Advert.

This is our completed advert.

Digipack Photo's.

                                     Front Cover

                                     Inlay 1.

                                     Inlay 2.

                                     Inlay 3.

                                     Inlay 4.

                                     Inlay 5  

                                 

                                     Back Cover.

These are our finished and completed digipack photo's. We have the front cover, the inlays and then the back cover.

Evaluation

Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge conventions of music video's?

A convention that we used to challenge our media video was the use of intertexuality in our video. We decided that we wanted our music video to have the feel of a 'rom com' and show the relationship between our artist and his girlfriend. However, unlike the normal romantic movie conventions, we decided that our music video wasn't going to have the typical happy ending. We showed this by having the girl walk away from our artist at the end of the music video and leave him. We used hand held camera shots to show that throughout the music video they appear to be happy, which gets the audience interested, but also makes it more of a twist when at the end the girl decides to leave. We used a fast cutting rate when the couple are together to show that they are happy, and then use a slower cutting rate when the artist is alone and she has gone, to show the contrast. 

A convention that we used was that we included the typical indie narrative to performance shots. We made sure that the audience got a range of shots, of the story line so that they understood what was going on, and also shots of our artist performing. This way the audience get a range of shots and can see the artist doing what he does best, which is performing to his audience. It also meant that the audience became engaged and interested in the narrative behind the song and understand the meaning in the lyrics. Indie artists do this regularly to get the audience interested and also to show their musical talents off to their audience.

A convention that we developed was the idea of showing the artist on the digipack. We decided to develop this, and add mystery to our artist by not showing his face. We thought that it meant that the audience want to see more to know who the artist is, as they can't tell from our digipack photo's. In other digipack photo's from other artists, you normally can see their face and they are making some sort of eye contact with the audience. However, in ours we wanted to make the audience want to see the video to reveal the mystery of the artist.

Question 2





Question 3




We have annotated our media video above for our question 3. We used the help of audience feedback to do this question.


Question 4


 

Adverts and Websites.

The purpose of having websites and adverts is to make sure that the audience are informed about the release of the artists album, to give them reviews and bonus features and to give the audience something extra.

It means that the audience are able to have a connection with the artist and find out more about them as a person. It also keeps them up to date with release dates and tells them what songs will be on the album and how much it will cost them to download and to buy. 

There is normally:

The title of the album.
Image of the album.
Straplines.
Reviews.
The production company.
A website.
Theme.
Links to purchases, i.e - Amazon, Play.com
A colour scheme.
CD/DVD logo.
Artist image.
Record company.
Star ratings.

Title of the album:

The title of the album tells the audience what the album will be called and what they need to type in if they wish to search for the album and find out a bit more background on it. 

Image of the album:

On the advert there will be an image of the album so that the viewer knows what the album is going to look like, so that if they go into a store they will be able to recognise it. 

Straplines:

A strapline tells the buyer basically who the artist is, what they do and also why they should buy the album. It is meant to attract the customer and make them remember the album and also the artist. 

Reviews:

This gives the audience the chance to see what respected companies/people think of the album. For example, there could be reviews from Q magazine, which is known for their knowledge in music. People trust these reviews as they trust the opinion that they have. It might make them more likely to want to buy the album and listen to the artists music. 

Production company:

The production company will be on the advert/website as it shows that the company believe in the album and also tells the audience some background information in who helped to create the album.

Website:

The website allows the audience to get some extra added bonus' and research the artist in more detail. They could offer prizes and competitions that gets the audience involved and more likely to want to buy the album.

Theme:

There is normally a theme to the advert and website. An example of this could be Ed Sheeran, his theme is 'simple' and a 'do it yourself' look to all of his adverts. It is part of the character that he has made himself in to. 

Links to purchases: 

This tells the audience where they can buy the album, and shows them the prices of it. It means that they can get involved and show support by purchasing it. 

Colour scheme:

There is normally a colour scheme for the album. This means that the buyer can recognise the album when they come to buying it. It also means that the artist can choose something that they think that the audience would like in that genre of music.

CD/DVD logo:

If there is a logo that the audience can recognise it means that the artist can use this on every album/single that they produce that the audience know. Ed Sheeran uses the little paw logo, and his fans know this as something that represents him.

