Deadlines

The editing our commentary needs to be completed and on our blog by 14th December

Improving our individual evaluations needs to be finished by Monday 12th December

Our blog work needs to be finished by 15th

The editing of our product

For the editing we used a piece of software called Final cut. This software enabled us to add effects and generally edit our product to a professional level easily.

• The first step we took was to insert our footage into Final Cut. This was made easy through the use of a simple interface where you could drag the footage you wanted into a window where it would import into Final Cut.
• We then began to order our footage by following the storyboard and then putting it on the time-line. During this process we deleted any out-takes that we had filmed by mistake to make finding a particular piece of footage easier.
• We then made sure the lip-syncing was accurate to the music by having the soundtrack at the bottom of our time-line and lining it up with the music being played in the footage. This was made easier with the 'quick key' function on the keyboard with the use of '<' '>' these keys which moved the footage only slightly to either side so that we could line up the footage and the music with accuracy.



Colour correction image

• After this we began to add in effects like colour correction. This helped to enhance our videos visuals dramatically as we gave the scenes more of an Autumn glow and helped to make the footage seem more professional. 
• Then we added in cross fades to help the bridging between scenes so that the video as a whole runs smoother and more fluent. This is also an easy concept to handle as it is a simple drag and drop process. 
• After this we added in desaturation (black and white) to the flashback scenes to help illustrate that they are actually flashbacks. We also added in a faded white edges around the scenes to help them seem more surreal and dream like. 
• We then finally added a fade to white in the last scene to help initiate the ending of our product and make it seem more visually pleasing. 

Overall our product editing worked out well because we kept to a good schedule and added in a lot of effects to keep the audience interested and entertained.        

Initial Ideas

For our initial ideas we thought about doing a parody version of the song 'what do u want' by 'cassie' where a male would dress up as a female singer and perform in a stereotypical female mannor. We first had this idea because we thought it would be unique and might appeal more to the comical side of audiences. However do to peer feedback we found that this was a flawed idea because not everyone would understand the concept. Also it is hard to make a truly funny music video that isn't just funny for the people who made it; there is a fine line between humour and stupidity.
Therefore we decided to change our idea and approach. Therefore we then decided to look for a track that featured a male singer (do to our group being all males). However we could not find any songs that suited our ambitions and ideas and so we asked to look for a song on another CD track choice. We then found a song called 'Future in you' by Ne-Yo which we began to brainstorm for and decided that this was a good song for us to work with.

Change in filming location

During the exploration process for a location we found Trinity college to be a suitable filming location do to its good tree coverage (following with our Autumn theme) and also a good pathway that would create a nice scene. However do to restricted access on the premises we had to change our location to the fields around a nearby village: Bottisham. This turned out to be just as suitable because there was good coverage for trees and nice scenery with nearby fields. This also helped to be useful as it was closer to our houses and so travel was less of an issue. Also for the indoor scenes we were able to use our female actors house whom lives in Bottisham therefore again making travel to and forth the locations easy.

Album track listing research

Here is the back cover from Eminem debut album 'the Slim Shady LP'. This tracklist as you can see is wrapped around the left side of Eminem's body, this has been done most likely because Eminem writes his songs based on his own life and experiences, so by having the tracklist around his body shows that the tracks are close to his heart. This is a unique way of listing the track because it links the tracks to the image and shows Eminem's individuality and originality. The colour scheme used for the font is black, this works well in contrast with the background image.

We will use this technique in our own digipack because the text helps to attract the audiences eye to the artist do to the effect of leading lines. This also helps the text to blend in and work better with the background image if it fits with some of the curvatures of the subject as it looks more natural.

Evaluation - George Goldhawk

1.Our media product uses the conventions of a typical R&B music video. The lyrics in the music video are illustrative, the use of voyeurism is absent as our lyrics are about  a women; not objectifying them. The editing cuts were about 5-10 seconds long. This is inspiration from another real media product was ‘Ne-yo’ – ‘One in a million, as this follow the same conventions as our video.

Take that’s single ‘Patience’ inspired us to do our ‘walking’ themed video where our ‘ne-yo’ walked through the forest reminiscing. The lighting has been inspired from the ‘Greatest Day’ as the orange glare creates a happy effects.

2.All three work as a promotional package because they are all based on the artist in our album cover research we noticed that less established have their faces on the albums covers because they have less recognition, by doing the album face cover this gets them more public recognition. The image they create is one that makes our guy look a ladies man who doesn’t treat women as object but as one that completes him.  The album cover is especially food at attracting the audience as we use reviews from ‘NME’ as 5star, because this will ensure the audience that top critics back the song.

3.The feedback from the rough cut is all positive and most comment on the performance of our character and lip syncing. Also there is feedback on good intertextual references regarding the iPhone mirror shot, fashion was alos highlighted as this is more attracting to the target audience. The feedback from the initial pitch was very constructive as the plan was to dress Alex up as a female, but then after receiving the feedback we decided that this was not a good idea because the video may have come across as a comedy as this was not the message we wanted to send out.

4.Final cut played a massive part in the video as it was our ain editing software, HD cameras are a new technology that allowed us to film in very high quality and at a higher frame rate the only downside is that it takes longer to render. Photoshop was used to create our digipack, no body in our group is very experienced with Photoshop which made it hard for us to create a professional looking image but I still think it looked pretty good.

