Finished Music Video

Completed Magazine Advertisement

We wanted our magazine advertisement (edited on Adobe Photoshop CS5 ) to include key information, such as: 

• the name of our band (Disciples of Rock - so they would know who to check out, if they enjoyed the songs)
• the title of the album (L.O.U.D - as we wanted to give the audience a clue as to what this album is about - breaking free and not standing in the silence any longer)
• the best selling song of the album (What Do You Want? - to advertise the music video also)
• the release date, so they now exactly when they can get it
• some 5* reviews, so they know that the album is worth listening to - also the reviews are from HMV and iTunes (so they know where they can purchase the album)

Idea 1

The rubix cube matches our key prop in the video which symbolises how our artist is no longer being manipulated like a puzzle would be, the colours also match the loud vibe we were trying to create. However we felt that for a rock genre this did not stand out enough and engage our target audience and not everyone would be able to figure out that symbolic code of the cube.  

Idea 2

With this idea we were going to have an image of the artist holding her head and then add some musical instrument flying from her head - similar to thoughts, however although an intriguing idea we felt that the image contradicted our idea that the artist is now bold with a new status of independence.

Idea 3

We therefore opted to use a more outgoing pose which relates to the rock genre (with our artist making the stereotypical rock hand gesture), she can also be seen wearing a leather jacket and headphones - thus implying her involvement with musical rock. But this image was fairly small and we felt it could be hard to make our properly.

Thus we chose this image which emphasises rock even more (with those rock hand gesture and an intense face - something many relate to rock musicians), the image also includes lots of loud colours like the rubix cube (linking directly to the album's message about making noise).

Final Idea

For our final idea however we thought it best to remove the black and white gradient from the background, as it drew too much attention away from the imagery and the key information by over-crowding the advertisement. The black background also allowed for a more professional look were you can't see the surrounding black boxes of the text and image.

Completed Digipak

Having used this template we were able to create our digipak on Adobe Photoshop CS5

Our Front Cover

For our digipak we really wanted to convey how our artist is trying to break from her long kept silence, this is why although the artist has her mouth shut, she can be seen (in almost a x-ray like fashion) with musical instruments (guitar, drums, microphones, musical lyrics and a speaker) in her throat (to symbolise her new found voice). The effect we have chosen is great, as it emphasises the colours well, linking visually to our use of the rubix cube (which we feel represent the manipulative game she's trying to break free from)! (Hence our album is called 'Loud'.)

Spine

Our spine involves the name of our band ('Disciples of Rock' - as we follow that genre specifically), as well as including some white slanted lines (that we think are symbolic to guitar strings - something used often within the songs as well as the video).








Inside Left

For our inside left cover, we opted to show our artist in an almost evolutionary stage (starting from an almost unnoticeable ball hidden in the corner of the room, until she reaches her new found freedom of speech). We also felt this filter added the idea of not only sound waves but chains (again what she's breaking free from).

Inside right

We have included a bright colourful background to emphasis the loudness of our album and then the vinyl is a record player including the title of the album and the name of our band. The colours link to the rubix cube we used within the music video and emphasis our theme of a 'game'. In addition the messy overlapping lines convey the 'loudness' of the album and video.

Back Cover

Our back cover simply shows the songs within the album (with the number one hit at the top, so it draws in the most attention). And although quite simple with not too much overcroading, it still remains pretty bold and distinctive adding to the theme of being loud. We included not only the barcode but the production teams logo and iTunes (a possible site you could purchase it from).

Finished product

Social media feedback on magazine cover

Interviews after construction

I decided to interview a few members of my target audience after the construction of our media products. This way i could gain an insight as to whether we would successfully appeal to them and also see if we had met the demands of a rock genre. Through doing this face to face it was much more effective that using social internet sites and survey monkey as I could see their body language towards our products and see what they liked and disliked.

Evaluation of music video

Today we made a mind map of the possible cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene we could have used within our music video. 

Blue Circles- Represent the aspects that we managed to include within our video.

Orange Circles- Represent that we developed this.

