Task 11- Create print artifacts (drafts)

The first design for my CD cover was quite basic as I had limited knowledge of what the conventions of a cover are. This meant that instead of having a track listing on the back I just used a picture and had no bar code or logo. However, I had decided that I wanted the front cover to consist of one picture- a close up of the artists face with her eyes closed. This will be very similar to the first shot of my music video but there won't be a microphone as there is in my first shot. I decided upon a picture like this because I think it is personal to the artist and the audience will know what the album is straight away. On the back I wanted a picture of the couple holding hands so that there was a glimpse at the genre of music and a hint at the narrative within my music video. I believed that this would create synergy. 

In addition to this, I did recognize that you need the name of the album to stand out on the front cover which I included in my second design (below). 

For my second draft I used powerpoint and pictures off the internet to show my basic idea for my cover. I hadn't decided upon my pictures I was going to use yet so I just used similar to pictures to that in my first design. I wanted to use the computer to do my second draft so I could get used to the sort of software I would be using (mainly Photoshop and power point)

Once I  had realized my mistakes I decided to change the background, I thought that darker colours would make the image more prominent. On the back of the cover the background is the same with white writing in a similar font to the one used in my edit of the video. However, I did find that the white part in the background meant that you could not see all of the writing as they clashed. I also decided not to include the artist's name on the front cover because I wanted the title and image  to stand out more. Finally, I included a bar code on the back because I found that every CD cover has one.

For my final edit without any original images I researched other artists who had a similar design of a cover to which I wanted. Rihanna's 'Loud' cover was probably the closest as it had a close up of the artist's face as the whole cover. The main difference from the previous design is that the image fills the whole cover and the name of the album is placed on top of it rather than to the side. I thought this looked better as it cleared any 'dead space' from the cover. The back of the album was also changed as I felt that the colours wouldn't go together, this also allowed the track list to stand out more as before the white clashed with the background. I thought that light pink would be good for the back of the cover as it created synergy with the front image, however when I come to properly creating my own artifact I would want more neutral colours, maybe black and white, in order to appeal to both genders.

November feedback

You have explained the development of ideas and mind mapped original ideas.

Some basic storyboards are published which provide an outline of the narrative.

Location recce photographs are published and a basic risk assessment is provided although these can be reflected upon.

You have made some attempt to identify a target audience using the work covered in class.  Again you could develop this exploration.

I am hoping that you can go beyond the generic and show creativity and flair

There is some limited analysis of print artefacts.

Your posts show that you know what you need to cover but this has not happened yet. there is a lack of progress so I hope that your project gains some momentum from here on.

The deadline is Christmas so move up a gear to ensure that you achieve your potential.  At present the web-log does not reflect your potential and needs addressing.

Your edit needs to be completed at least to a first cut which we can provide feedback about.


Targets

• Move the blog from level 2 (basic) to level 3 (proficient) by adding detail and provindg thorough reflection.
• 
  
• Document your creative journey
• 
  
• Complete a first cut

Task 11- Draft 2 print artifacts

Based upon my initial designs, I began to research which pictures I thought would be best for my album cover and inner sleeve. My first idea was to use a close up of Faye as the cover because I had seen this type of cover on many other  successful albums. I thought that the first shot in the video would serve as a good close up as it is simple and allows the audience to see who the artist is straight away.

I also decided quite early on in the process that I wanted a black and white theme throughout my print artifacts to give it a more original look. I used Photoshop to crop the original picture of Faye, change it to black and white and then blur and sharpen the picture. In addition to this, I decided upon the back picture for the album cover, another shot from the video, and edited it to make Faye the centre of the cover. I then saved this as a picture and added it onto a Word document. I used Word for all of the text and to add the other features onto the cover such as the bar code and record label information. I used Word rather than Photoshop because I found the text effects more appealing and when adding the other features it was easier to use.