Commentary Evaluation

On the day of filming we travelled down to the black room where we began filming our video commentary. This went well as we did it quickly and efficiently with little out-takes.

Our commentary uses visual references such as clips from our product and images of our ancillary texts this helped to emphasise our points and make the commentary on a whole more visually appealing. We also integrated text shots of the questions so the audience can easily see what we were talking about and again makes it more interesting.

Overall I think our commentary video works well in providing information on what our product is about and what we intended for the product in a visually pleasing way.    

Story Board evaluation

Overall we think we have produced a successful storyboard that follows a good narrative that relates well to the song. Also we have put in many various shots to liven up the video and keep the audiences attention such as: close ups, pan shots, tracking shots, mid-shots, over the shoulder shots etc. Some of these shots such as close-ups, can also increase artist recognition do to the close view of the artist's face.

The timing with the soundtrack also goes well because with some of the scenes we have made it so it cuts to a flashback of the artist and the female character when the lyrics say "think about, you and me together".  This makes some of the scenes illustrative to the song as they visually demonstrate what the lyrics and saying verbally.

A negative with our storyboard would be the location, if we had more time then we would have been able to visit more visually interesting and dynamic scenery to help convey the emotions the artist is feeling and also give more varied and appealing scenes.

In conclusion I think out storyboard gives a good illustrative narrative to the song in a effective conventional pop genre way. 

Story Board changes

We made various changes to our storyboard when filming, such as:

• We changed the last scene where the two characters where walking down the lane together then slowly fade apart. This had to be changed because we could not find a suitable location to film the area and also do to time issues.
• Another thing we changed was the third character that's featured in the storyboard (the new boyfriend). This needed to be taken out simply because we didn't have another person to play that character and since it wasn't accentual to our video we took the character out.
• The final change we did to our storyboard was the 'phone call' scene which had inter-textual references through the use of the iphone and featured a phone call between the singer and the female character. We adapted this to a scene featuring the singer flicking through photos on his iphone. The previous idea was a good one however do to time errors we had to adapt it, however the new scene still features inter-textual references and so it works out well.

Timetable schedule

This was our timetable schedule that helped us to plan for and keep to deadlines. The grid format also helped us to quickly and easily decide what needed to be done and when. Overall this schedule helped us to make deadlines and was the backbone to our successful time keeping.

Story Board

Commentary

Evaluation - Jake Cowie

Our music video develops, challenges and uses forms and conventions of a real media product. we have analysed and gain inspiration from a few certain products. our main source of inspiration for our video was Take That's 'Patience'. We wanted to create a product similar to this as we enjoyed it and found it interesting and intriguing. We use the pop genre well in our music video, while editing we made sure the cuts were fast and the clips we used were reasonably short (5-10 seconds). We used jump cuts to keep the audience interested. as well as jump cuts, we used cross fades which added emotion and fluidity to our video. To keep to the conventions of a pop video we included a lot of close up shots, The reason for this is so that because he is a new artist people will begin to learn his face and he will become globally recognized.

In our video we made sure that there was a relationship between the music and the visuals. This was achieved by using certain locations to match the mood of the music. I think that our main product and ancillary texts combine and come together very well. The location used in all three is very similar, we did this because we wanted all three products to relate to one another. We wanted the location to be the recurring theme. The concept that we were trying to communicate was about a lonely man, who lost the love of his life. I believe the we succeeded in doing this through our ancillary texts as well as our video. We wanted to create a 'pure' and 'calm' image of the artist, as this is what the lyrics say. We chose a forest location for our video to help the image of the artist, as a forest portrays peace and serenity. We also wanted him to become a recognized face and person, so we decided to put him in a fashionable costume so that he was relate to his target audience. I think that we attracted the attention of our target audience very well, as we used many different inter-textual references e.g the iPhone scene and the clothing.

Our feedback has never been perfect, but we have used it all to construct our video and ancillary products into a very well designed package. The feedback on our initial pitch was that our ideas would not have worked and to make a funny and serious video is very difficult. We decided against using our original idea, and chose another song.

We learnt a lot from our feedback from Andrea and Amar. Amar gave us some good editing advice, which we used and our video now looks a lot more professional. Andrea also gave us some great advice on our ancillary products. She said that we should over edit the front cover image and it was not as strong as the back image. We took this advice on board and created a very good front cover. Our peers said that "the integrated story was good and added a new dynamic to the video". They also said "the lip syncing is good and the costume matches the target audience well". They did not give any criticisms about our work, so we could not make any changes based on peer feedback.

We used a range of different technologies when creating our main product and ancillary texts. The first was Final Cut, we used this to edit all of our music video. we did not find using this software to challenging as we all had previous experience using it. The second technology we used was Photoshop, we used this to create our album cover and promotional poster. We found that using Photoshop was difficult as none of us had any real experience of using it, but once was got some advice and help we managed to make a professional looking digipack. We also used the HD film recorders and stills cameras, we used these to film our video and the stills cameras to create a location recce. We also used blogger to save and post our work online. Blogger made it easy for other groups to view and comment on our blog. This meant that we could see all feedback about our work. We used all four of these products to help us create our music video, album cover and promotional poster, without them it would have been extremely challenging.