Red Circles- Represent how we challenged this.

From doing this we saw that we have used everything we put down, which shows that we have effectively achieved our aims of including a variety of camera shots and editing techniques, as well as including all the props stereotypical to our genre. In using all of these techniques it will make our music video more appealing to our target audience and will subsequently help to encode our genre well. In addition we have developed various techniques and have not challenged anything within our mind map. However our use of the rubix cube theme throughout the video is challenging the typical props used and themes of a rock genre e.g skating and rebelling. 

Re-editing of music video

  

Today we got feedback on our music video so far and had the issues with it addressed. The main issue at the moment is the letter boxing, where the size and shapes of the clips we have put together are not all the same. This therefore makes it look unprofessional and will need to be corrected so that the music video is appealing to audiences. As well as this our clips need to be matched up to the lyrics more so that our lip syncing is correctly in time. 

The main aspect we want to improve on is how the visuals on the screen change, to match with the beat. For example when a drum comes in we would like to show our band member playing the drum in time to it, to make our music video more effective and catchy to our target audience. 

Screen shots and clips for evaluation Question 1

relationship of lyrics to visuals

relationship of music to visuals

representation of band and artist

genre of music and how it is defined

setting/location

camerawork and editing

mise en scene

intertextuality or influence of other music videos
(avril lavigne and the costume)

Front cover of Digipak and band name

(Edited on Adobe Photoshop CS5 as well as Office Word Document and Office PowerPoint).

Having completed our front cover for the digipak, we have decided that the band name will be 'Disciples of Rock' (a name we feel infers our chosen subject well). 

The main theme for our digipak is that our artist is breaking free from her silence in the game (her life) and so we opted to use an almost skeletal image filter with musical instruments and notes showing up within her throat (symbolising her new voice). The filter effect also adds a bold pop of colour against the black background, thus not only matching the colours from our key prop (the rubix cube), but also displaying the loudness of her inner voice through the use of brightness. We feel the look could also be perceived as rock, since the tiny symbols could be mistaken for tattoos (something a lot of rock artist's get).

Evaluation of music video

What went well with creating our music video:

• From lip sync practice I knew how to edit and use markings to match up video clips to the lyrics of the song. This made the process of getting clips onto our timeline and matching them up faster. This way we then had more time to edit each individual clip and use effects to improve the look of our music video.
• Our costumes used on the artist and the band members effectively matched our music video genre. This way the audience could easily decode the style and match it to our chosen genre of rock.
• From audience feedback we found out that our target audience would watch our video more than once, which as a record company was our aim.
• Our props were easy to get hold of as we could use the ones from our school and therefore made filming easier.
• Our music video is set in different locations within our school, which meant that we could film inside and outside our lessons.
• Did not have to travel to locations so therefore saved time, which allowed more time for filming our video.
• We used two cameras while filming to get different shot-angles and therefore made our music video look more interesting, in addition to allowing us to have more clips to use throughout the timeline.
• We previously knew how to create overlapping editing from our AS film trailer, which allowed us to save time when editing as we did not have to learn new skills. Additionally our overlapping linked to the beat of the music as we could effectively show a clip and over lap it with a instrument being played when the beat changed. This made our video then flow and look more appealing to our target audience.
• We learned how to do new editing skills that we did not know previously and made our video look better editing wise.
• The concept of ''games' linking to the rubix cube was effective as it gave us a clear concept and linked to the lyrics of the song, therefore the audience could easily decode our visuals.
  

What I would do differently next time:

• Next time I would use more locations for our video, such as a actual stage that the band can perform on. We could have made a stage out of equipment from our theatre at school or gone to a venue which hosts small gigs, which my friends sometimes play at.
• Although we used two camera when filming in some clips, I would use two cameras to film every clip we used. This way we would have more shot angles to use, which makes our music video more appealing to audiences, in addition to having more clips to fill our timeline with and use for editing.
• Would include more shot types that are not commonly seen such as high angles looking towards and over the shoulder shots. This then would give the music video more uniqueness, instead of focusing mostly on close-up shots which can become boring to the audience.

