overall 'visual look' of your blog, there's lots of technical skill shown in that things are moving, you have gone to the effort of creating your own videos of audience views, mood board collages, etc. - All great!
- Great to finally read a blog with all theory posts completed - I hope that your understanding of these will help shape your ideas for the music video

EBI:
- Post 13 - Mood board video montage is great - needs a paragraph included underneath where you explain how / why the artists you have shown represent themselves in this way
- Post 15 - Genre research - conventions - I couldn't find this?? It should be a big, visual and creative posts?
- Post 18 - Advert research?? Still to do?


Overall effort - VG (Very Good) - So very close to 'Excellent' Gemma, and certainly will be when done. Please make sure you have all Research posts completed by this Friday Oct 7th for Final assessment.

Thank you for investing so much effort into your blog, again, I have really enjoyed reading through your work.

Analysing a CD 3 BY EMMA HOLT

Analysing a CD 2 BY JADE EMANS

Questionnaire - The Results

The results will help us to create a successful music video that not only follows the conventions of our genre but also follows the interests of our target audience and uses elements that they enjoy whilst watching music videos. From out survey we discovered that the music video is very important as 35.7% watch music videos everyday while another 35.7% watches them a couple of times a week. This indicates that music videos are popular among our target audience and are important to them.

As our survey went on we discovered what ideas they thought we good for our chosen genre.

This location question will help us when deciding our locations as we now understand what the audience expect and want to see which will allow us to make it as professional looking as possible by following conventions. Question 6 of our survey was asking whether or not they think that fashion played an important role. 

When asked whether they thought fashion has an important role in Pop music only a small amount of people said no. The main reason they said no was that they thought it did not matter as to what their fashion and style was as long as their music was good or that fashion played an important role in all genres not just Pop. The vast majority of people responded yes and these are a few of the best answers explain why they think it is important:

As the majority of people answered yes to this questions we now understand that to make a successful and realistic artist we need to create our own style and brand image through the use of fashion.

The responses to the question of which gender they prefer to watch was interesting.

I found this interesting as the majority of people had no preference to gender. Another thing found interesting was that the percentage of people who prefer a female artist is more than double whilst the percentage of females that took the questionnaire was much more than double the amount of males. I found this interesting as although many of the females may have chosen 'no preference' I would have thought they would have thought more of them would have preferred a male artist due to sex appeal. This response will help us complete out final product as we understand that ultimately it does not really matter what gender the artist is however due to double the percentage of female to male we will probably use a female artist in out product. 

In the question what you would expect to see in a Pop music video many people responded with similar answers. 

The 3 top responses where;

1. Bright lighting
2. A range of bright colours
3. A choreographed dance routine

All of these responses will help us when we plan and create out final product has we now understand what a range of different people (mainly for our target audience) not only expect to see in music videos that are similar to what we want to create but also what they want to see.

Questionnaire

This is the questionnaire that we created as a group on SurveyMonkey.com. We then sent it to a range of people via email and on socail media sites such a Facebook. We got a good response and it will help us to create the best possible final product.

Analysis of advert 2 BY JADE EMANS

First attempt at publicity photos.

WWW: I think overall we had a good idea as to what we wanted to achieve through these photos and tried out best with the time we were given and the resources we had. It think the bright lighting works well with the photos of Jade as it follows the conventions of the girly-pop genre whilst also drawing attention to her face. The range of close ups and mid shots we used in that set of photos will help us to decide what kind of framing and shot type we will use when we create our actual publicity photos.

EBI: To improve upon these pictures I think we could have spent more time before hand preparing what we were going to take and allowing ourselves time to research how different genres used different conventions to portray their artist and how to create a character that is easily recognisable and has a definite brand image. The costumes could be improved through following conventions of the genres and also using make up to amplify certain elements of the artists. Lighting could have been improved through using different levels of lighting. For example in the rock genre photos these should have had a much darker lighting if it was true to the conventions of rock publicity photos. 

Analysis of advert 2 BY EMMA HOLT

Publicity Photos

What makes a good Publicity Photo?

The body language of the artist in the photo is a major factor to how successful the image is at portraying the artist. For example if someone wanted to come across as strong and powerful their body language would come across in such a way that the audience will feel that they are strong and powerful with a high status. If the artist's body language is relaxed and laid back the artist will come across as such. Like body language, facial expressions can create the artist's brand image and help create the character they want to be shown as. Conventional body language and facial expressions change with different genres which helps identify which genre the artist wants to be associated with. For example the rap genre usually has the artist looking straight into the camera with strong body language which makes them look threatening. For the female indie-pop genre that we are researching the artist is usually positioned looking away from the camera with their hand on their heart. This position suggests that they are passionate about their music. In this genre when the artist is looking at the camera it usually suggests that they are powerful and independent.

Lady Gaga

Costume and props is another way of creating a brand image around an artist. Probably one of the most famous artist to rely on costumes for her image is Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga is recognised for her elaborate costumes and therefore as it is part of her brand image all of her publicity photos are her in these costumes. The costume of the artist can also create the illusion of  a phantasmagoria body as it can cover up the parts of the body that are not as flattering while exaggerating and drawing attention to the 'best bits' of their body. This can also be done through make-up which may amplify certain facial features whilst hiding the more 'less-perfect' bits. Costume and props help to develop the character of the artist and provides a basis to what their music may be like.

The lighting can also create the illusion of perfection. Dark lighting can create a silhouette effect which can hide any part of the artist's body that is not considered to be perfect. Which ever part of the artist is the part that people associate them  with  it is usually shown in the brightest lighting in the frame to make that part stand out from the rest. Lighting is also different across the genres with pop artist usually being shown with bright lighting to present them as being happy and energetic whilst rock artist are usually shown with dull lighting.

30 Seconds to Mars

Framing and shot type is a contributing factor to how successful the photo is. If it is showing a band the positioning of each member within the frame usually shows their order of importance in the brand image of the band, with the lead vocalist usually in the centre front. The actual shot type can have a large effect on how the image is received by the audience. If it is a low angle shot it will allow the artist to look powerful and make them seem as if they have a greater status than the audience. This type of shot is often used on shorter artists to make them seem taller. Close ups are often taken if the artist is portrayed as beautiful or recognised by their face. If the artist is not shown to be beautiful a mid shot if often taken. If the artist has a  phantasmagoria body a long shot if often used to show their whole body.