Changes to poster

The main thing I need to change from my poster is the font. The feedback I received was the font was too child-like and not folky/sophisticated (this was for the digipak too as they used the same font) I have now changed this font- which I feel looks less child-like and easier to read. I decided to keep the artists name in Red as it matches the artists lipstick, and stands out from the black.

Other thing I have done so far is made the reviews smaller and moved them to the bottom of the page. Doing this, has split the page into 3 sections. With the Artist and album title in the first section, the artists face in the 2nd section and the reviews at the bottom section. The main focus goes to the middle section, as this is the artist face being the main feature of the poster.

There were quite a few problems while we were filming the draft of our music video; we didn't have as many 'characters' as we were going to as some couldn't do it for the draft, including the artist. However, we filled in the spaces as well as we could. There was also a slight problem with setting, as we weren't able to film in all of the places we were going to- we had to change outside to inside and a sofa to in my room. The only other main problem was the camera- we had bad luck with the cameras so had to film on various different things (an actual camera, the camera on a phone, another camera, my ipod) so there is no continuity to the lighting or quality of the picture. Because of the camera problems there are also parts which are very wobbly, as with my ipod and the camera on a phone we were not able to connect them to the tripod.
Though things went wrong, we are able to take things from this and therefore ensure that we make the final music video how we envisioned it and fill in all the spaces correctly. As there was a problem with the editing software there was no time for us to both do the editing, but Jemma took my memory stick to do it. I think that she edited all that we have very well, and you can still see the overall concept of the music video. As well as filming the video to the best standard we can for the final, we are also of course going to make sure that we split the editing evenly.

Music Video Draft

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After we got the rest of our recordings done for the draft, I went home after we had filmed and edited all ofthe footage that we have. As I have put them together, I have realised that a few of the timings (lip synching is out of time) and there are not many people- this was due to the fact our artist couldn't make it, however, I took on the role to see what it would be like when we filmed the final thing and changed outfits so we know when its the artist singing or myself singing. The drafting process was helpful as it has shown us how much time we will need when we film our final version, and we can see if any shot here doesn't quite work we may need to change that.

For the draft of the music video, as the programme that was provided for us at school was not working for us, we were aloud to use Windows movie maker to get our draft complete for tomorrow, however, when we do our final video we shall be hopefully using Adobe Premier Elements.

Changes in the Video

Due to some problems with both of the couples who were to feature in our music video, we have had to change some parts. We spoke about it, planning what would be the best to do to replace the parts which will be missing and decided on:

• Jemma's part (8 seconds): plan A- use Jemma's sister to show sister relationship instead of boyfriend/girlfriend- just change picture to Jemma and her sister, but keep the rest the same. Keep the trinket the same (as if it has been passed down through the family.) Plan B- use photos of Jemma and Josh to show that there was a relationship there (images of both them and the trinket.)
• Leanne's parts (5 seconds): Leanne walking on her own showing that there is someone missing or pretend as though he is there.

We are most likely going to go with plan A as we think that plan B would not flow as easily and it would be too slow. The first idea is also best as we will then have a wider range of relationships; sisters, friends, child/parent, grandchild/grandfather and boyfriend/girlfriend. I think that having a wide range of relationships in our video is important as otherwise the meaning may not be as clear of effective.

Poster and Digipak Drafts

Above is the draft for both my digipak and my poster. I took ideas for the poster/advert mainly from others that I have seen, which usually feature things such as the date of its release and an already-heard of song. I think that by adding a one word review from Rolling Stone magazine would attract the audience, and they would then think that it is going to be good and want to check it out. I think that the date of its release, 3.3.12, stands out well, as you first look at the artist, then the album title and then the date as it is the next largest text and is placed in the center so it would stick in your head. 
On the inside panel of the digipak where the picture is, I had planned to design some sort of pull-out for lyrics as I think that with just a picture it would look quite boring and plain. I am going to suggest this idea to Jemma when we start on the final piece.
I had planned to use much more of an artistic element to the drafts, but from the amount of time that I had to do it, I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I particularly like the cover of the album, as it looks neat, yet artistic with the font that I used for the album name.
When Jemma and I get round to doing the final pieces we are going to ensure all of our effort is put into it. I know that one thing I must do is allow myself more time to get the task done so that I can avoid rushing it and get the best grade I can.