What were the difficulties with creating our music video:

• On final cut express I found that when adding another clip to the timeline, the other clips alone the timeline would move and therefore the video and the lyrics would not match up and make our video out of sync. This then was time consuming as we had to reorder our original clips and use markers to match up the video to the lyrics.
• The length of the music provided a problem. This was because our rock genre had to have fast paced clips and therefore every clip we filmed would have to be fasted and added to the timeline on final cut express. As a result of fastening the clips, we had to film double the amount to fill the whole time line compared to a pop genre, which can be slower and have longer durations of each clip.

Music video

CD cover

Digipack design ideas

Plan for editing in music video

Through looking at similar products from a rock genre, I found that in Avril Lavigne's "Smile" music video, she changed from low key black and white editing, to colour throughout. We decided to use this concept within our music video, by starting it in black and white then changing to colour with the introduction of the rubix cube, due to the theme of a game.

In addition the location of parts of the video are very basic and plan, with just a white back ground. We decided to develop this through the use of our location in the drama studio. By doing this the main attention is on the artist and the music of the song.

Unfinished version of our music video for audience feedback

We decided to show our nearly finished music video to our target audience to gain their feedback and use their comments to develop our product. Through this we found that they thought our use of costumes and props linked effectively to our genre, as well as the clips linking to the lyrics and beat of the music. Additionally we found that they believed our concept of linking "games" with the genre was effective and original, as well as the fact that they would watch our music video more than once. This is good as our aim was to have props, costumes and a theme that would link to our genre and be easy to decode as a rock genre by our target audience.

Magazine advertisement idea

Drawing of my magazine advertisement idea:

For my magazine advertisement idea I took inspiration from looking at previous artists advertisements of their album, as well as the layout within the magazine. I have put the bands name at the top of the advertisement, in the biggest letters so that it stands out to audiences. Furthermore the majority of the space is took up with the artists image which will appear at the front of the album. This is because as it is a new artist, we want to advertise her as well as the band, so she is a popular image within the music industry. In addition the audience will recognise the album within shops as they know what it looks like. Moreover along the bottom there will be reviews out of five, in addition to the release date, record label and production company. 

Practicing editing still photos

For this I took still photos in various locations and shot types, so we have a range of ideas for what camera angles to use within our music video, to make it more exciting for audiences to watch more than once. On final cut express I then edited each one in different styles and colour themes so that there is a range of ideas to consider for editing that can be used on different parts of our music video. I have tried to stick with a red or black theme so that it goes with our rock genre, therefore audiences will be able to recognise this and decode our video. However I have also used one or two in a paint/blur style, in very colourful colours to represent our artist being in what she describes as a 'game', along with the colours representing the rubix cube.

Analysing music magazine advertisements

 Analysing conventions of a magazine advert for a CD: 

I looked at the Arctic Monkey's advertisement for their CD within a magazine, looking at the conventions of the layout, colour, text and themes. The name of the artist was the biggest on the ad, showing that they rely on their branding alone to draw attention. The CD was a medium close up of a girls face, showing that the artists are not even on the advertisement, which could suggest they are not interested in promoting themselves/ their image, but the music itself. 

The main conventions that are normally seen within a magazine advertisement for music is:

1) The artists name

2) A picture of the artist/band

3) The logo or name of the record label

4) Reviews in the style of stars out of five

5) The release date of the album

6) The albums names, in addition to some of the previous singles being advertised

Album Name

These are words that we have brainstormed in relation to our song genre and artist, we hope to get an idea of an album name from these.

When brainstorming we thought about how the artist is singing about her controlling relationship and how now she is tired of her partners 'game' and how she just wants 'independence' rather than the 'mayhem' its causing her to feel. We also believed that her relationship could resemble a natural disaster hence the use of 'riptide'...

But overall we like 'independence', 'play' and 'loud' the most, therefore we hope to use these within our album name.

My first attempt using Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit album covers

Adobe photoshop cs5 from Madeleine Fox