Evaluation

Shooting Calendar

Inside Cover (Right Panel)

Here is the 2nd inside which will go on the right panel underneath the CD. The reason why there is not much apart from some writing and text is because this is how most artists display these covers. We have looked at a number of other artists inside covers and we decided that we would do something similar to them and put the name of the artist plus song and put the website at the bottom of the cover where it would be displayed underneath the CD.

Inside Cover (CD)

Inside Cover (CD)

Here is the CD for our inside panel and we have kept it simple and effective by carefully choosing our font and the image.
When choosing the background for our CD cover we chose to keep it the same colour as his CD on his album 'Veneer'. We did this to keep the Jose Gonzalez vibe throughout the digipak to keep the target audience happy.
For the image on the CD we decided to keep it simple and have an acoustic guitar with the sound hole cropped out where the hole of the CD is. We have also made the guitar a nice size so there is enough room for text and the base of the guitar curves round at the bottom nicely with the small print.
For the Text we have made 'Jose Gonzalez's' name the biggest text on the CD which is stereotypical of most CD's in the indie/rock genre. We have then put in smaller writing underneath the name of the song. We found this very effective and easy on the eye and we felt that our target audience would like this. We have also put on the right of the guitar 'Includes Bonus Songs Inside' we have included this to make our audience more excited about the tracks on the CD but we haven't made this piece of text large because we didn't want to take any of the attention away from the image plus main text.

Storyboards

1st storyboard set

2nd storyboard set

 Here is our first storyboard set and we have thought about what range of shots we could include to give us maximum marks and keep our target audience interested. We thought about doing a long shot, mid shot and close up of our main character who also sings in the video. In the long shots we will be having him walking through the woods thinking.






Here is the 2nd storyboard set and here we were thinking about more complex shots which required more skill. We thought of having a flower in our video but having the background blurred with writing appearing and disappearing in the background. We also thought is some moving shots which will require a steady hand and may need to be shot more than once.

3rd storyboard set

Here is the 3rd storyboard set and we have decided to inter-cut a storyline into our music video to keep our audience interested also to give it another layer. We have got a relationship scene here where our artist/actor is going to have flashbacks of him and his girlfriend.

Inside Panel Left

Costume, Props, Casting and Location 2

This is costume number 2, he is wearing different clothes because it is a different day. We thought having the actor dressed differently would make sense. This was death happened before the went on the walk in the woods so to show that he is having flashbacks, we changed this part of the video to back and white.
For some parts of this video, we feel that it would be more appropriate if we had an actress to represent the romance part of the song. For our actress we needed someone who could act and suit our actor. We decided to dress the actress similar to the actor so they will look good together. The other locations in this video were the Bracknell Crematorium which featured in the graveyard scene in black and white. This was to show the death of his girlfriend. We used the flowers to make sure it looked like he was going to visit his late girlfriend. We also used the flowers so that it was clear to the audience that his girlfriend is dead. The flowers in this scene relates to the scene in the woods, this is why in our music video, the flower scene in the woods is after this scene. It shows that because he has found the flowers, it reminds him of his girlfriend.
The third and final location was in a park in Sandhurst, we chose this location because it had a stream running through it so we could film some shorts of them in the stream. The shots of the stream weren't use because we thought it was too shaky.

Location Number 2

This is a crematoriam in Bracknell, we chose this as our second location for flash backs because we decided that his girlfriend is going to be dead. This makes sense as to why we filmed here. We encoutered some problems when filming here because it was a busy time of day where people were visiting their relation's grave. We didn't want to upset anybody so we waited till it was quiet enough and there was no one around. We thought if people saw us with our camera kit, they might get upset about what we are doing.

Progress

We have been working together for 2 years now and we feel that we have improved a huge amount both in the practical and the theory side of media. Our team work has also improved which is great because it means we work well together so the project flows smoother. Last year we both got a 'A' grade in our portfolio and this year we are aiming to do the same. We know that A2 is a big step up and we know that we have the skills needed to get the grade we really want. The camera skills and editing is the main thing that has improved most about us. We now try and make every shot interesting and professional and we don't stop till we succeed.

Corrected Version Of Album Cover

This is the correct version with the right spelling of his name.

Problems

After posting the album cover, we realised we spelt his name wrong. This simple mistake will be corrected and we are actually in the process of making it right. We put Jose Gonzales instead of Jose Gozalez. This is a common mistake with his name as it sounds the same which ever way you write it.