After looking at some other pictures for the inner sleeve and the advert, I found a different picture to use for the back of the CD cover. I thought that Mark should also be incorporated on the Cover as his character plays a big part in the video. Although many album covers do not use actors from a video on the album I thought that it would make my cover unique and also create synergy between the main production and my print artifacts. I liked this picture in particular because although it doesn't give much away about the narrative, you can tell by looking at it that there is some kind of hostility between the two characters. 

After receiving some audience feedback I found that my the front image on my album cover didn't look as effective and professional as I had originally planned. Therefore I began to look at a range of other images that I had to see which would look better. I decided upon the below image of Faye because I liked it when I originally used it on the back of the album and I only wanted a picture of Faye not of her and Mark as I thought that would make the album look too much like it were based just on the video. I also found that it was a good image to use as Faye is the main focus point, therefore connoting who the album is by.
   

After adding this image to the album cover and changing it to black and white I found that with the text also being black and white there was not enough colour on the cover. I therefore tried out a few different colourings on the cover using word, the red one being the favorite among my class.

I decided, after looking at different colours, that black and white was still my preferred theme for the album. However, to make Faye stand from her surroundings on the image, I thought that turning her into colour while everything else was black and white would ensure this effectively.  I used Photoshop to crop Faye out of the picture and delete the surroundings so that only the central image of her stayed. I then turned this back to colour and saved it as an image. Using word, I inserted the image on top of the black and white picture and grouped the pictures together to make it one Image.

After editing the front image to look like that, I decided that I should do the same for the back of the cover with Faye and Mark sat on the bench. I repeated the process suing Photoshop and Word. I decided to do this because then the fact that Mark is an important part of the album would also be put across to the audience. I also found that it created synergy between the Cover images.

Finally, I added the artist's name to the front of the album because I felt that by not doing so the album may not be as appealing because Faye or Phoebe Ryan (the original artist) are not well known so their name is crucial to tell the audience who they are. In addition to this, I found that during the stages of adding the colour picture of Faye to the album cover part of her foot had disappeared. I therefore rectified this in order to complete the cover.

After this, I began to look at my digipak/inner sleeve of my album cover. I wanted to choose 3 different images from those that I had on my CD cover so that it was all original. The first image I chose was an outtake from the main production. I didn't want all of my images to be screenshots from the actual video because I thought that at least one should be more natural and relate to the artists personality more.

I then went on to choose another picture of Faye and Mark from the video. This one contrasts the image used on the back of the CD cover as the facial expressions are happier and more lighthearted connoting the different atmospheres within the video as a whole. I also wanted to include a picture of the necklace featured in the video. The necklace is the main link to the lyrics from within the video and because it is for the inner sleeve, where the lyrics will be included, It is used to connect the two ideas together.

I then put all three images together to see what the inner sleeve would look like as a whole. To keep with the theme of black and white within my products I edited the colours. I wanted it to be a little lighter than other black and white products because I wanted to add my lyrics in a black font at a later date and they needed to stand out. 

I decided that my first attempt at the digipak was too light and you couldn't see the pictures well enough. It also didn't come across as black and white. Therefore, I used Word to edit the three pictures, grouping them together to create one image. I edited the saturation and sharpness to ensure that you could see all three images well but it was still light enough that you would be able to read the text.

Finally, I realised that two large pictures would fit on the digipak/ inner sleeve better than three small ones, therefore I decided to delete the image of the necklace as it was a lower quality than the other two. I also increased the brightness to ensure that a bit of colour came through, linking to my cover. I then added the lyrics as this is a classic convention of an inner sleeve. I decided to leave the text box surrounding the lyrics because I thought it looked original. In addition to this I ensured that the font, colour and settings of the text were the same as the cover and advert.

As you can see below, I used Word to present the different stages of my print artifacts so that I could easily change things and add things in or delete them. It was also an effective way of allowing my peers to look at a variety of ideas when it came to my feedback. I also used it to add text as it was easier to use than Photoshop and to ensure that the sizing was correct against an existing artifacts.