Record company:

Again, this tells the audience about who was involved in producing and creating the company. It also shows the record company are proud to show that they worked with the artist and believe in them.

Artist Image:

The artist on the advert or website straight away shows the audience who it is that has made the website and means that it is easily recognisable for them.

Star ratings:

Again, this shows what other people think of the album. It looks good if the album has got a lot of stars, which at a glance shows the audience what other people, magazines and newspapers think of the album.

Problems encountered whilst editing.

One of the problems that we found when editing was we found that some of our night time shots were too dark. We overcame this by brightening the shots, so that the parts that we needed were visable. Luckily we took a lot of takes of the same shots, just to make sure which meant that when editing we could pick out which shot we thought looked the best and then brighten it. 

Another problem that we faced was that our storyboard was quite difficult to stick to. When creating it we hadn't left enough time inbetween shots, so if we had of stuck to it completely then some of our shots would of been too fast and the audience would of had problems with understanding the storyline that we wanted.

Music Video.

Here is our finished piece of coursework. Now that the video has been completed, we will be starting to work on the photo's for our digipack and creating the album and advert for our artist. 

Editing.

Yesterday we had an editing day which meant that we had the whole school day to edit our music video and put the finishing touches to it. We have now finished, and will be exporting it and then putting it on You Tube so people can watch it and give us some feedback. We are now concentrating on starting to look at our evaluation questions about our music video in which we will be looking at how we challenged the conventions of a music video, and also how we used conventions from a typical indie music video.

Filming Progress.

We have got the majority of our shots done, but we still have to film the prelude and some of the car scenes. We are planning on doing this tomorrow. We will be going filming after school to get the final shots done in time for our editing day which will be on Thursday. 

Thursday will allow us to finish off any editing that we need to do, and make any changes that might be needed to our video. We will be then making sure that the transitions between shots are clean and that there are no mistakes and that it looks professional. 

Editing.

So far, we have been editing our media piece and putting in all of the shots that we need. We have not stuck completely to our original story board as we found that we hadn't left enough time in between shots so it made it difficult to cut all of the shots to the timings that we had originally planned.

Album Covers.

Artist: Scouting For Girls.
The album almost looks as if it has been done in sepia. You don't see any members of the band on the front cover, but their name is very clear in the centre of the album in capitals so it stands out. The image of the two people in the boat makes the album look fun and childlike, but has been made more mature by the use of the colours that are on the front of the album. It is very simple, but effective. The album has been made to look old, and looks almost 
tea-stained. This could of been done to show the band feel they are more mature   now.



Artist: The Ting Tings.
The fact that there are only two members in the band has been represented by the drum stick and the microphone, showing that there is only a drummer and a singer. They are showing the hands of the artist to connect with the audience more. The fact that they have chosen to have everything in black and white apart from the background and the name of the band shows that they want to stand out. The use of the red background and then the blue font means that the name of the band stands out more then anything. They have got the album name written on their hands which makes it look interesting and funky.                             


Artist: Orson
The use of the birds in the background are effective, because the image of the man jumping on the cover also looks like a bird. They could be trying to come across as 'free' and that they feel like nothing can hold them back. They have chosen to have a very bright background, but have the man in the image in black. This means that he stands out more then anything. The stripes of the red and lighter red/orange stipes makes it look like the sun, which fits in well with the theme of the birds. They have chosen to use no capitals for their name and album name. It makes it look different to 
other albums that are around.


Artist: Coldplay.

For the Coldplay album, they have chosen to use bright colours as the name of their album is called "Life in Technicolor" Unlike some of the other front covers i have analysed, the band have chosen to have all of them on the front cover. This might be because they are extremely famous and people can recognise them by face.They have made it look as if the lead singer has flames coming our from his hands, maybe showing that he is in control and has all of the power.  The bright colours makes the album stand out, and will attract people and        make them stop and have a look at it. 



Artist: One Republic 
They have chosen to make it look as if it is night time, and to have a very bright, white tree in the middle. It stands out, and looks attractive. The album name looks as if it has been written by someone, possibly even the artist. The moon and stars make it stand out and make it look pretty and calming. This might reflect on the style of music that they are trying to produce, calm and relaxing songs that could 'send you to sleep'.