Front Cover

This is the front cover of the album, this design is simple but I think it works well. All the colours on this album match as both the artist name and album title colours were both taken from the guitar. The original image had a forest background so we had to crop him out and add a plain white background. We decided to keep it simple because Jose Gonzales's actual album is really simple. This is his style so we dicided to follow in his steps. Below is the original album cover.

Front and Back Panel together

This is both the front and back panel together. We feel that it works well together. And once we add in the side panels, the album will look nice together.

Back of CD Cover Final

This is the final back of album cover; we made changes after the feedback from the class and teachers. We made the small print smaller; we added the music label and also moved the barcode to the bottom left hand side of the case. One thing we didn’t change was the song names; this is because our classmates told us to leave it as it is. We were originally going to add green drop shadows but after comparing both, this one looks a lot better. We feel that the song names go perfect with the direction of the wood path. We wanted to keep the song names between those two lines to make it neat and centred.

Digipak Analysis (The Kooks - Inside in Inside Out)

The Digipak I am analysing is by british indie band called ‘The Kooks’ and the album name is ‘Inside In Inside Out’. This album was released in 2006 and achieved a quadruple platinum status in the United Kingdom, selling 65,000 copies in the first week of release.

Front Cover

Front Cover

This album cover is very simple including the image of the band gathered round playing their instruments together. This is typical of the Indie genre to have the whole band featured in the front cover of the album and ‘The Kooks’ here have made a very authentic looking album cover and gives their fans an insight how they like to practice and write songs. What backs up this point is none of the band members are looking at the camera and that reveals to their audience that their main focus is to create music. This also shows that the band is not flashy or arrogant which is common in an indie album covers. Every member of the band has skinny jeans and they have long hair like a mop which lets their target audience relate to them as they would be a similar age to them. This image conveys them to be seen as a teenage garage band which again helps them relate to their target audience as many of them will be trying to start up their own band.

All the fonts as a whole on the digipak is simple which creates an image of the band of not caring about their image but controversially creates a cool image of the band to their target audience which is mainly teenagers. They have cleverly put the album title in red which stands out against the grayscale background. This draws their target audiences attention to the album title but cleverly also draws your attention to the band name.

What you get from this front cover as a whole is that the whole cover is easy on the eye and the grayscale image of them playing their instruments shows that they are an indie band all about their music which all you can take away from that image as they are not wearing flashy clothing or jewellery. 

Back Cover

Back Cover

This back cover is very similar to the front which helps the continuity of the digipak. The track listing are neatly placed in the top left hand corner in bold black writing which is listed 1 to 14. The track names are not ever taking up a third of the space on the back panel which is idiosyncratic of a band to have but however it does stand out on the back panel as the image is blurred.

The Image has the same composition from the front cover but has been taken from the drummer’s point of view as you can tell from the mirror reflecting the drummer’s stance. This image gives their audience a personal insight to the band practicing and how they create their songs. This image gives the target audience an insight and makes you feel one of the band which makes the album much more personal for you.

As all back covers this album cover has a barcode, name of the producer, logo of the record label, a url to the bands website and a copyright notice. The font and colour of this is the same as the song listings but smaller.

To conclude the back cover is very similar to the front and continues the authentic indie feel to the digipak.

Inside Cover

Inside Cover

The inside panels of Cd’s are always not looked at as much as the front and back panels because when people open their CD they want to burn it onto their computer or play it.

The Kooks on their inside panel on the left at the top have put in small white font against a black background have written a second copyright notice but also a thank to their fans for purchasing the album which makes the bond between them and their fans greater as it is an unexpected surprise because not all artists put this on their albums.

 There is another image of the band on the the left panel also underneath the thanks and this time they are looking at the camera which emphaisises the thanks and makes it even more personal as it seems they want to look you in the face when they say thanks.

On the right panel of the inside cover is the CD and they have put the colours ‘Inside Out’ which emphasises the album title subtly to the audience. On the CD they also have the record label again and another copyright notice.

The CD design is cleverly done as one of the ‘o’s’ in the band’s name (The Kooks) is the hole where you pick up the CD.

To conclude, the inside cover has a much more personal insight into the band than the outer panels as it looks simple on the outside but in the inside there is a lot more going on and makes you feel one of the band.