Shooting Schedule

Equipment for Filming

Following are pictures of the equipment we used while in the process of filming.

Today we filmed all of the shots that I am in alone. (Post to follow) There were no problems with any of the equipment; the only annoyance was that the tripod was a bit stiff to move every time that we needed to but other than that the filming went well and we got everything done that we planned to.
We are to use the same equipment- minus the docking station, as at other people's houses we will use theirs instead of mine- every time that we film. So far we have got all of my shots completed that I am in alone, and half of the artist's. The rest we are to shoot during the week after school.

Communication for filming.

To finalise the details to film parts of our music video on the sunday (which we have now filmed) me and Ella had to sort out before hand what we would be fliming, what we would need and the location.

Digi Pac & Poster

For my poster, I have used the colour scheme of black, white and red as these three colours go well together. I decided to keep the background white and have the black as the main colour for the font as they are two colours that work well together. The red is taken from the lipstick colour from the artist. Before completing my poster, I had to make sure I had my digi pac front cover complete so this could be added to my poster to show some form of link between the two designs. Having completed this now, I have realised I have not put the record company (the name I created) onto my poster, yet have included it onto my digi pac. This is something I'll need to add to the final idea.

When I was designing the poster, I found it easier to do than the digi pac, this is because I did not need to be thinking about more than one thing and as the digi pac has 4 panels, this would be slightly harder to plan out as I was unsure of what to add here. From designing the poster first, this allowed me to have a continuous colour scheme with the digi pac, and for now decided to use the same picture on both- this was because I like the brightness of the photo, and how it stands out from the writing (even if the image is placed on the side)

The digi pac was harder to complete as I had no idea as to what was going to be inside my digi pac panel. The front cover uses the same colour scheme and the same image as the poster- this was the easier part of the task. After this, I decided to complete the back, and have for now used songs which are already in the charts/ on sale (I'm unsure for the final if I need to make up the song names?) however, if I do not need to think of them myself I feel I shall keep these names as they go with the theme of love- this is also shown through the use of album name 'Love only hurts'. At the moment, I only have 10 song names on the back too, I may need to consider adding a few more as most albums have 12-14 songs.

For the inside panel (next to where the CD is being kept) I had no idea what I was going to put here, however, after my teacher showed me a few albums I liked the idea of using the panel to make a 'thank you' note to the listener- A 'thank you' was used as a panel in an existing album (I think it's Kings of Leon's album) and decided to do this idea. I think this would be a good idea to do but I may need to add more writing to this panel. I also added the stars at the top and bottom of this panel to add a bit of colour to it. The inspiration for the stars was taken from Regina's Spektor's album- Begin to hope- when she uses black starts on the front cover. At the moment, I'm not too sure if they should be in black or colours or not there at all, however, I like the way they act as a boarder to the text.

(Reading through my digi pac, I have realised I have spelt 'Listener' wrong, this is something I'll correct in the final piece)

Poster so far (mostly complete)

For my poster so far, I have decided to put the artist to the right of the page. I've taken this from the album cover of 'Regina Spektor- Begin to hope' however, as I didn't want to use black and white I decided to change the brightness on the picture. At the moment, I have used music notes to represent the '5 star marking' that posters usually use on the front of theirs. I wanted to used music notes to show that it was a music poster, to divert away from a movie poster.

I used Q magazine as it is a well known music magazine which covers and genre of music and I also used the 'pitchfork' one as it covers the music genres that fit well with the type of music I am advertising. I then used the HMV logo to show where about the music would be on sale, also HMV is a well established company, well known for selling music and such. I also used the red from the artist name to highlight the 'now available at' as it shows a change from the 'reviews'- written in the black.