If we did the project again i would change the amount of time available to film. I think that we needed more time to film as this would have allowed us to travel to different locations to add more dynamic shots to our video. I would also like to learn new techniques on Photoshop as this would open up alot of new editing methods for me to use.

Professional video commentary

Here is an example of a professional music video commentary/behind the scenes of the video Never be a right time - Professor Green:

This video is a good example of a music video commentary because it cuts in well between the actual product and the 'behind the scenes' footage. It also has an instrumental of the song featured in the product running in the background of the video which helps to make it more interesting but also always keeps the viewer entertained. The video also features interviews with the cast members and crew with their feelings and motives of shots, scenes and their reactions of how it has turned out. Overall I think we can use many techniques used with this commentary for our own, one being the track underlay of the video as this is a good technique to keep the audience entertained.    

Previous Student Commentaries

Evaluation of group - 13T1-32

They begin their commentary with a text insert of the first question they are being asked, which immediately tells the audience what they will be talking about and what to expect. They also feature some clips from their product which helps for a visual representation of the verbal context of their points. We will try to use both these techniques within our own commentary as they are both visual elements that will help to not only explain the points we are making more clearly, but also to help make the watching experience more interesting and enjoyable for the audience. A negative towards their video is that it seems too one sided with the talking to begin with which gets a bit tiresome however this is picked up better during the second question when they begin to converge with each other more making it more fluent and enjoyable.
Overall we think their commentary is good with some great techniques that we will use with in our own commentary.

Here is a link to their commentary: http://32longroadmusicvideo10.blogspot.com/2010/12/final-evaluation-music.html


Evaluation of group - 13T1-48

In this commentary they begin with the first 20 seconds of their music video which is a good way to immediately entice the audience as this is predominately the most interesting part of a music video as it has to immediately grab the audiences attention. They then go into the commentary itself with the clever introduction of each persons name written on the bottom of the screen; which is a professional and easy way to illustrate the names of the speakers. The feel of the commentary is very laid back which is a reflection of their video do to its laid back indie genre music. This also creates a more enjoyable watch because their conversation is fluent but casual. Within the commentary they feature more clips of their product and shots of their ancillary texts which gives a more interesting watch but also helps to emphasise their points.
Overall their commentary is very good because it keeps the attention of the audience but also explains motives and feelings towards their products very well. They also feature good techniques such as: editing on the commentary with the unusual camera effects, text and visual inserts. We hope to incorporate some of these techniques into our own commentary.

Here is a link to their commentary: http://48longroadmusicvideo10.blogspot.com/2010/12/directors-commenatry.html

What is a directors commentary?

  A directors commentary is a voice recorded (or filmed) explanation and analysis of a product by one or more speakers, they are usually found on the bonus features of DVD's. They give a unique insight into the thoughts and motives behind the scenes and shots they used.
  Through the use of laserdisk technology, a directors commentary could be easily edited to play whilst the actual product is playing and keep cutting in between the soundtrack and commentary. The two main types of directors commentary are as follows:

• Partial or scene-specific, which only covers selected scenes of the film. Sometimes these are recorded without the speaker viewing the film and thus the commentator may make more general comments than pointing out specific details.
• Feature-length or screen-specific, which is recorded in one session: the speakers watch the movie from beginning to end and give their thoughts directly based on what is happening on-screen.

   The type of commentary that we will be doing is a 'partial or scene-specific' commentary as we feel this will be the most effect for our video.

Ancillary Texts: Digipak

Here is our Final Digipak cover, we are happy with how it has turned out.

Final Music Video

Here is our final music video edited through Final Cut.

Video Commentary Script

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

(Jake)

Our music video uses and develops on a lot of pop genre forms and conventions. We focused on these four main conventions; camera angles, costume, editing transitions and lighting. We learnt from other artists' music videos, including Beyonce's 'Run the World', that the camera shots we used (close-ups, High angle, low angle and long shot etc). These help to attract attention to the singer and help gain artist recognition within audiences. 

(George)

The editing transitions within our music video are quick and fast paced. From our research into other music videos we learnt that this helps to keep the audience engaged and interested in the video. We also used cross fades to help the video flow better. 

(Alex)

For our ancillary texts, in particular the album cover uses the convention of a close-up image of the artist as the front cover in order to promote his appearance and make him more recognisable.

Also for our poster we used dark lighting and an image of the artist on his own to portray the artist in a lonely state. We used these techniques to stereotypically show the emotion of the artist.    

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

(Alex)

The combination of our main product and our ancillary texts work well because we have a key theme running throughout: emotions. As the song is quite emotional and Ne-Yo is trying to portray these emotions through his lyrics, we have tried to captures these feelings through the use of acting in our video, imagery in our ancillary texts and lighting in all our products.
(George)
This imagery within our poster and digipak represents the emotions of the artist. For example within the poster there is graffiti that is aggressive in some places but sad in others. All of these represent the feelings our artist is feelings within this vulnerable time in his life. 

