Flat Plan - CD/Album Cover

This is the flat plan for the CD/Album cover for the band. The image we have used for this one is again a silhouette shot but instead of taken in a studio, this one has been taken on a beach. After discussing it with the group, we decided we would try shots in both locations and see which ones turned out the best, so this is an example of what the CD cover could like if we were to use the location silhouette shot. 

The colours used for the CD cover (if we went for this type of shot) are less limited than the magazine cover. Here we see a range of black's, yellow's and orange's, with some purple shades also. Although these seem quite bright colours, I feel the overall image is still quite dark and it still fits with the style of the overall project. 

As on the magazine cover, we will try to not include the girl's face so no make-up will be needed. If we do a long shot, such as this, we will probably go with similar costume as it ties in nicely with background. The floaty dress will represent the femininity of the girl and the hat will give it more edge. 

As on any traditional CD cover, the text is always limited, with just the band name and album title. We have made both of these black to match the silhouette; any other colour may be harder to see/read with the other colours on the image and I feel (along with where the text is placed) it actually stands out. The font we have used is the same as on the magazine cover. We feel this is a suitable font for the band name and intend to keep it as the band's signature font. 

The overall layout of the CD cover is quite simple and traditional. We have made the image cover the whole CD front, which you regularly see with CD's these days. 

Flat Plan - Magazine Advertisement

This is the flat plan for our magazine advertisement for the band's album. We've gone with quite a simple, classic look for the advertisement. We decided that, because of the type of band they are, if we were to have a lot going on in the advertisement (bright colours, lots of text, etc) this wouldn't really match the style of band they are. 

The colours that will be used in the advertisement are quite limited, mostly black, white and probably a little of another colour (as shown above). We feel the limited use of colour could make it look more professional. Also, as there will be limited use of colour in the actual music video, this means the imagery and video will fit together nicely and match. 

For the images we have decided to try out silhouettes. These will be mostly studio shots (possibly some at a location e.g. the beach) and will be the silhouette of a girl. This will also tie in with our limited colour palette, as it will obviously be mostly black and white. We will try to only get the shadow of the girl, and not the actual face so no make-up will be needed. As for body language, we will be trying out a few different poses to see which will fit best with our advertisement and CD cover. The reason I chose the image above was because I like the body language and the pose in the image, it's simple but effective and I think an image like this would fit well. We will be trying mostly long shot's and medium shot's (if took at a beach, it will definitely be a long shot). 

I think that, because of the overall style we are going for, limited text would be best. We do not want to give the audience too much to read as they may get bored and turn away from it. We thought the band name, album title, a few song names that are included on the album and a line from a magazine review would be just enough to have an effect on the audience. The review line was taken from an actual magazine review of the band and we believe it is a particularly good line to show how good the band are, therefore we put the line in colour. As it is the only coloured piece of text on the advertisement, we feel this makes it stand out and is going to grab the readers attention. Obviously the band name and album title are the largest pieces of text on the page (being the masthead) so this keeps a traditional feel to the advertisement. 

We have gone with a few different fonts which we feel work well together. The band name and album title are in the band's 'signature' font; the album review line and song names are in Times New Roman font, quite a simple font but has an old-style twist to it, which we felt matched the style. The word 'including' has been put in an old, calligraphy style font which we found online. We felt that if we didn't put this word in a completely different style font, it would blend in with the rest of the text. It was not so much that we wanted the word to particularly stand out, just we feel the dash of that different font has an impact on the advertisement and kind of breaks the whole page up (in a good way!) 

As for the overall layout of the advertisement, we've gone for quite a traditional, simple choice with the image being the central focus point. We feel that when a reader looks at an advertisement such as this one, they would be more likely to actually stop and look at it if the image was the focus point, and not so much if there was a small image somewhere on the page, surrounded by text. 

Feedback of my blog so far...

Here is the feedback that I have recieved from classmates on my blog so far, which I am quite pleased with! 

PITCH - Roles, Camera shot's, Costume

Costume

After discussion with my group we decided on the roles and responsibilities of the project. Between the three of us we decided that I would take the position of the Producer, Stacey would take position of the Director and Alex would take charge of sound and lighting: We also decided to share the responsibility of editing the video. 

In terms of camera shots, we decided we would like to use a variation throughout the video. We decided we would like to use medium shots as that way we would get the full effect of the location; we want to also use close-ups as we feel this will portray the emotion of the song and convey it well to the audience and we want to try and get some tracking shots in the video as we feel that this keep the video moving at a steady pace and, like the medium shots, show off the location and background. 