In the space between the reviews and the HMV part, I have decided- when it's complete- that I will place a picture of my digi pac front cover in this space. This shows that the poster has some form of connection to the digi pac and by using the same picture and colour scheme on both the poster and digi pac the audience will associate the two together.

In the music video, there will be seven different main people: myself, Jemma, Hannah, Delphi (the artist), Leanne and a parent and child. This is to show that love is universal, so we will use different relationships. Each person will have a trinket representing a relationship with someone else. Mine will be a ring given to me by Hannah, who will be my best friend. Hannah's will be something similar. The artist's will be a photograph of her grandfather. In the next lesson we are going to discuss the full idea of what Leanne and Jemma will be doing, as that has changed.
Still though, the basic narrative of the music video will remain the same. The artist will be shown singing various lines and be the first to sing so that it is clear that she is the artist. Others will sing different lines but through the use of flashbacks (showing the different relationships) it will be clear that they are just characters in the video. Where there was going to be two people in a relationship, we are going to try to still create the sense of a relationship having been there, just minus one side.

Poster and digi pac so far

This is the photo I am using for both my poster and digipac. I have decided to use this as the main image on the poster and the digipac to show that the poster and digipac are both by the same artist.

To change the way the image looks, I decided to change the brightness and the contrast of the image, to give the artist a lighter look. I like this photo as the artist goes well with the white colour background I am using. I have also decided to use a red colour for the artist name- this matches the artist lipstick from the photo.

I have placed this at the top of my poster, as it will be the first thing that people notice. The red colour stands out from the back ground and also goes with the black colour I have used for the rest of the writing on the poster. I also think for my digi pac I will use the red as the artist name and any other writing in black too, as they both work well together.

Album analysis: Regina Spektor

Pictures

I took some pictures of the artist for both myself and Jemma. These shots were to both the show the outfit for the music video (dotted dress) and the outfit that the artist will be wearing on both the digipak and poster. I took many pictures so that there would be a variety of pictures and angles to choose from. If necessary, I would take more pictures to get one that I am certain of. However, I am sure which to use now, which I will put in a different post.

The initial idea of the music video was for it to portray the universality of love, which is why we were to use different relationships and couples. However, as we are no longer able to use two of the couples. the general idea has stayed the same, but it has had to be tweaked. There will still have been a couple, but not both sides will be able to be featured. Due to this, we are going to change Hannah and I from being a couple to being 'best friends' instead. This would stop the whole relationship concept from appearing messy as this would be the only one to have both sides of a couple featured. The relationship between close friends is of course strong anyway, so none of what we would do would change, they just would not be together. Jemma has agreed that this would be the best thing to do.

Final arrangements for tomorrow

I decided to inform Ella about the recent post I made, and to then also tell her that one person is unavailable for shooting. To get round this, we now need to meet up tomorrow during second lesson to sort out what we will do to fill the 8 seconds gap- I have an idea which I will run by Ella tomorrow then add the update over the weekend. The 8 seconds we have will need to be filmed at my house tomorrow (as the original shots involved me and someone else) so we will need to print off some more story boards, and re-do this part ready for filming in the evening.

Filming tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first time that me and Ella are filming. Today in class we had a discussion on what we were going to be filming (shot wise), how we would be getting to the location of of filming, the clothing that is going to be used in our filming.

To stop any potential things that may make the filming come to a stop, we have planned out what we need to be doing tomorrow.