Artist: Ed Sheeran
The Ed Sheeran front album cover 
represents how he wants to be perceived as an artist perfectly. The type writer style font shows off his 'do it yourself' attitude in the music industry that he wants to portray. The little paw logo next to it is his signature sign and is how a lot of people recognise him. He is making direct eye contact to the audience, making it look as if he feels maybe that he is just one of them. The choice of an orange filter means that he stands out in the image. It is very simple, but effective. 

Survey

Here is a link to a survey that i created which asks questions about what people think about Indie digipacks. I thought that it might give us some inspiration about the sort of thing we should create that would get people interested in our digipack and make them want to buy our album.

I created the survey on a website called 'survey monkey'.

Click here to take survey

Websites.

Bands and artists can also use websites in order to promote their music. They can either have their own website or try to be promoted on a website that they know music lovers will go on. One website that i looked at was Q. They are known for their music magazines, so people already trust their judgment about music.

The include video's, "Track of the day", photo's, tickets to gigs, and news. It is a website that people can go on to look at any new music that bands or artists have created, or any songs that Q have decided to rate this week. 

Track of the day is a icon on the page which says the song name and the artist of the song that they feel is worth listening to it. On clicking it, you are taken to a link with information about the song, why they have named it track of the week, and the video of the song so people can listen to it. People can also post comments giving their view on it. This means that they encourage different people to interact with people who are into the same sort of music as they are. 

The gallery shows different photo's from different gigs. One of them on the website are photo's of the band Muse. It shows photo's from their gig in Birmingham. The photo's means that even if people weren't at the gig themselves, they can still look at photo's of it and have a look at what went on. 

The news icon sends people to a different page which gives news from a whole host of different genre's. It means that people can keep up to date with what is going on in the music industry and from different bands and artists. It is good because it means that people can get fresh news whenever they want, and learn more about the artists or bands that they love. 

The tickets page shows an alphabetic list of bands. When you click on them, it gives you a  list of all the dates and venue's that are available for you to get tickets. It gives a list of prices so that people can see how much it is they will have to be spending to get the tickets. 

Digipack Idea's.

Front Cover - We will be having our artist leaning against a wall, which is wallpapered, has a table and lamp in the corner, and a rug on the floor. His guitar will be leaning against the wall with him.

Inlay 1 - Our artist with his back to the camera, about to rip down the wallpaper.

Inlay 2 - Ripping down the wallpaper.

Inlay 4 - Montage of pictures, pictures from the beach, producing the video, behind the scenes footage. Makes the audience feel like they are getting some added extra photo's of the artist.

Back Cover - Sitting cross legged, back to the camera, looking up at the wallpaper that he has ripped down. There will be the lyrics to our song on bricks underneath the wallpaper.

We have decided that we are going to have our photo shoot for our digipack this week. We need to book and check when one of the rooms at school is available. We have chosen to use this certain room because the wall is long enough and is suitable for us to place the wallpaper on the walls. It also means that if we ever feel that we don't like the photo's we have taken, we know we can go back and take more.

Filming

Here are some photo's that i took of when we were filming at the beach.

Progress Report.

On saturday we went to Frinton Beach and filmed the majority of our music video. We had a few problems, the weather wasn't brilliant but it did stop raining enough that we could get all of our shots. Also, it got dark very quickly so some of our shots that were meant to be shot in the evening were difficult to do as it was so dark you couldn't really see our artist. 

Progress Report.

Over the last few lessons, Danielle, Harris and I have been planning our digipack and looking at idea's for posters for our artist. We will be filming on Saturday, so we have been taking some pictures of our plans for our inlays and front covers for our digipack. 

Today Danielle and I went to Homebase and bought some wallpaper that we could use to go over our brick wallpaper. We decided that it needed to look a bit older, so we have plans to tea-stain it and make it look a bit dirtier. 

We have also had a trial run of tearing the wallpaper. Danielle and I pinned the brick wallpaper and the normal one to a board, and then filmed me tearing it down to see if it would look okay, and how we needed to tear it so that you could see the lyrics behind.

We will post the video of this at a later date.

Props for digipack.

For our digipack we have decided that we are going to take some of our photo's in a room at our school. We will be putting brick wallpaper on the walls, with normal wallpaper over the top of it. We want to make it look like a room in a house, so we are going to use a few props in order to make it appear like one.