The front cover of our digipak is a close-up of the artists face which helps for artist recognition but also to connect with the audience as they can feel closer to him due to his vulnerable expression.
 (Jake)
Overall the products we have made work well together because they have a sharing theme of emotions and help to display the artist in an unusual way from what is normal. For example Ne-Yo is usually shown as a 'player' and a womaniser in his videos, but with this video and promotional pack we hope to shine light on his vulnerable side. 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

(George)

Our audience feedback has helped us to improve in all of our our products. For example with the rough cut of our video we received feedback stating 'the mirror shot of the iphone shows good inter textual references of the target audience'.
 (Jake)
This helps us to confirm that this was a good shot because at first we were debating whether or not to keep it. Our advice from Amar was the most useful because he suggested we have shorter scenes and more scenes featuring the female extra. 

This was good advice as we later received compliments on how the video kept the audience entertained and on their toes.
 (Alex)
  We also received feedback on our ancillary texts from Andrea, this was to over edit some of the images so they stand out as much as possible. For example with the front cover image of the album, before the advice it was hardly edited on photoshop however once finished we had added more contrast, desaturation, adjusted the levels and curves. 

 How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

(Alex)

We used three main media technologies including Final Cut, Photoshop and Blogger.

Within Final Cut we edited and enhanced our video from using such effects as cutting, contrasting and adding transitions. We also used image enhancing tools within Final Cut that colour corrected the scenes to give them more of a professional look and also to make the video have autumn seasonal colours.  

(George)

The media technology Photoshop was a key part to the making of our ancillary products as we used the programme to edit and enhance the images but also to add in text which is a fundamental convention to the digipak. These adjustments improved our digipak massively as through Photoshop we were able to add more contrast to the images, adjust curves, levels and change the saturation.
We step by step edited our images and was made easier through the use of layers in Photoshop. The first step we did was to edit the contrast as this would make a basis for what we want. We then added the various effects of curves and levels to finalise the image.
(Jake)
Another media technology we used was Blogger. This made it easy for us to document and record our ideas, thoughts and feelings towards our products. Also it made it easy for others to pass on feedback and for to immediately see and respond to this feedback.

Evaluation - Alex Breeze

1. Our music video uses and develops on a lot of pop genre forms and conventions. We focused on these four main conventions; camera angles, costume, editing transitions and lighting. Firstly the camera angles within our music video featured a lot of close-ups and tracking shots. We learnt from other artists' music videos, including Beyonce's 'Run the World', that these camera shots help to attract attention to the singer and artist recognition within audiences.
  The costume within our music video was focused on a teenage 'indie' look, inspired by artists such as One direction, JLS and Justin Bieber. This worked well in our video as it used and developed on costume conventions of a current modern pop genre artist. This also made our artist more relatable to the targeted audience of teenagers and young adults.
  The editing transitions within our music video are quick and fast paced. From our research into other music videos we learnt that this helps to keep the audience engaged and interested in the video. An example of an artist that uses fast paced shots and quick transitions in their video would be 'Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work'.
  Finally the lighting within our music video was inspired by the music video 'Greatest Day' by Take That as within their video it is bright and summery which is what we tried to portray in our own video. We also tried to achieve glare on the camera lens which is also featured in the Take That video. This is because it is a unique effect and can help to represent the mood and atmosphere of our video. For example within in our product we used glowing Autumn light that suggests Ne-Yo is over coming his sadness because its still dark, but its getting lighter. Also with the scenes when Ne-Yo is in the past with the female character, it is bright and happy; showing the mood of the scene. This is not a convention of pop videos to have past and present scenes of happiness and sadness however I think it works well with the song and lyrics.
  Overall our video conforms to and challenges the conventions of a pop music video however I am pleased with the various elements we have chosen to focus on and I think we have demonstrated the atmosphere of the song well. The lyrics fit well with the illustrative nature of our video through the use of characters and a storyline throughout the song.

2. The combination of our main product and our ancillary texts work well because we have a key theme running throughout: emotions. As the song is quite emotional and Ne-Yo is trying to portray these emotions through his lyrics, we have tried to captures these feelings through the use of acting in our video, imagery in our ancillary texts and lighting in all our products.
  The acting within our video features a sad and depressed teen which is illustrative to the lyrics as he is sad from just losing his girlfriend. We tried to capture these emotions through the way the character walks and the expressions that are made. This attracts the audience because it shows the artist being vulnerable and so the audience can relate to this.
  This imagery within our poster and digipak represents the emotions of the artist. For example within the poster there is graffiti that is aggressive in some places but sad in others. All of these represent the feelings our artist is feelings within this vulnerable time in his life.
  The lighting within all our products is a key illustration of our theme: emotions. For example within our video it is light in some places but dark in others which signals the feelings and emotions the artist is feeling at these points in the song. Also the lighting on our ancillary texts are dark and gloomy again representing the feelings of the artist. The front cover of our digipak is a close-up of the artists face which helps for artist recognition but also to connect with the audience as they can feel closer to him due to his vulnerable expression.
  Overall the products we have made work well together because they have a sharing theme of emotions and help to display the artist in an unusual way from what is normal. For example Ne-Yo is usually shown as a 'player' and a womaniser in his videos, but with this video and promotional pack we hope to shine light on his vulnerable side.

