Album cover analysis (digipack)

Album Cover Analysis

Narrative change

Today as a group we decided that our initial idea of having just two locations, the café and the drama studio, would become quite monotonous for the audience to watch and it would have no build up throughout the length of the song to keep the audience engaged.
After a discussion we came up with an idea that wasn't too different from our other one but had more of a point to it.
The basic storyline is still the same; the school location is an office building. The artist would play lots of different job roles that aren't seen to be as a 'high status' for example, cleaning, being behind the till at the café in the front, a receptionist, and working in the library. She would always notice a man who worked in the office coming in but he would never notice her in any of her ‘lesser’ job roles. She does little things to try and get his attention, for example, offers him something for free behind the cafe (to which he declines) writes him a Christmas card (to which he accidentally throws in the trash along with other ‘junk mail’ letters), she also hangs up mistletoe above the cafe to try and encourage him to flirt a little, but he never does. Also there is a scene in the library where when he is pulling out books, she is behind them on the other side trying to get a glance at him. He is not ignoring her because he is being horrible but he simply doesn't ever notice her.
This could also be a moral situation, that people in a high status do not really take any notice of people they consider being lower than them in any way be it their job or social status. The performance aspect is still the same, our artist will be in the drama studio with a spotlight and at the end he only notices her when he walks past and hears her singing. We are much happier with this idea as we feel there is a build up in the story which engages the audience; also because we haven't completely changed the storyline from our initial idea we don't have to start everything over, and therefore are still feeling confident about filming.

Permission

This is the e-mail I sent to Universal Music Group asking for permission to use the song we have chosen to create a video for.

This is the email I have recieveed saying that it is ok for us to film in the cafe, where we have based our narrative aspect of the video.

Test footage

take 1
we had a problem as the doors were inconsistent as one had a window and we could see the back of the closet.

take 2
we improved the first problem by trying to block out the window with the person walking in front of the window and trying not to show the inside closet.

take 3
we finally got the best take by blocking the window with a poster and not showing the inside of the closet

Production and artist logo/font ideas

Presentation 1


Presentation 2

Website template

• Images - on my template i have included images of the artist herself, her album and maybe a poster for her tour dates. This is a convention as it helps create an iconography for the artist as the style of image will be consistent across all media types. This was found when I was compiling research on real artists and their media. 
• Hyperlinks - on my template hyperlinks to social websites, stores, the production company and the different pages on the menu bar, I found this conventional when carrying out artist research to find what is typically included into the website.
• Colours - the colours I will use will be consistent across all media types to help create an iconography for the artist, which is what I found real life artist have done to create their iconography
• Font - the font I will be easily readable and consistent through out creating an iconography for my artist this is what I found real life artist have done to create their iconography
• Logo - I have included the logo of my artist at the top of the page to make the logo more rememberable as it is the first thing they will see when on the webpage.
• Title Banner - the title banner is a convention for all most websites as it will help create the feel for the website and therefore to follow this convention I have placed my banner at the top.
• Menu bar - I have included a menu navigation bar so the user can clearly see where he/she can go when on the website. This was a convention when I carried out research into how real artist create iconography through their website.
• Interactive feature - I have included an interactive feature as it engages the audience and gives them control over the website. I found this was a convention when researching other websites

Location shots

 This is where we will be shooting the majority of narrative footage, it is the Castle Green Cafe area. the advantages of using this location is that the location is local to all members of our team that will be involved, it is also a professional cafe so if the owners of the cafe allow us to film we will be able to have a professional setting. There are some disadvantages of using this such as lighting may be difficult as there is a whole wall of glass so it is lit by natural light. Also as it is a public place we may get interference by outside characters wanting t actually use the cafe.

We are going to include a Performance aspect in our video, to do this we will use a drama room as we feel these have the affect of the artist performing. The advantages of this are that it has professional lighting equipment. A disadvantage of using these locations is that they may be booked up  or being used for lesson and we may not be able to get to use them.

Here are the location reccee's we filled out for our two settings, as you can see both settings are applicible and accessable for us to use.

Final idea for Music Video

To quickly sum up the changes we made from our initial idea we decided to increase the age of the actors/actresses, also we have changed location from a school to cafe/ workplace we did this as we wanted to make the video more mature than our previous idea. We have also tweaked the narrative, so that the artist is playing a working role and getting unnoticed rather than playing various characters throughout and not getting noticed, we have also included an object which helps draw the video to a happy ending. 

Now our idea consists of a changed narrative, older actors/actresses, a symbolic object and finally performance of the song. 

I feel that this will be an effective representation for the song as it is not following the convention the real artist set by having an old style to it. Also it is does not follow conventions but does include some aspects of the conventions.

