Album front cover second draft

Here is the improved version of our album cover, although not many changes have been made we have done important ones. Such as the title and sub-title, the images have been reduced to increase effect, and the Ska checker line has been added in to add to the convention of our music genre ( as shown in our montage) and the shadows to the text to make it stand out more.

Album cover draft

Here is a first draft of our album cover which we designed upon photo shop.

Storyboard presentation

Here is the Storyboard to our music video, both myself and my partner contributed to certain parts of the story board in termsa of creative ideas and and actually drawing and writing it.

Facebook event page

Here we set up an event page on facebook to rally volunteers to act in our music video, from this we have a set date of when we will begin to shoot our music video and insurance that people will show up and take part.

Location shots

Here are some location shots we took of the the sites in which we plan to shoot our music video:

Risk assessment

Here is the risk assessment we did of the following areas we are planning to film our music video in.

Phil Collins music video (Youtube link)

Here is a music video of the song 'You'll be in my Heart' by Phil Collins, although I've not made clip reference to the video, only single images, I leave it here anyway for you to get a good idea of what I've analysed.

50 cent 'In Da Club' music video

Here is the music video for the 50 cent music video analysis

50 cent ‘In Da Club’ music video analysis

This music video is by the artist 50 Cent (otherwise known as Curtis) who is a Hip-Hop artist and conveys the genre in this video. In the video other Hip-Hop artists are shown as acting in the video, with a music video of one of those artists in the background of one camera shot.  This is good market wise as it promotes those other artists music as well as 50 Cent’s music, known as cross-promotion, letting the album come to turgid life. Also a lot of rapid camera movement shows the fast editing and the speed of rhythm in the video.



Throughout the text the artist makes a habit of being topless in most scenes of the video, making this seem of vanity and the moment, he has become a commercial exhibitionist as he is trying to sell his own image to the audience, due to a lot of close ups of the artists’ face.

Here when filmed as working out in the gym it is seen as a montage, rather than continuity the artist fades in and out whenever he changes exercise machines (1.40-1.44). He also embodies the conventions of Hip-Hop through speed, power, girls and wealth. His dressed image is that of ‘bling’ and next to an attractive woman, creating this image in a camera shot gives the audience a simulated experience as fans of 50 cent would like to experience that for themselves, appealing to the adolescent male fantasies as  well . Though these are quite recycled styles as most Hip-Hop artists use these in their music videos.

Phil Collins ‘You’ll be in my heart’ music video analysis

The music video I have chosen is ‘You’ll be in my heart’ by Phil Collins. In this music video the artist uses a variety of different camera shots and scenes in the background of the video, which do not always represent what the lyrics of the song are trying to portray which makes out this video to be surface without substance. A lot of the camera shots feature the artist at a close up showing that most of the video is concentrated on him drawing the attention of the audience.



This portrays Phil Collins to be of vanity and the moment as the video mainly consists of him. In some scenes of the video there are a lot of fast transitions to different scenes and shots all at the same time creating a huge information overload.



 All these shots and transitions behind the artist give the audience a sense of ambivalence as a lot of it may not be necessary accept for song rhythm.

Such techniques are similar in previous music videos which suggest that image and style scavengers made this. Plus the shots of scenes are mostly of happy people getting on with live, a clichéd imagery that has been used before, for example this shot in the video ‘If you want to sing out’ by Cat Stevens shows such imagery.

The artist himself is not really a televised bard because he is not telling a story in this song, though his showing off of his own facial image makes him out to be a commercial exhibitionist.

What the artist stands out most as is an electronic shaman as he blends in with backgrounds of recorded scenes and uses bright lines edited in to show transitions, making the shifting scenes stand out most in the video.

ET music video analysis

This music video is ‘E.T’ by Kanye West which also features Katy Perry, the use of having two artists from different genres of music promotes increased profit. This is because mixing genres allows a broader audience therefore increasing the views of this video in this video the main artist Kanye West is in one seen though shown in many different camera shots, he is shown to be in a space ship (0.32-0.37) which has been used before in music videos such a The Darkness ‘I believe in a thing called love’ portraying that this particular image was image and style scavenged.

Starting with a close up of the artist we get a feeling of continuity as we are straight to viewing the artist, only then zooming out the environment around him, Kanye West is dressed in his usual image (0.38-0.50) which is a convention of the Hip-Hop genre with his shades that he wears in most of his music videos. By retaining this image of him, Kanye West can be classed as a commercial exhibitionist. The rapid camera movement that we are seeing in this scene is emphasising the theme of zero gravity, having a close up of the artist being vertical and then horizontal along with spinning establishes to the audience that the artist is not in a normal setting. The sci-fi theme to the video can be classed as clichéd imagery as explained by the ‘Darkness’ video has been used multiple times.