• Collect tripod from the school during 2nd lesson. (on loan for over the weekend)
• Get the bus from school (after school has finished) and arrive at Fosse Park approximately for 4:10- this taking into account if the bus is running late.
• Walk from here to the location (Jemma's house)- Approximately 10-15 minutes.
• Jemma to get into costume while Ella sets up the camera (distance and camera mode) and any props and lighting.
• Film the close up of Jemma first- this needs to be approximately 1 second, however, we need to make sure we film over 1 second in case we need it longer. This shot may be the shot that takes the longest as it is the first and we need to make sure the lighting is continuous throughout. (as this shot will be used more than once, we will need to write down on a piece of paper which shot it is needed at) Shot 5/ 76
• Film the mid-shot of the sofa- again, this is approximately 1 second, filming over just in case. Shot 4/ Shot 75
• Film the close-up of the neckless- 1 second: Shot 7/ Shot 78
• Film mid-shot of Jemma on the sofa: 'We heard November rain'- Shot 38
• Film mid- shot of Jemma 'You're young until you're not' Shot 44
• Film mid-shot of Jemma 'You hear November rain' Shot 60
• Film mid-shot of Jemma 'On the radio, uh oh' Shot 65

I have already written out the shot number, type of shot, and what is happening in the shot on some paper, this way we can put it in front of the camera before shooting so when we put it on the computer we know what order we can put them in.

(I apologise for the poor quality- they were taken on the laptop webcam)

To also save time tomorrow, Ella said that I have the choice in what I wear. We decided to take this approach to the video as we don't want to make everyone dress in an anti-folk style (I think my style of clothing will suit this theme though)

Tomorrow, I will be wearing this dress (navy coloured with cherries all over it) plus the neckless (as this is the trinket in the video) I feel that this dress suits the theme of the anti-folk song. It is also something that Ella approves of me wearing- as we discussed it today during our lesson.

Communication in the Organisation of our Music Video

We have used a variety of different technology in order to organize who is posting what, and what days we are free to film. This includes Twitter, Facebook and texting. We have used them to communicate not just with each other, but with the characters who are to be in the music video.

Characters in our Music Video

Ella and Hannah:

Jemma:

Delphi: (Artist)

Leanne:

Parent and child:

(Picture to follow)

We are going to take pictrues of each character individually in what they will be wearing in the actual video. The characters which appear more than once, both in flashback and not, will have more than one outfit to show that the time has change. The characters will keep their own style, except from the artist as she will have the anti-folk style which we have previously looked at.

Analysis of Album Artwork

Paolo Nutini Album Art- Sunny Side Up

Ideas for Album Artwork

I have been looking at the artwork of artists of a similar genre who have used artistic elements. I am considering using both a photograph of the artist, mixed in with something arty. For example, I am considering painting/drawing half of the artist and using a photograph for the other half. I also like Regina Spektor's idea of using the cloudy blue sky from Rene Magritte's art, so I may try to emulate that. I am going to try this a few times, using different colours-black and white with just the sky in colour/fully in colour- and then decide whether I think it will work or not. I have also noticed that anti-folk artists also tend to use art on their album covers, so my artist would be conforming to this.

Analysis of Album Artwork

Elissa Franceschi Album Art- I Hold My Breath

Album cover: Jason Mraz

I decided to look at this album cover as it is different to the style that would match with my genre of music, however I like this type of style as it simple but still has all the main infomation placed on it. I do not think I will continue to look at this design for a digi pac but by looking at a design like this it has allowed me to narrow down the type of thing I want to design.

                  


                 


I also looked at these album covers too. I picked out the first two as they were by the same artist. The album covers use a similar type of style on the front of the cover, this may be a 'signature' thing the artist does to make the audience recognise a new album is out. Both the top covers follow similar traits as they both have the artist name and name of the album featured somewhere on the album and uses a simple font.

The bottom two imagery appear to have no link to the artist or the name of the album either. The first one at the bottom pays more attention to the image than the name of the band, but the white font colour stands out next to the red and the black background. On the first one, the lexis 'about' stands out the most- suggesting the name of the album is literally 'about Jane' making it personal to someone. Finally, I like the last one as it is simple and works very well. I like the use of the white font on the colour background with the image in the middle (it is styled like the Jason Mraz one) I like how intresting the smashed lightbulb is placed on the front of the page- The name of the album 'how to save a life' may link with the smashed lightbulb suggesting the 'life', however it cannot be 'saved' as it is broken. I could do this type of style and use an image that represents the artist and the album name.