3. Our audience feedback has helped us to improve in all of our our products. For example with the rough cut of our video we received feedback stating 'the mirror shot of the iphone shows good inter textual references of the target audience'. This helped us to confirm that this was a good shot because at first we were debating whether or not to keep it. We also received feedback stating that our lip syncing was OK but could do with improvement, from this feedback we made sure that in our final product all the lyrics were lip synced.
  Our advice from Amar was the most useful because he suggested we have shorter scenes and more scenes featuring the female extra. This was good advice as we later received compliments on how the video kept the audience entertained and on their toes.
  We also received feedback on our ancillary texts from Andrea, this was to over edit some of the images so they stand out as much as possible. For example with the front cover image of the album, before the advice it was hardly edited on Photoshop however once finished we had added more contrast, de-saturation, adjusted the levels and curves. This advice made our images look at lot better and stand out a lot more.  
  Overall we took full advantage of the feedback given and improved on all our products.

4. We used three main media technologies including Final Cut, Photoshop and Blogger.
  Within Final Cut we edited and enhanced our video from using such effects as cutting, contrasting and adding transitions. We also used image enhancing tools within Final Cut that colour corrected the scenes to give them more of a professional look and also an Autumn seasonal glow. Another technique we used was making the flashback scenes black and white with also a white glow round the outside to help convey that the scenes were in the past. This was a pinnacle part of our illustrative storyline because with out this technique the flashbacks wouldn't have been obvious and so the story wouldn't have made sense.  Without Final Cut we would not have been able to edit our project and with ease.
  The media technology Photoshop was a key part to the making of our ancillary products as we used the programme to edit and enhance the images but also to add in text which is a fundamental convention to the digipak. These adjustments improved our digipak massively as through Photoshop we were able to add more contrast to the images, adjust curves, levels and change the saturation. Without these edits our images would have appeared dull and unprofessional. Overall Photoshop made enhancing our images a lot more easier and quicker.
  Another media technology we used was Blogger. This made it easy for us to document and record our ideas, thoughts and feelings towards our products. Also it made it easy for others to pass on feedback and for to immediately see and respond to this feedback.
  Overall, all of these software packages carried our creativity forward instead of hindering it and helped us to create a product and ancillary texts at a professional level.

Advice from Andrea

While creating our album cover we got some advice from Andrea to edit our simple and bold picture to make it seem more graphical than an actual photo. She also told us to over edit the images so they appear more professional by being over contrasted and exposed.

Our advice from Amar.

When editing our music video we asked Amar for adviceon how to make our video look more proffessional. he gave us alot of good ideas as to what we could do to improve, so we took all of these ideas onboard and added his ideas.
one of his ideas was to bring a scene with the female character in further towards the beggining. This was because if the audience only saw a quick, short clip of her they would want to see more. This would keep the veiwers interested throughout the first part of the video.
Another idea Amar had was to add more transitions like crossfades. This was to add emotion and sadness to our video. He also said to compliment this we should use shorter clips in our video as this would keep the video fresh and also keep the veiwers interested.

Objectives of the lesson: 23/11/2011

Our objectives of this lesson were:

1. To complete the poster for our music video.
2. To make a start on the album cover of our album.

We completed both of these targets. we completed the poster to a good standard and also made a good start on our album cover. we have chosen a main photo and have begun editing it. We are thinking about editing it to make it black and white as this adds a dark and gloomy effect which relates to the artists feelings throughout the album.

Final poster advert

This is our final promotional album poster. 

Rough first design.

This is a first draft of our poster for our digipack. we used this location because it represents how the artist is feeling. The yellow graffiti on the wall that says "hold your head high, heavy heart.." relates very strongly to our video as it is a written representation of the feelings that he feels throughout the video. The artist is also sitting in a corner, this shows how secluded and vulnerable he feels. as though he has been pushed into a corner and cannot get out.
The images on the wall to the right are a representation of how he feels in some scenes in the video, such as when he gets kicked out of his girlfriends house; the images display anger and resentment.
We chose this font as it grabs the attention of the consumer and fits with the conventions of a pop song/video.
The editing we used was curves to alter the brightness and contrast of the image, we used this to give the poster a more dramatic feel. We also darkened areas to help other parts of the poster stand out to the buyers. We also added in a gradient that faded in white from the right hand side to lighten the image in this area, we altered this gradient to how we thought it would look best. we also used an effect called 'hard mix', this effect added exaggerated contrast.

Our visual theme.

Our visual them that runs throughout our music video is emotions, we have portrayed this theme in our video by showing the lead singer on his own and having emotional scenes with himself.
We hope to follow this theme through into our digipak and our poster by having images of our lead singer on his own. The front cover will most likely be more of a close-up to engage the consumer and stand out more on the shop shelf. A close-up of the artist with help to make him more noticeable and recognised within the music industry.
The back cover of our digipak will be a silhouetted distant image of our artist as this illustrates that he is distant and lonely. The silhouette of the artist is to show that he is different because he is black and faceless. The images that we will take will also be edited and adjusted on photoshop to enhance the images. We will use various effects such as Levels to adjust the darks and lights of the image and over exaggerate them to make it appear more professional. We will also add in lighting and fading effects similar to the picture shown below by using the gradient effect on photoshop. This will help lighten up the image and give more dramatic lighting. We will also ad the effect of desaturation in order to remove the colour from the image and give a more dramatic feel to the image. Also the black and white will help represent the artist feelings because it is grey and miserable. Also he will stand out better against the black background because he will be in light white.       