Magazine Advert Research

Here is a typical music magazine cover by Q magazine which has adhered to a lot of conventions in this magazine cover.

First of there is the main heading of the magazine which stands out against the white background and this is stereotypical of any music magazine to have a white background so it lets the foreground jump out at the reader. They have also put there caption underneath the giant ‘Q’ which is ‘The World’s Greatest Music Magazine’. There are about 3 or 4 different fonts on this magazine cover to make it interesting and make it look like there is a lot going on inside the magazine. They have also cleverly put their key stories that would pull in their target audience in big black bold writing to stand out against the white background. They have also got a world exclusive in the top right hand corner even though it is small they have still made it very noticeable by bordering the writing in red and coloured it in yellow. Q magazine here have made the magazine cover very busy by putting a lot of writing around the central image. This magazine cover would be incredibly dull if they didn’t use all the different techniques through colour, different fonts and sizes which entices the walker by to look because with magazines people do judge it by the front cover.

 They have put the foreground image of the lead singer of The Verve over the top of the magazines logo and caption which makes the sitter on the magazine cover jump out at the reader even more which they have done on purpose so it will stick out on the shelf next to all the other magazines. The image of the lead singer of the verve is taken from underneath him to make him look powerful which shows the audience how much of a music icon he is in the brit pop/ alternative rock genre. They are trying to communicate to the audience through this image that he is very powerful and the caption beside him ‘The Verve “Rock ‘n’ Roll is Dangerous Again!’ emphasises this point that he is a powerful man and it also makes the reader want to look inside to see what he has done to make it dangerous which the magazine has done on purpose to sell.

This Advert represents the Alternative rock genre as ‘DANGEROUS’ because Q magazine have quoted it which is most likely to be an interview with The Verve. What make this caption stand out is the chosen font which is faded in random places on the letters which gives off a rough look to the genre. The reason why Q magazine chose this font because it would appeal to the readers and fans of The Verve who would be into similar genres to The Verve such as the rock and indie genres.

What I have learnt from this advert that I could influence me for when I design my own is to first of all have an image that stands out and appeals to your target audience but also adheres to the captions. What have also learnt is that for the smaller stories you can add more colour to them so the reader doesn’t miss them when looking at the magazine cover. What I think could also attract the audience that they haven’t used in this magazine cover is a clever or interesting image which could help boost sales.  What I could also put on my magazine cover which they have also done is put a barcode on the right hand side to help the authenticity of the magazine cover.

Overall I like this magazine cover and it would interest me as I am a fan of The Verve and it would intrigue me what they are up to and if they are releasing any new music. 

Magazine Advert Research

Magazine Ad Build a Rocket Boys (Elbow)

Before my group begin making a magazine advert for our digipak, I am going to research what magazine adverts usually look like in order to get an idea for codes and conventions. I am going to hopefully research the same adverts for the digipaks I analysed - this is so that I can create links between the two and see how similar they may or may not be.

 

Images:

The image on here is a replica of the one from the album, with it taking up the full page rather than being displayed small. This will be so the reader of the magazine knows what the album looks like and can identify it easily once they go to buy it. Also, by using the full page they are clearly embodying an image that goes across not only the advert but the actual album as well. All the connotations that can be seen on the album can be seen here as well; using subtle persuasion to buy the album. By keeping the advert the same as the album, the advert is clean and simple; there is nothing to distract the reader and lose focus on what the advert is for.
Colour Scheme:

The colour scheme is the same blue as can be seen on the album front, again showing the strong use of one campaign throughout the marketing process; this allows the reader to gain familiarity before buying the album so they feel like they "know" what they are getting. The colour will also stick out in a magazine as usually magazine pages are white and this strong difference will allow it to attract the readers attention; something that is needed in the marketing campaign.
Fonts:

The fonts are again the same used on the album cover; serif - which adds to the continuity of the advert and album. This makes things seem familiar and the reader will get used to it. The additional writing in the advert is also in the same serif font which allows for the information to be seen as part of the album - if it was to be in a different font it could create the impression that the information was separate from the album however having it the same allows the reader to take it in as one.
Additional Information:

The advert has information that is necessary for it to be marketed such as the name and band plus additional information as the release date so the reader knows when they can buy it. The advert also has additional information that is not necessary for the reader to know, but is included to try and persuade the reader to buy the album. This included the information on songs on the album; this will be included to try emote feelings for the songs from the reader and then hopefully make the reader want the album as they already know a little bit of the type of material on the album. Having the quote from a well respected magazine also gives the album credibility and will most likely spur people to buy the album as if a product is endorsed by a trusted figure a person will believe it is worthy of buying than having some unknown endorsement.