Table - The table will be provided for us from our media teacher. We want the table to be in the corner of the room, so that it is only just in the picture.

Chair - We think that this will make it look more like a room in a house. Danielle has a chair that she is going to bring in that we can use. 

Lamp - The lamp is one that we have at school. It will add extra light into our shot, but will still fit in with the homely theme that we have for our shots.

Plant - Again, the plant is something that we already have at school. It will add colour to the shot as we are considering having the pictures in some sort of effect, i.e sepia, or black and white.

Rug - We have decided that we want to use a green coloured rug, which will look good in our shots and will also help to create a carpet theme that you might find in an older house. 

Testing the wallpaper.

Danielle and I decided that we would test the brick wallpaper, so we found a small area of wall in our school common room and pinned some up. We then wrote some of  the lyrics up on it, to see how it would look. We wanted to make sure that the writing would come up on the wallpaper, and that it looked realistic. We were very happy with the results, and we will be using it for our digipack photoshoot.

Digipack Photo's.

 Picture 1.

                                                                                  Picture 2.              

  Picture 3.

                                                                                Picture 4.

 Picture 5.

                                                                                Picture 6.

















These are some of the pictures that we took for our digipack. One of our inlays will be a montage of pictures. We want some to be of him recording his music, playing the instruments, being relaxed and working on the computers to produce the music. We think that this is good because Indie artists are known for being independent and doing things themselves. We also want to show our artists fun side, and make it look like the recording studio is where he feels most comfortable.

More Fonts.

After looking on www.dafont.com i found a few fonts that i really liked. One of them is called "I am online with u". I really liked this font because it looks bold, modern and stands out on the page, which is something that we need the title of our album and artist to do. The double L of the word Wallpaper could show a strip of wallpaper falling, which relates to our album cover and the idea we had for the inlays of our album. 

Analysing Lyrics "Not Giving In."

Lost my heart
And lost my soul
Now it’s time
Baby, oh no

Lost my mind
And lost my goal

Oh, not giving in
I’m not giving in
Not giving in
Woh, I’m not giving in

Ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh

This time,I’m gonna be stronger
I’m not giving in

Waste my time…
Lost, and now my love is cursed
Time to make these things feel right
Oh, let’s start this show
Let’s shine this time

Oh, I’m not giving in
Not giving in
Not giving in
Not this time
Not gonna give in

Ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh, ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

This time, I’m gonna be stronger
I’m not giving in

Nooo
Not giving in
Not giving in
I’m gonna be stronger
I’m gonna be stronger

(This time
I’m gonna be stronger
I’m not giving in)

The lyrics in this song represent the fact that the artist feels that he has been weak and needs to be stronger and start changing things. "Lost my heart and lost my soul" although he hasn't physically lost either of them, he feels that somewhere down the line he has lost who he is. "Lost my mind and lost my goal" This shows to us that he did originally have some goals, but they have been forgotten and he hasn't reached them. The fact that the chorus says "not giving in, i'm gonna be stronger" shows to us that he is trying to get the message across that he is changing the way things have been and that from now on he is going to be a stronger person and do things the way that he had always planned. We don't know who exactly it is that he isn't giving in to, and this makes the audience wonder. Is it music critics, is it people in the industry who are trying to change him, is is someone close to him? It creates questions for the people who are listening to the track.

Class Feedback.

We played our song to the rest of the members of our class, and asked them to write down any idea's that came to their heads that might help us to come up with some idea's of our own. The feedback that we got back was:

Key Words - 

Sunset, fields, happy, upbeat, urban, acoustic, guitar, mellow, love, relaxing, city scene, flashback, eyes, beach, black and white, sun, drums, dancing.

After reviewing all of these idea's and going through them, our group came to the conclusion that everyone felt that the song was very upbeat, and had a happy side to it. They also thought that it was a very romantic song, and that he should be singing it for one girl in particular. 

These idea's fitted in well with some of the ones that we had already come up with for our video.

Elements of a Digipack.

There are lots of key elements that make up a digipack. You have to include the name of the band, the name of the album, the different tracks, price of the album, the link to their website, any bonus material that they are offering to the buyer, the name of the record company, any songwriters who were involved with the songs, musicians, the musicians thanks to people/fans, where and when it was recorded, and any legal jargon that must be included.