ROUGH CUT

Here is our rough cut where you can see the basic idea of our video. There are no transitions or effects in our video yet however we plan to put some in.

Generic conventions of a magazine advert

Through the analysis of real and professional magazine adverts we have found similarities between them and discovered what we believe to be generic conventions of a magazine advert. Here are the generic conventions as follows:

Conventions of a Music Advertisement...

Band/Artist Name: This is the key element that all music advertisements include, because the audience need to identify the artist who is promoting the CD/Album.

Image: Another key convention is an image that relates to the band/Artist. Also you can often see an image of the artist on the advertisement in order for the artist to self-Promote.

Logo- Mainly bands use logos on their album , they do this in order to be recognised by their target audience. Also the record label logo may be used in order for their label to be widely known for producing quality music.

Colour Scheme: The colour of the advertisement  reflects the mood and the genre of the song, as well the own artists image. For instance , for a rock band you associate them with dark colours Eg. Guns n Roses. However a new wave electric band/artist would have bright , vibrant colours.  

Reviews: Another convention of a music advertisement, is positive quotes and reviews from top music magazines such as - Mojo

                            -NME

                            - Q

                            -Spin

This helps to boost purchases of the actual product as the targeted audiences see the artist has received positive reviews from reliable sources.

Headline: On the magazine advert for the album, it will usually feature the band name and album title etc, but will also have a main headline selling the product and grabbing the attention of the target audience. Usually, this is big and stands out and is usually put across the main image so the two connect and stand out

We hope to make good use of all these conventions within our own magazine advert to maximise the success of our product.

Ideas for magazine advert

We have had a lot of ideas as to what we want our magazine advert to look like, here a few of those we have looked at.

This magazine advert for Jay-Z's 'The Blueprint 3' is a very striking and bold advert. The magazine advert is an enlarged image of the album cover. The advert shows the artists name in a bold font, this is so that the readers know who the artist is. The artist is shown as being bigger than the empire state building, this shows his status within the  music industry. Also the fact that its the empire state building is illustrative to the song 'empire state of mind' which is one of Jay-Z's singles about life in New York. 

Also the colour scheme is bold and bright. It also has a running theme as with his album it features red, black and white that is also featured in the advertisement so that it is easily recognisable that they are related products. 

The written caption below 'Jay-Z "bigger than hip-hop?" ' is relatable through the visuals of the article as Jay-Z is bigger than the tallest building in New York: empire state building.  

Ideas for digipak

We have had a few precise ideas as to what we want our digipak to look like. Here are a few ideas:

This is digipak cover has similarities to what we want to achieve with ours. We want to include a close up of our artist as he is not that well known, another reason we want to include the close up is that it will help his audience recognize him. The bold and clear font is also something we considered using on our CD cover. This is because a bold font with a standout colour attracts the attention of the consumers which will help sales. 

Below is another example of a digipak that has inspired our ideas.

The album cover to Adele's '21' album is another example of a CD with a close up of the artist, this is because when she released this album she was not very well known. As i said above, this is something that we are going to use as our artist is also not very well known. The image of the artist relates heavily to the songs on the CD, on the cover you can see Adele with her head in her hand. This shows the emotion that fills her songs. On our digipak we are going to use an emotional  image of our artist. This attracts the attention of the consumer as it makes the buyer imagine what the music could be about. Another possible effect that we might use is the black and white effect. This adds a sense of emotion and mystery to the digipak. 

Here is a third digipack that grabbed our attention.

The album cover of Linkin Parks's 'MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT' is quite a simple CD cover in the sense that the background is all white with the 6 band members standing in the foreground in black silhouettes. This digipak is different to the others that we have been looking at as there is not a close up of the artist/s. This is something that i do not think we could use, as Linkin Park are a world famous band and are known globally. Whereas our artist is not, so artist recognition is vital for the first album. The main aspect of this digipak that we liked was the black and bold title. The black font on a white background instantly grabs the attention of the consumers. 

Generic conventions of a digipack

From the analysis of previous album covers in the blog post 'Analysis of real digipacks' we have recognised the typical generic conventions of a digipack. We believe they are as follows:

1. A large/bold artist name- This is to help the audience and consumer identify and recognise the artists name within first glance of the digipack. Only having a large over-sized name can mean that the artist is well known and recognised because they don't need an image relating to the album or a picture of the actual artist; all is needed is the name. There are some exceptions to this such as Eminem's album cover of 'recovery' because it doesn't have his name just the album name. This is because he is so well known all is needed is just the back of him, but also the album name signifies him as it has his trademark signature of a backward 'E'.
2. An image that fills the album cover- This can help to make the album more original and unique by either signifying the artist or the album itself. Also the larger and more colourful the image the more it will stand out from the rest. Typically of a pop Album cover it will feature the artist itself, perhaps a close-up or distant shot, this is to help the artist become more recognised. 
3. Consistent colour scheme used throughout- This makes each feature of the album link together and flow. For example in the Christina Aguilera's album 'Bi-on-ic' (as shown above) the bright and powerful colour red has been used to highlight around her name but also on her lips, attracting your eye all around the cover. 
4. Commonly the album name is just beneath the artist name- This helps to attract attention to both features because they are both in the same place however the artist name is at the top because it is most important. 
5. Mise-en-scene elements- The lighting for a pop genre album cover is usually bright and colourful to reflect the artists personality and the feel of the songs. However the lighting doesn't always have to be bright and electric because it mainly depends on the style of music the artist does, for example if it is sad music then the lighting will be dark and atmospheric.      