Digipak Research

This is the first digipak by the band Elbow I shall be analysing, however it is again an album rather than a digipak, which will help me build a bigger knowledge of the conventions that come with the digipaks by the band which in turn will allow me and my group to create a more professional and believable product.

 

Images:
The main image is what looks like it is hand painted, and additionally not of an amazing standard; this further drills in the message of music over fame, which is often common within this genre. The image is of what looks like a person, much like the people on the other Elbow album - the person is unidentifiable in age and gender; showing the mix in fans of the band. Although it originally seems to be of a person, it could be seen as a rocket to visually support the album name as a "A" shape can be seen above the person which allows the shape of a rocket to be viewed. This ambiguous nature allows for the buyer to make their own presumptions - which allows the buyer to feel they understand and "get" the band and their image. The band do not appear on the album, which gives a sense of "mysteriousness" of the band (which is supported by the fact that the band do not appear in some of the music videos) which makes the buyer want the album as this is one of the only ways to understand and "connect" to the band. As this is the only image in the digipak shows how the band prefer things to be "simple" and to have one focus instead of distractions from the music.

Colour Scheme:
The main colour throughout the digipak is blue which could be seen as aiming the album at males as it is stereotypically associated with males; however with it being such a pale colour this could be less dominant. Blue has connotations of sadness when it is very pale; this could be the main colour scheme as it tells the buyer the initial musical theme of the album. Additionally blue means serenity and infinity which could also link to the musical theme; the songs are calm and do not necessarily have to be played the year of the album, the songs will still fit in 10 years from now. Additionally the light colour allows for a soft feel to the album, which makes it "soft to the eye", and attract the buyer to it. The small splash of yellow allows to break up the blue in the digipak and allow for a bit of "warmth" to be added to the pale coolness of the album, which could also hints the musical theme within.

Fonts:
The fonts are again serif fonts, which seems to be a running theme in the Elbow albums; this could be to add familiarity to the audience - it is to represent that the band keep a similar musical style throughout the album and will know what to expect from the album. It could again be to show how the band is quite varied in the audience of young and of older generations. Additionally it supports the image theme of being neutral in gender, so the band is not alienating gender, the fonts and images allow for the album to be approachable by all ages and genders.

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Inside Pages:
As the product is again a album rather than a digipak the inside pages will unlikely have additional information and images like a digipak. As Elbow have not released a digipak and just albums, when it comes to make our digipak we will have to rely more on other research on digipaks whilst bringing the research of image etc to make a product that would be similar to a digipak that Elbow could possibly bring out.

Additional Material:
There is a lack of additional material in the album, which is why digipaks are sometimes seen as a more popular option; the missing amount of material that can be gained from a digipak could be seen as a bad decision not to bring one out as customers want to know as much information and gain as much value from a product as they can; as this leads to them forging a "relationship" with the band.

Feed Back

For the back of our album, after the first draft, we decided to ask our classmates and our teacher what they think of it. Our teacher said it looked very nice and neat but perhaps it needed something else. She told us that we need to add the record label on there and also to make the small print smaller as the current size drew too much attention to it. Our classmates gave us similar feedback and they said they loved the image that we took. They said the image was very nice and the style of the text matches perfectly with the image.

Final Magazine Advert

Here is our final magazine advert we have changed it a lot since our last draft as we got a lot of feedback and quite a few people said it was repetitive also it is too cluttered. What we have done to simplify this magazine advert is we got rid of the all the text on the right hand side and replaced it with ratings and quotes by well known music magazines.

We have also made the artist bigger who is sitting on the heart because one the pieces of feedback we got was to make him bigger and we realised it made him more noticeable.

First Draft

This is our first attempt at the back cover, we took this image on a bike trail and we thought it would be pefect for the back of the album because it gives us room to put our text on there in a unique way. This isn't the final version because we haven't finised the text yet. We wanted to do something interesting such as a drop shadow and awaiting feedback from classmates and teacher. The writhing on the side was created our selfs from looking at other album covers. The bar code was taken from a different CD as we didn't need to make our own one.