In a typical digipack, you will have the front cover, inlays (4) and the back cover. You might also include another disk that is any bonus material, i.e any bonus footage (possibly the making of the album and bloopers) and some bonus pictures that show the artists more causally then the audience might be used to seeing them.

The reason for a digipack is to help promote the album and get across the message that the artist/band want to be known for. It is meant to look desirable, and is meant to make the audience want to buy it and spend money on it. The more bonus material that they offer, the more likely the audience will be to buy it. They want to feel like they are getting their money's worth and that it would be better to buy the album then to download the tracks illegally, which would be free. 

The artist/band can also take the opportunity to sell some of their merchandise. They can include leaflets that advertise websites where fans might be able to buy T-Shirts, mugs or any other merchandise that they have decided to sell.

The inlays give the chance the artist/band to offer thanks to anyone who worked on the album, helped produce the songs, family and friends and also their fans. They can make it more personal by signing the album (obviously they will just print the signature on every album, but it still make the audience feel like the album has been done personally by that artist). By giving a message to their fans they can thank them for all of the support that they have offered, and this makes the audience feel that they should continue buying their albums and going to their performances as it is all appreciated. 

Beach Planning.

9:00am - everyone meet at Danielle's house to set off for Frinton.

11:00am - arrive at Frinton beach.

11.10am - Shoot the car scenes, have our artist drive the car, park up and get out with female.

11:30am - Check the shot list, and check that we have all the relevant car scenes.

11:35am - Go down to the beach and start filming all of the beach scenes.

1:30pm - Check that we have all of the relevant beach scenes.

1.35pm - Start filming all of the rock scenes, making sure that he sings the full song through for every shot that we do.

2.30pm - Check that we have every rock shot.

2.35pm - Start filming all of the beach hut scenes, and again make sure that he sings the whole song through for every shot.

3:00pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the beach hut scenes.

3:05pm - Start filming the kite scenes (have to make sure that the weather isn't too dark to film this, as the kite needs to be very visable)

3:30pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the kite scenes that we need.

3:35pm - film the pavilion and ice cream shots. 

4.15pm - Check and make sure that we have all of the pavilion shots that we need to have.

4.20pm - Film the tea light beach scenes, making sure that it is the right light. This means that we need it to be dark enough to use the tea lights and have them visable, but not so dark that you can't see our artist whilst he is performing.

5:00pm - Refer back to the shot list and check that we have every shot that we need. Check the shots and make sure that they are a good quality and that none need to be re-done.

5:15pm - Leave Frinton.

I think that it is important to have a plan and time of what we are going to be doing, because it ensures that we don't spend too long on a certain part of our filming. If we do, it might get dark and then we won't be able to film a lot of our scenes. We need to make sure that we are sensible with how long we will spend on all of the shots. 

Music Video Idea's

After having a group meeting, we decided that we found film our music video at the beach. We also decided that we were going to have a diagetic start to our video, which will set the scene and give viewers a story behind our video.

The story of the video is that our character is in love, and he wants to spend one more day with his girlfriend who has got to leave him. They decide that they are going to spend the day at the beach.

We are going to have them do typical things that you would see couples do when they are at the beach, they're going to get some food, mess around, go into the sea (only paddling, because the sea will be really cold at this time of the year) and fly a kite.

The girl will eventually have to leave our artist, and we will see just how much it is affecting him and how much he wants to have her back. We thought that this story fitted in with our lyrics for the song "Hazel Eyes".

When asking the man who wrote the song what his inspiration was behind the lyrics, he told us that it was to do with a previous relationship that he had, so we think that our idea's fit in well with what he originally wrote the song about. 

I think that all of the idea's that we have come up with fit with the story nicely and some of them fit in well with the lyrics. We wanted to make it so that some of the lyrics fit in with the visuals because we didn't want the video to be random, and for the audience to see that we have thought about the lyrics and what we think they mean and see if they get the same connotations.  

Brick Wallpaper.

We decided to use brick wallpaper for our digipack photo's. We thought that this would be easier to use instead of having to write on an actual wall. If we did that then we would either have to use a washable felt tip, or have to paint over the wall once we had finished with it. Also, if we use brick wallpaper it means that we can shoot at school, and it means that we know that everyone in our group will be able to be there for the shoot and be able to help and get involved.