Peer Assessment of mood board by Sean Lee

• Sean initially thought of grunge, instead of soul/ songwriter genre as the images collated are dark and connote that it is not the genre (soul) of our artist.
• He denoted the images of the instruments and felt that this  connoted that the artist is a songwriter as instruments typically connote the ability to play and write songs.
• He felt the images connote love as many symbolisms of love are denoted through the colour red shapes and the actual word in some images..
• He felt the connotations of the dark images suggested there is no happy ending for the person this is mood board is about.
• He felt that relationships were connoted through the image of the hearts and the fingers. 
• He felt that the images collated would be out of the ordinary to associate with the artist and they are much more severe than what he thought would appear when searching for the words but this would create an effective design to follow as the it is not conventional.
• The images collated would be useful to give ideas on how to engage the audience with a slow love song as this is what initially popped into his head when thinking this e.g. heart broken and people crying.
• He thought the images would be good to promote the artist as the images have a links to each other and can be identified to be able to create an iconography for the artist if kept consistent. 

Initial music video ideas

• Artist is unnoticed by popular male, who she fancies
• She fancies him but is too shy to tell him herself
• Through out the video the artist takes the roles of other characters through his ordinary day, e.g. cleaner in his school 
• She always notices him but he never notices her
• she ends up writing the song about him denoted through hand writing lyrics on paper
• The frequency of the following is increasing through the video
• She is in a room practising the song and then he walks in to the room to collect something and they notice each other for the first time
• Fade to black, it ends,

Lyrics from song

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see that smile,
Makes my life worthwhile

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do, I do, I do

Oh, I'll be good to him,
I'll bring joy to him
Oh, everyone says
There'll come a day
When I'll walk alongside of him
To know him is to love, love, love him
And I do, I really do, I do

Why can't he see,
How blind can he be
Someday he'll see
That he was meant for me

Oh oh, to know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
Just to see that smile,
Oh, it makes my life worthwhile
To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I do, I really do, and I do. 

Lyric mood board

This is a mood board I have created by assessing the feelings of the song through its lyrics. I also chose some textures that I felt suited the piece of music to help me when designing my digipack. I collected these images by searching a list of criteria (words I felt associated with the song) I drew up after analysing the song.

The criteria was;

• Depressing
• Sad
• Love
• Relationship
• Heart broken
• Lonely
• Single
• Blind
• Meant
• Just 
• Know
• Worth wile
• Alongside
• Meant for me

Comparing my mood board to that of my other group members I can clearly make links between them as we have similar images with similar colour palettes (mainly red and black). After conversing with my group we found that we did not choose to get the images in black and white they were the best results for the searches we carried out, so we now have an initial idea of filming in black and white to help distinguish the mood of the song.

lyric word cloud

After pasting the lyrics of our song into a word cloud generator to find the most used words this is how the generator presented the results. From creating this I can see the main word used is 'Love' so therefore I can clearly tell it is a love song and therefore have initial ideas about the conventions I may need to use when creating my video and digipack for my artist.

conventions of soul singer/songwriters

after analysing a sample of soul singer/songwriter videos I have came up with a series of conventions which they often include.

In Camera the conventions are:

• Close up/extreme close up shots to evoke the feelings of the audience by seeing how the artists feel. 
• Establishing shots to set the seen of where the narrative may be taking place.
• Flat angle shots so the audience feels they are on the same level as the artist and therefore be able to relate to them easier. 
• Low angles to show the artist may have more power than the audience and therefore connotes to them that they must listen to the song as the artist seems more important than themselves.

These camera conventions follow Goodwin's theory as it is applying the 1st 2nd and 5th part of his theory; this is because there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals which normally illustrate amplify or contradict the lyrics (1st), it also implies that the audience is a voyeur as they can see the artist but the artist cannot see them (2nd). It also creates a genre identity as many of the artists use these camera techniques (5th).

In Mise-en-scene the conventions are;

• The women usually wear a dress or formal clothing, or they wear relaxed clothing. To either inspire or relate to the audience.
• The settings of the video is usually a local place to where the artist is from or somewhere unrelated to the artist.
• the make up of the artist is usually minimal to make the audience feel more relatable to the artist. 

These conventions follow the 1st 3rd and 5th part of Goodwin's theory as it is relating the lyrics to visuals seen by the audience. It also creates star image as you are representing the star how you want to represent her in her future career. It gives genre identity as you can either break out of the mould or follow the conventions to represent the genre as a whole.

Editing

• Many cut to's with no transitions, so this connotes to the audience that if there is a narrative you can listen to the lyrics and gather the story between the shots.
• Shots normally layed into chronological order to help get the narrative across to the audience viewing.

These editing conventions apply Goodwins theory as they help make a star image, it can help make the visuals link to the music/lyrics and can make a genre identity as it can be a significant input of soul-singer/songweriters videos if many of them use it (which they often do). 

soul/ singer song writer video analysis

Genre music Analysis on Prezi

Genre Iconography

Music Iconography

Initial press release ideas

Artist name: Amelia Lee
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Album name: A Girl Called Ami-Leigh
Main Single: To Know Him is To Love Him (Phil Spector Cover)

Dresses: very feminine, quint pretty and dainty
Intrests: songwriting, music and reading.

first few lessons analysis

in the first few lessons of the year 13 media course we have been deciding what song/ artist's music video we will be creating, we have also studied videos from similar artists in the same genre to draw up a list of conventions to try and include in our video. We also did a SWOT analysis of our artist where we analysed the strengths, weaknesses, oppurtunities and threats to our artist this will give us an idea how to market our star to our target audience.

SWOT analysis of artist

SWOT Analysis