Magazine Advert

Here is another Magazine advert draft so we took the advice from our feedback and made the text more modern and added more to the top of the magazine advert which makes it more exciting and eye catching.

We have added the date at the top of the page of the release of the single which is one of the most important features in a magazine advert promoting an artists new single/album. We also gave it the same font as the other text on the advert to help the continuity and make it look professional. We have also put a quote underneath the date from a well known music magazine which people can trust which may attract new people to his music.

Finally we made an image using the hmv logo which is well known and wrote 'Exclusively at hmv' using there company colours for the text and font. We used a technique that we saw on other magazine adverts to make the smaller aspects stand out by using bold colours and iconic shapes.

Album Cover Practice

To get used to using photoshop, our teacher gave us a task to do. We got given random names and pictures. As you can see above, I got given the name Clayton Benhke and my album cover name I had to use was Adult. This image was given to me and I had to fit the text and album cover names on it. I felt that I have successfully made this album cover look professional apart form the magnum productions part that is on the bottom left hand side. The 'Adult' font was designed in photo shop where I got a standard font and erased bits from it which gave it the sprayed look. The name of this artist is written with the font 'Impact'. I felt that it matched this album picture and its also very clear and it stands out from a distance which is a advantage if it was in a shop. I added the Magnum Productions bit because I felt that this image just need another layer but after hearing all the feedback from other classmates, I now know that it was a bad idea as people said that it made the album look less professional. The logo on to of the album was actually already on the original image but I moved it around the image to see where it fitted best and I think that where I placed it now is the best location for it.

Second Draft of the Magazine advert

Here is the second draft of the magazine advert and as you can see it is much darker. What we have done to the image is adjust all the levels of the layers so the image looks gloomy. We also used the burn tool on photoshop to add shadows on the heart and as you can see now it looks like it belongs in the picture and it should be there as before it looked like it didn't.

We have also added more text and re-arranged the magazine text. We have moved the words 'Heartbeats' and 'Jose Gonzalez' to the bottom of the page as the shadows on the words lets the words sit there nicely. The font that we have chosen for the text is very modern and we have done this so it would appeal the younger generation.

The text boxes that we have put in complement the artist and his work to promote him as an artist and to buy the CD. We have also added that it is exclusive at a mainstream music store which most people have access to on the internet or high street. We have also added translucent black boxes behind the text so it is easy to read and gives a modern feel to the advert.

We then again asked for feedback on our magazine advert and people said that we should change the font on the smaller writing because it doesn't match the titles and add more images and text at the top of the page as it looks quite bare.

Magazine Advert Additional Information

This is the picture we took especially for the magazine advert but we thought it was too simple to use and we wouldn't get many marks for using this and then just putting text over it. Also the facial expression didn't match the song as he looks too happy in this picture. The background was ugly but at first we thought a fallen down tree would look really nice. We like the angle in which the picture was taken though because we felt that it gave an interesting feel to the image. So in the end, we picked a different image.

Magazine advert first draft

This is the image we started off with to put in the magazine cover and we decided that this image would look good with we photoshopped him and put him sitting on something. We discussed for 30 minutes what we could put him on and we decided with a heart.

After deciding to put him on the heart we got some feedback on our idea and people agreed with it but we should put him in a darker setting as he is going through a rough time in the music video.

This was the first rough draft of our magazine cover where we custom made my 3D text for the words 'Heartbeats' and 'Jose Gonzalez'. We learnt how to make this 3D text by using a tutorial on Youtube. We asked to get feedback for this draft and people told us that we should put more text in the picture and make it look like the heart is sat on the ground because at the moment it looks like it is hovering. 

First Attempt

This is one of the album covers that we designed but we decided not to use it. We didn't use it because we encountered a problem with the foot. In it initial picture, there was a branch in the way of his right foot therefore we had to get rid of it otherwise it wouldn't look professional. You can see that we tried to get rid of it but it proved too difficult.
There were several things we liked about this image, firstly it looks as if there is a spotlight shining on him. Secondly we liked that he is sitting on the log and that log enabled us to add text on it as it is like an empty canvas. Also the expression on his face matched the song as the song is a sad one.
One thing that we didn't like was the background, it looks a bit ugly and odd. Big chunks of mud in the background of a album cover doesn't look good.