Audience Research.

I decided to question people who were either 16, 17 or 18. I decided to do this because i thought that they were people from my generation and they were the sort of people that will be watching my music video.

Questions:

1. How old are you?
2. What genre of music do you listen to?
3. When you hear the word "indie" what do you think of?
4. Do you watch a lot of music video's?
5. What would you expect to see in a music video?

Answers:

1. I'm 17.
2. I listen to mainly R&B and hip hop.
3. I always think of males, and guitars. I also think of the songs being very acoustic and simple.
4. I watch quite a lot of music video's because i am always interested in how the artist wanted to get the song and lyrics across and if there is a story behind what they have done.
5. A narrative story that entices the audience and also shows what they mean by the lyrics.

Answers:

1. I'm 18.
2. I listen to quite a lot of indie-rock.
3. I think of the artist being very soulful and individual. I think of an artist that isn't trying to be like someone, but has their own sense of style.
4. I watch a few, but not that many. I'm not really interested in the music video's but more the actual song itself.
5. I guess i would expect to see the artist performing and possibly doing something different to all the other music video's that are out there. There are so many music video's that sometimes they get boring. I want to be excited.

Answers:

1. I'm 17.
2. I listen to a lot of soul and jazz music.
3. I don't really understand what counts as Indie, and what doesn't. I always thought that it meant that the artist had made it from the bottom by themselves, and that they hadn't needed any help to be where they are today. When i think of indie artists, i think of bands or an individual on small stages infront of not that many people, and doing anything they can to work their way up.
4. I do watch a lot of music video's because i like to look at the artist and see if they feel comfortable infront of the camera and if they can adjust and get their message across visually.
5. I think you should see the artist showing off what their song is about and going back to the basics. I don't think that you need a lot of visual effects and a lot of money to make a great music video. It should all be about getting across what the lyrics mean to the artist.

Alex Clare.

Alex Clare is a british songwriter/singer. 

In 2011 he released his album "The Lateness of the Hour".

He has chosen to have a black and white themed album, with his name in bold at the top. Although his name and the album title are in black so don't stand out because of their colour, the fact that they are large print and have the white background and the gap between the writing and the black and white image means that it really stands out.







The fact that we don't see his face on the front cover adds mystery and makes the audience wonder about his appearance. It also might represent the fact that he doesn't want people to think about his looks but rather the music that he has created. The images on the album are quite confusing for the buyer. There appears to be a clock, a bear, and a ship on some water. The boat could represent moving on, and sailing away from his past. The bear could represent strength and the fact that he has got that strength to create his music, and the clock could represent that this is his time to do what he loves.

Rudimental ft John Newman and Alex Clare

I was looking for a video that has a prelude like our video will have. 

In this video they have just all narrative, and you don't actually ever see the artist performing. However, i have chosen to look at this video because it has a prelude before the music starts, which gives us some background information on the characters in the video. This is what we want to do for our music video, showing the audience a bit of background information on our artist and his story with his girlfriend.

Planning and Organising.

We thought that the best way to organise everything and speak to all of the people who were in our group and in our video would be to have an inbox with everyone on it on Facebook. It was there that we realised that Mike, who was going to be our male artist could not make the dates that we wanted to go and film. 

It was a good idea that we had this inbox because it meant we could keep everyone up to date and everyone could see our idea's and discuss when everyone was free. It also meant that Danielle, Harris and I could find out what was going on so that we could keep up to date with everything on our blogs.

Weather Forecast.

This is the weather forecast for the day that we want to go filming:

Day - 5 degree's to 13 degree's.  


Night - 1 degree to 11 degree's.


This is on the 10th of November which is a saturday.


From BBC weather.

We could work through lots of different weather conditions, so it doesn't really matter to us what the weather is like so long as it isn't pouring with rain. If it rains a little bit then we can still film. We just have to make sure that the weather isn't too windy or raining too hard because we only get one day and one chance to film as the location that we have picked is quite far from us and is a long way to go. 

Font Idea's.

Here are some font idea's that i came up with for our album. cover on our digipack. 

Equipment that we need to bring.

When we are filming we need to make sure that we bring:

Camera
Charger for camera
Tripod
Battery strip light
Props