   

Katy Perry in this video is portrayed as an alien, in her first shot she is dressed as an actual alien while in other shots she is more human looking, the video from (1.20-1.32) you see such a transition from one of her looks to another. The camera shots of the artist are pretty stable ones compared to Kanye West though it does shake a bit to establish the mise en scene of space. A lot more performance is coming from the artist rather than the camera to emphasis the environment (As viewed in the previous clip).  All this eccentric images of her give the impression of image assaults of outré folks. Even in this form Katy Perry is still made to appeal to the young males as being quite beautiful therefore she is adding adolescent male fantasies (3.15-3.28) into the equation. Seeing as it is mainly her voice that anchors the visuals it is clear that Katy Perry is more of an electronic shaman as she shifts between these different views of herself. Although this video has good visuals and vocals the meaning behind it is hard to interpret, if there is one at all, suggesting that this video is surface without substance.

                                  

                 

ET music video (Youtube link)

Creative Ideas

Here is a spider diagram where we have thought of initial ideas of what our music video may include:

Verification of Madness 'House of Fun' use

My partner and I sent an email to the management forum of 'Madness' to confirm if we were allowed to use this song for our project, as shown below:

To whom this may concern,

I recently emailed you regarding the licensing of the song "Our House" for a media coursework video, this follow up email is to inform you that we, Tim my coursework partner and I, have now chosen to do the song "House of fun" instead. We were wondering whether we could have permission to us this song and place our finished product video on YouTube. The music would be used purely for educational use and no commercial profit would be made. If you are not the copyright holder could you please forward me the address or link of the copyright holder.

Regards 

Ollie Smith

Shiplake College

Year 13   

We later recieved a reply from the Madness News team who stated:

Hi,

you don't strictly need permission to use it on Youtube anymore, you just load it up and Youtube automatically finger-print matches the audio with the right's holders who would have pre-selected whether to allow general useage of the track (they then earn a share of the advertising Youtube serves with the video)

So if you look on youtube and find loads of clips using 'House Of Fun' (other than official vids) that haven't been blocked, then you'll know yours wont be blocked either.

This only applies to Youtube 

Hope this helps,

Jamie

Madness News Team

 

So now we can use this song and post it on Youtube without fear of it being blocked due to infringement.

CD advertisement analysis

Here are a few CD advertisements that I have analysed as part of my Pre-production task

CD cover analysis

Here are some CD covers I have analysed in order to highlight the conventions of a CD cover.

A2 Course work

Everything posted from now will part of my new A2 portfolio

My Final Two-page Spread

(Click on image to enlarge)

My Final Contents Page

(Click on image to enlarge)

My Final Front Cover

(Click on image to enlarge)

To take a look at my Pre-production task click on the Link below

http://www.slideshare.net/timnoyce

7.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression from the magazine in my preliminary task to my music magazine, such as my understanding of using microsoft Publisher. For example my knowledge of how to use new fonts for titles to stand out and give more of a conventional appeal as well as I discovered how to take certain parts out of images on Digital image suite 2006. I learnt to use the cut out tool to take out the backgrounds of photos that I want for my magazine, an example of this would be the artists on the front cover of my music magazine which concentrates all visual attention on them and not on what is behind. I have also increased my understanding of magazine codes and conventions in terms of visual appearance and layout, along with the features that attract target audiences to that particular product.

Therefore, my understanding of the programs and equipment used has massively improved since the begining of my preliminary task, this is because when I started this project I'd never properly used Microsoft Publisher or Digital Image Suite 2006, now I've created quite a coventional and impressive magazine.

6.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This piece of equipment is the LG computer with Samsung monitor which I used to construct my magazine on. Out of lesson time I did use my Compaq laptop to continue my work, but most of my overall creation and research was done on this computer.

I used as well this HP scanner to transfer any sketched work of my magazine for evidence of drafting.

I went and used this Vivitar 4 megapixel camera to take all my photos for my magazine.



I also used the microsoft office program 'Microsoft Publisher' to create and design my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.

For my preliminary task I set about using microsoft 'Powerpoint' to present all the steps in which I took.

I used the 'Digital Image Suite 2006' by microsoft to cut and alter some of the images I planned on using in my magazine.

For the evaluation I set about creating myself a blog on 'Blogger' so that I could post all my findings and research on, as well as my final pieces of work and the evaluation.

I also created a profile of 'Slideshare' in order to upload the research and development from my Preliminary task to the internet and linked it to my blog on 'Blogger'.

Therefore, I feel that I've learnt alot about the technology and programs needed to complete this project. Before starting this project I'd never really used Publisher in depth, but now I can have the knowledge to use most of the tools there to craft and design a magazine cover as well as other things. I'd never before used Digital Image Suite 2006 or Blogger either, but now I know how to cut out images and create a blog. Overall I can know say that I can with confidence used and work all of these programs and applications.