Artist Research

José González -


He was born in 1978 and he is a Swedish-Argentine indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist. José González's trademark sound is solo classical guitar, he only released a few singles in 2003 but when he became more well known, he released his debut album called 'Veneer' in 2005 which proved to be very popular in the UK and USA. This album contained the song we are using in our video, the song isn't actually his. He did a cover of 'Heartbeats' but the original artist are 'The Knife' who are also Swedish. 
In 2007 after he released his most recent album 'In our Nature', he won the EBBA (European Border Breaker Award) award because of his success in reaching audiences outside their own country.

Album Cover Practice

Original Image

I got given a random image which is this one on the right and 2 random names (one artist name and album name). So I thought how I could get around making this an album cover with the name Ted Dollins and the album name Alphabet. So I decided I would edit this photo in Photoshop and get rid of the mirrors using the lasso tool. I then decided to get some alphabet blocks and I had to trim around each block and insert them into the album cover. After that I went on to the artists name and I decided on a font and I started to play around where to put it. I then decided to get the 'T' from the alphabet and use it as the first letter for 'Ted Dollins'.  Overall as a result of editing this image I decided that this album cover would be produced by an alternative/indie artist.

Image after Photoshop

Editing Softwarre

Film:

The software we have chosen to edit our film on is Final Cut Pro because this is the software we are used to using. This would save time as we will know how to use the software from previous experience  but we could step it up a level. I feel that we have learnt new skills on Final Cut and this really shows in our video. Adding transition are easier know that we know what to do and this made our film more professional.

Digipak:
We used Photo Shop to make our album covers and magazine ad because we feel that it is the best software to use as it allows us to add many effects and layers to make the images more interesting. We tried to make it as professional as we can by looking at many different digipaks by professional artists.

Target Audience

Generic Conventions Of a Music Video

Final Ideas For Our Music Video

Casting

Originally we wanted to act in our own video but we decided that to achieve the best possible outcome that be needed an actor. First of all we wanted a male who could sing and play the guitar as we wanted the whole video to be performance based. It was hard to find someone who would suit this role and we tried hard to find the right person but in the end we thought we could just use someone who can act. All the singing can be mimed. The actor had to be fashionable to suit this indie song and of young age. So in the end we went with Nathan Randall who has a passion for acting. We contacted him and he agreed to be the actor. But because we couldn't fit all the filming on one day, it was hard to rearrange as he wasn't always free. In the end I thought that he was perfect for our video.
Bellow is a image of him taken on filming day along with his guitar:

On site pictures

 This one was taken when we were trying to film the moving shot of the sun through the trees. This shot proved hard to handle because trying to keep the camera steady was mission impossible. But after 11 shots we finally managed to get a acceptable one.

This one was taken when we were filming the performance part of this video. This location meant we can use the light as an advantage because everything else in the background rather dark. This location was also where we decided to take use as one of our options for an album cover.

Props

For our props we used a guitar as this is the main instrument in our song, this helps with the performance part of the video as it matches the song. We chose to actually use a instrument because other videos that were in the same genre used instrument to emphasize the performance. As our actor is going for a walk in the forest, it wouldn't of made sense if he was carrying too many things.

As well as the guitar, the singer is carrying a mobile phone, this is used to show that he is in a relationship. By having a mobile phone we can show that he is in a relationship without having to use an actual partner in the video. This meant that there were less hassle on the filming day.
We also used flowers in our video to help with the narrative part of the video showing that after he discovers the flowers, he realizes that he has mad a mistake my ending the relationship. Without the flowers, the narrative part would of been harder to show.

Generic Conventions of a Music Video

Types of music Video:

·         Illustrative: This type of music video tells a story and is often performance based. These type of music videos are typically about love or romance.

·         Amplification: Amplification is where a director interprets a music video in their own way using creative ideas that they have. These videos will still have a direct link to the song.

·         Conceptual: This type of music video may not have anything to do with the lyrics of the song and are known to be very abstract. An example of one of these videos is Daft Punk – Technologic.

        

Camera:

·         Camera shots usually jump a lot from Long shots to close ups and extreme close ups. The close ups are usually on the lead singer and the band and the extreme close ups are usually of the singer lip synching.

·         Camera Movement: Whip pans, fast dolly tracks and fast overhead crane shots to follow the running, walking or dancing of performers.