Analysis of real digi-packs

1. 'Beautiful Monster'- Neyo.
In this digi-pack there is a close up image of the artists face, this is so that the listeners can recognise the artist to get him known in the public eye. the lighting on the cover is very dark and gloomy. the CD cover is in black and white and has reference to 'LA Noire'. There is also a woman in the picture walking slowly towards Neyo. This suggests that he is a ladies man, and the woman is the 'beautiful monster'. The picture includes a street/boulevard with old fashioned cars in, again this has a reference to 'LA Noire'.  This is a style that we are thinking of using as it relates to our music video. We are thinking about using the black and white effect as it represents the artists emotions.

2. 'The blue-print 3'- Jay-Z.
In this digi-pack  there is no picture of the artist as  Jay-Z is already a globally recognised artist, so a picture of him is not necessary. The picture in the background is of instruments that are all white and bland. the represents the 'Blueprint' as in a blue print everything is simple and plain. The 3 bold, red lines through the centre show that it is his 3rd blueprint album. We could use this style to show that it is our first album. Although there is not a picture of the artist, his name is still up in the corner in a small font. If we were to use this style we would make the artists name larger as he is less recognised.

3. 'Recovery'- Eminem.
On the cover to Eminem's 'Recovery' you can see Eminem walking along a long and abandoned road. This could be to show that he is on a road to recovery as the title suggests. The font of the title is bold but small in the top right- hand corner. The 'O' in recovery symbolises the ambulance logo, this visually symbolises recovery. Also the 'E' is backwards which is how his name is spelt on his other album covers. On this digi-pack you cannot see the artists face, this is because he is globally famous so the audience do not need to see his face. This Style may not be suitable for our digi-pack as we need to show the artists face as he is not as well known.

research into fonts.

We have been looking at many different styles and types of font used on other artists digi-packs. here are some examples of those we have been looking at:

The first three fonts are from album covers to our artists cds, they are all quite similar in the sense that the font is bold, clear and easy to read. This represents the artist as he is straight to the point and his lyrics are easy to understand. A reasson for the font being bold is so that it attracts the attention of the consumers in the shops.
The colour of the font is vital as if the digi-pack does not look attractive, people will not buy the cd. The first three fonts are all similar in colour as black, gold and silver are generic of a rappers style.

Compared to the other fonts Neyo's are not very attractive. for example T-pain's album cover is in a fair ground style which immediately grabs the attention of the consumer as it is unique and original. The title is 'Thr33 Ringz' this could be because it is targeted at a certain audience that could relate to this style of text language.
The 6th font (Keyshia Cole) is a more feminine font as her music is more directed at females. The font style is flamboyant and attention grabbing. As the CD is directed at females the colour scheme is suitable for the gender. The title also looks glamorous, this will further attract the targeted audience.

The last font (THINKTANK) is not a very good example as the colour of the font is a dark red, which clashes with the black as the black is more dominant, This makes the font merge with the background rather than standing out to attract the audience. Also the font is difficult to read due to the poor colour scheme. We will not be using a font like this for our font due to the listed problems above.

Inspiration

We have been inspired by many different pop videos while researching ideas for our own. One of our main inspirations for our music video is the video to 'one in a million' by Neyo. in this video the male artist is trying to attract the female by singing to her. This relates to the visuals and the lyrics in our video as the male in our video is also trying to win back the female.

Another inspiration to our music video is the  video to Take That's 'Patience'. This is because the main artist featured in the video is always on his own, walking through the country side. This is very similar to the way in which we have planned to shoot our music video.
In our video the artist is going to be walking around a park at which he used to visit with his ex-partner alone.

The inspiration for the lighting in our video was taken from the video to Take That's 'greatest day'. in this video the lighting has an orange tint as it was shot at dawn when the sun is just rising. This relates to our video as we are going to try and achieve a similar effect by using the glare from the sun on the lens. we are going to use the glare shots during the flashbacks as this creates a happy atmosphere and helps portray the emotions of the characters. during the shots when the male on his own, the lighting will be dark and gloomy, to show the audience his emotions.

Pop genre conventions

• Voyeurism is commonly featured in music videos with a female artist as it attracts the attention of some male viewers. We will try to use this as much as we can with the female extra in our music video. 
• The editing in a pop music video is a key convention that defines the pop genre. In a pop video the cuts will be fast and short (5-10 seconds), this is to keep the attention of the audience. The transitions between shots within pop videos are usually jump cuts as they are quick and fast. However some music videos use clever editing techniques to help them be more memorable and unique, such as Beyonce's Single ladies. In this video the transitions are made very clear by the change in lighting. 
• There are usually dancers or extras in the pop videos because they can accompany the artist and help to make the artist stand out more by all dressing the same but the artist dresses differently. As seen in the picture above. (Beyonce- Run the world)
• The costume of the music videos, for female artists are usually revealing and skin tight clothes to help exaggerate the voyeurism.
• The camera angles are usually close-ups of the artists this is because music videos are often promos and close ups are the best ways of promoting the artist.