The style of costume we are going for is shown in the above image. We feel that, to go with the music and location, we would like to the band to wear traditional English clothing such as waistcoats, possibly tweed materials/patterns, etc. 

PITCH - Images of location

Herrington Country Park

Here are a few images of the fields in which we hope to shoot some of our music video!

PITCH - Plot, Characters, Location

Herrington Country Park

For our music video we decided to go for partly a countryside feel and partly a documentary feel. Some of the shots in the video are going to be taken in a location similar to the above, Herrington Country Park. We have a few places in mind for these shots such as Mowbray Park, Tunstal Hill and a few place in Seaham. We intend to visit these places and get some test shots to see which location films the best! The reason we intend to go with the countryside feel is to match the style of music which is quite folk and old-style. The documentary style of the music video is to break the video up so it does not get repetative. We plan on filming the band out and about, without performing or acting for the camera, just being themselves, "messing about". We hope this will make the video more realistic and fun! Other ideas we have had include filming the band in an empty venue (possibly Bar One, a bar in the city centre), performing the song and perhaps then filming other people on their way to see the band. We hope to be able to include all three of these ideas somehow!

If these ideas do not turn out as expected when filming the video, we have thought out a back up storyline which will include a girl and some kind of relationship storyline which would also work with another song we have in mind.

The genre for our video, we feel, is a kind of 'indie/folk' style as this is the style of music we have went for.

PITCH - Moodboard

Moodboard

Me and my group came up with a few ideas of what the style of our music video could be (which was shown in earlier posts as the Inspirational Texts). I made this moodboard to show some of the aspects of the music video such as location, costume, sound, etc. The next few posts will be the pitch for our video! 



And another

Laura Marling - Rambling Man

Another idea my group came up with was to have some kind of story line for the video. We thought it could make the video more interesting to watch if there was something else going on other than just the band performing; we thought it would give the audience something to think about.

I chose this video as an inspirational text as I believe it does not only show how a story line can work well in a video, but it also shows how simplicity, in terms of editing, can also be a good thing in music videos.

Throughout the video, there are many extreme close-ups used and at times a slow motion effect can be spotted. However, when it comes to the transitions from one clip to another, it is often a plain and simple straight cut. Often when watching music videos you can get many 'fades', 'dissolves' or 'wipes' to cut from one clip to another which I sometimes think looks a little 'too much'. With the genre of music and the style of the video we are going for, I think simple could be best.

An inspirational text

Mumford and Sons - Winter Winds

For my first inspirational text I have chosen the video for the Mumford and Sons song, Winter Winds. I feel the overall style of the video is perfect for the style of music we have chosen. 

Throughout the video we see the use of tracking shots as the camera follows the band wandering about which I feel keeps the video fluid. We also see a few close-up's of the band members as they are singing along to the song. In parts of the video we cut to footage of the band performing for an audience which is quite a contrast to the mellow, slow paced footage of the band walking along the road and walking through the fields. Slow motion effect is also used throughout the video which, along with the tracking shots, I think keeps the video flowing at a steady pace. For our own video, we are looking at finding a location similar to the one in this video and have a few places in mind. We quite like the footage of the fields which seems to fit into a colour scheme for the video of beige's, brown's and tan's: This colour scheme would also fit our style of music well. As the costumes also seem to fit with this colour scheme, I think every aspect of the video complements each other and seems to work together nicely. 

First things first

When Will She Find Home - Reckoner

After reading the briefs, I decided I'd like to try my hand at making a music video! Me and two others are teaming up for this piece and will hopefully be able to pull together something good.

After a little discussion, we decided it would be more original to go for a more local, 'unheard of' band. This way we would also be able to have the actual band feature in the video which would make it more realistic and professional. The band we are looking at go by the name of Reckoner; the band consists of two members, one of which is a friend of mine.
You can watch a recording of 'When Will She Find Home' by Reckoner, just posted above or you can hear some of their recordings here -

http://soundcloud.com/reckoner55

"How have you progressed from AS to A2?"

 I passed AS Media Studies with a grade C. My media studies coursework entailed creating an original music magazine from scratch - a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread (which is shown above.)

In terms of digital technology, I feel my skills have massively progressed in the past year. On starting the year, I had to quickly grasp the use of Photoshop and the huge amount of tools that came with it! I feel I achieved this quite quickly and I now feel comfortable and confident enough to use the software in any aspect of my work that I can. In regards to digital technology this year, I am very keen to learn how to record and edit videos. This is a completely different task to the work I was doing last year and I look forward to possessing this skill for any time I may need it in the future!