Editing:

·         Editing: various terms: jump cutting, montage editing. Creating the visually de-centred experience of ‘jumping’ from location to person to instrument without any normal narrative continuity. Instead it is often the beat or the rhythm of the track which provides the organising principle for editing movement. The editing moves so fast it creates the need for viewing ‘repeatedly’. There are exceptions though. Some ‘continuity editing’ used such as atmospheric ‘dissolve shots’ such as in Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compare to You’ 

 Lighting:

·         Lighting: Expressive lighting a key feature of music videos. Extreme artificial light to create the ‘bleaching’ effect on pop stars faces (making them seem ageless). Also the use of switching from colour to black & white or sepia to indicate a shift from chorus to verse. Also lighting effects such as strobes or flashing needs to be identified. 

·         CGI is also a popular use in music videos to create futuristic sets and brightly coloured backgrounds which is mainly used in mainstream music as they have the big budgets for their videos.

          Mise en Scene:

·         What to look for in a video. Is there a theme such as the historical period e.g. the sixties (Madonna’s ‘Beautiful Stranger’ with its intertextual link to the Austin Powers film) or the seventies (The Beastie Boys ‘Sabotage’ video which parodies the ‘Starsky & Hutch’ 70s TV Cop genre...also an intertextual link). Does the video’s mise en scene follow the need for authenticity in performance videos by using the concert hall or rehearsal studio setting. Or is there an intentional ‘parodic’ setting to exaggerate star image as in many rap and r&b videos with a focus on glamourous icons such as exotic locations, beautiful cocktail bars and stunning beachside houses with infinity pools (see MC Lantau’s video set in Discovery Bay).

Permission

Permission for Location:
With regards permission, we contacted the Look Out management team. This was done through a telephone call on the 21st September 2012, we asked about permission to film and take pictures. They said 'It is fine as long as you don't included any member of the public without their permission'. So whilst filming we made sure we were out of the way at the quiet parts of the woods. So far we have deleted the films where there are members of the public. We wouldn't want to interfere into someone's privacy.
Also they mentioned the standard rules which are, no fires, smoking or damaging of any habitat. We followed these guidelines.

Permission for song:
To ask the artist if we can use his song, we decided to use a social network site (twitter). Below is a screen print of the message that I directly sent to Jose Gonzales. I chose twitter because it allowed us to directly contact the artist, whereas other sites such as facebook doesn't. Jose Gonzalez would of definitely seen this message but weather he chooses to reply is his choice.

Location Research

For our research, we watched various other videos which were filmed in the woods/forest. All these music videos were in the same genre as our song so this really helped when it came to picking the right place to film.

We looked at 2 different places which were Black Park Country Park which is the biggest country parks in Buckinghamshire and the Look Out in Bracknell forest. Black Park has over 10 miles of well surfaced flat track ways and paths set in 535 acres of woodland and heathland. It also has a cafe which means it is a perfect place for a family to spend their day, not only does it have a cafe and play park, it also has a huge lake which can be used for fishing. This meant that this park is always busy all day so finding a quiet place to film would be hard.

Thus why we found our second and final location which is the Look Out in Bracknell; this connects to Swinley forest which means there were many places to go and film as it is nearly double the size of Black Park. If you were near the main trails, it is busy but we went off trail and found places that no one would walk past. This is why we picked this location to film (The most recent Harry Potter Movie was also filmed here). Some parts of the woods we couldn't use as we found out there was a huge fire that happened there in 2011 which destroyed a massive chunk of the woods. The advantages of this place was that we could get many interesting walking shots and when it came to the performance shots, there were branches or tree stumps the actor can sit on and sing. We could also film dark or light shots depending on where we were.

We also went out with a camera so we could take pictures of the location. This one below is the lookout.

Costume

Costume

The costume was chosen to match the song, we wanted a modern dressed character otherwise it wouldn’t make any sense. The character had to suit the role and the props have to match. This is why we dressed the character in a fashionable denim shirt, skinny black jeans with ‘vans’ shoes which is very popular at the moment. 

We’ve done research into other music videos that are a similar genre to ours and we found that if the music is mostly listened by the younger generation (15-15), the artist tends to up to date clothes. These artist influence the flow of fashion, if theres a new style that the artist wears in the videos, the audience will copy it therefore starting the new fashion trend.   

Most artists wear clothes matching their genre of music so that is why we have chosen to go along that route as well. Our genre is indie so these clothing below suited the role. If we were doing a rap video, we might have chosen different clothing with a lot more jewellery/chains etc.