Location/Lighting Ideas Pictures

Here are shots from our location.
We chose this location do to its good tree coverage and the Autumn feel that it gives off from the fallen leaves and blazing sunlight.
The trees create an interesting effect because they can be illuminated by the sun and look quite interesting. These effects can help to illustrate the emotions our artist is feeling because the sunny and bright atmosphere can portray happiness, but the dark and low lighting scenes can illustrate sadness.

With this image we were testing out what sort of shot we could achieve if the camera was facing the light directly. This creates an interesting effect as the trees become silhouetted and create a big contrast between the background and the foreground. It also can create a glare on the lens of the camera which is an interesting effect that can show how bright and sunny it is and so then induce feelings of happiness.

Here we used the arching of the tree to frame the scene which creates an interesting effect as it draws more focus to the centre of the image and so if our artist was there this would help to draw attention to him.

Lighting research

The lighting for our location is situated underneath a row of tees this means it would be a good idea to shot the video during dusk or dawn as this will give a nice orange glow autumn effect, which will compliment the autumn fallen leaves. This means that is it important to time our shoot well, if we do this effect will pay off nicely giving another visually pleasing aspect to our video.

Location Report

 

the location we have chose is St.johns college, Cambridge. This long tree arched walk way we believe is ideal for our music video, because it gives us a solid location there our performer can sing his lyrics in the present tense whilst looking back into the past (when he was with his true love, we plan to use another location to flashback for when we was with his girlfriend.) A slow long walk through this archway is ideal is the scenery dose not really change so it gives the viewer 100% on the performer, but the location can add suttle hints that represent themes from the video, for example as we will be shooting this in Autumn the fallen and falling leaves will personify the love they once shared and how over time it has fallen apart, but he hopes that the love will once return.

Target audience

The target audience of our music video is going to be early teens to late twenties. We will achieve this by having fast paced shots to keeps the attention of the audience. Also we will have lots of close-ups as this shows the innocence of the artist and so younger teens will be able to see their artist and relate to them. The atmosphere of the video will start off by having a light hearted feel to it by showing the relationship of the artist with his partner. It will then go to the present and show the more deeper side to the relationship giving it more of an adult feel to it and so more relatable to the elder group of our target audience.
Our video will have a narrative which is one of the conventions of a pop video and so the teenage audience will be able to follow the story and perhaps be able to relate to it within their own lives. However the usual scenarios for a pop video is colourful and uplifting, however since our song is about the problems within a teenage relationship, it won't have the usual happy atmosphere but more of a deep emotional narrative appealing to the female audience more than male.   
Here is a link to Ne-Yo's facebook pages and myspace pages:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/Ne-Yo

http://www.myspace.com/neyo

Artist research

Ne-Yo.

Birth name: Shaffer Chimere Smith Born: October 18, 1979 (age 31) Camden, Arkansas, USA (1979-10-18) Origin: Las Vegas, Nevada Genres: R&B, pop, dance, soul, hip hop Occupations: Singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer, actor, Instruments: Vocals, Piano, Guitar Years active: 1999–present Labels: Def Jam

Ne-Yo was born in Camden, Arkansas, and baptised as Shaffer Chimere Smith. As a young child, he was raised by his mother alone after she separated from his father In hopes of better opportunity, his mother relocated the family to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lyrics Analysis

Here are the lyrics to Future In You by Ne-Yo

think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and

(said) think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and

now i dont wanna scare you
baby i just wanna say
the little things you do for me (and the way)
you workin towards my last name
i see you babe, said i see you babe

i can see my, future in you
no other girl, for me will do
cuz i can see my, future in you
got me lookin forward to, forever
cuz i can see

think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and

(said) think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and

now i dont wanna rush nothing, baby just know
when you say youre ready to go, we'll go
to get the dog a house and all
tell me you see it baby

i can see my, future in you (in you)
no other girl, for me will do
said i can see my, future in you (future in you girl)
got me lookin forward to, forever
cuz i can see

not tryna move too fast
but i just gotta ask
do you see what i see for us girl
and is it too soon, to look at you
like i do, the way you make me feel
is the stuff forever is made of

i can see my, future in you (in you girl)
no other girl, for me will do
said i can see my, future in you (in you)
got me lookin forward to, forever
cuz i can see

think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and (think about it)

think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
(you & me forever baby)
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and (think about it baby)

think about it, you & me together
lovin each other, aimin there forever
think about it, you & me together
lovin each other and (think about it)

The main narrative of this song is about a relationship between a man and a woman, and how the man wants to be with the woman. The whole song is from the perspective of the man. The lyrics in this song are very repetitive, this is because he is trying to get his point across to the woman. Another reason for repetitive lyrics is that they are a common convention of the pop genre because it makes it catchy and memorable. As the song is about love it will attract the attention of his female fans because they wish that they were the female character that he is singing about. This song would be targeted at people in the age range of teenager to late twenties because he is talking about what seems like a young and teenage relationship, this is portrayed by the language that is used. An example of this would be,
"i can see my, future in you (future in you girl)
got me lookin forward to, forever
cuz i can see"
The use of slang words such as "cuz" helps to relate to the younger audience as this is the language they use.