Task 10- Filming and Editing (creative journey)

21/10/2015

Below is my production schedule for my filming and editing and planning stages of my music video:

Since creating this production schedule I have kept to deadlines and ensured that I am organised and prepared for what I will need to do that day or week.

02/11/2015

Myself and Darcy recently started filming in the castle grounds with Faye and Mark as shown in the pictures below. We  had to film in 2 different locations that include; Landau's recording studio, Tamworth's Castle Grounds. Even though our coursework piece does not require a script, we still had to research, plan and put together a storyline because we decided to do one that was both narrative and performance based. For this, Faye, the actress, is mainly singing in the recording studio but also when she is in role, she will sing the odd line of the song in order to combine all of the video together and to not leave it separated.

Whilst filming we had a few problems with member of the public walking into shot and we were filming next to a busy road so there was a lot of noise from traffic. Despite this we were able to film what we needed in the time we had and have now completed the majority of our filming. We have also  uploaded the footage we have onto the Mac's and have begun editing on Adobe Premiere Pro. 

20/11/2015

Whilst editing our first cut, I have found that one of the scenes we meant to film in the recording studio has not been filmed. In addition to this another two shots, that were meant to be edited together to make Faye and Mark look like they are sitting on a bench together, does not work as we filmed from two different angles and on different days. The image below shows what the edit looks like currently. Therefore we have found that we will need to re-shoot these scenes in order to follow the storyboard and overall story line of the video. The first edit is also now complete here.

05/12/2015

We have now finished filming and re-filmed the relevant scenes. I have edited the shots that we have re-filmed, the only problem that I have had is the more recent shots were filmed in the  late afternoon meaning that the lighting compared to the original shots is a lot more low key. To ensure that this looks professional I have edited the shots to make them brighter and changed the order to some of the shots to make sure that the narrative makes sense and is all filmed in similar light. 

19/12/2015

I have been working on editing my music video for the final draft for the past couple of weeks, compared to the first draft I have added in and edited shots, added transitions and made sure that the narrative makes sense. My final draft is here. I will now be working on my print artifacts, most of the images for my cover and poster will taken from my video as to create synergy. 

Task 9- Casting

Once I had decided upon a basic story line I figured that we would need two actors to play a part within it. To begin with I asked a few of my friends who said they wouldn't mind helping out. But after discussing our options we realized that I could ask a friend, Faye Stockley, who has done a few Youtube video's for 'sing for us'. We are hoping that she will be able to record the song in the Landau recording studio and then alongside her boyfriend, Mark, she has agreed to act in it. Here is Faye covering Skinny Love:

Faye Stockley - Acting as the artist and also the protagonist. Faye is a 16 year old student from The Rawlett School. She sings professionally and so I thought that she would be a great asset to my music video. Furthermore, Faye also does drama for GCSE and takes part in the yearly school productions so she has had experience within the acting field. 

Mark Dennison - Acting as Faye's boyfriend in the music video. Mark is a both shy and confident character so i thought he would be perfect for the role of Faye's boyfriend as he can portray a great sensitive side to him. Moreover, Mark also does drama and takes part in the school productions. Most recently acting as the beast from 'Beauty & The Beast'. 

Since showing Faye and Mark our storyboard we have arranged two separate days to film with them as you can see from my production schedule. In addition to this we have taken them to the locations in which we wish to film so that they understand the basic idea of what they will need to do. I have also sent Faye the link to the song 'Mine' and it's lyrics so that she will know the song fully once we come to record.

Task 8- Final proposal (location reccies)

Below are all of the places on which I plan of filming my coursework piece with the exception of the recording studio at Landau Forte Sixth Form.

Hopwas Woods (the last image) is the only place I am unsure of filming in.This is due to it being quite far away from the other locations and it may mean that another day of filming would be required. Due to time constraints this may not be possible. However, as an alternative there is a place in the castle grounds (the first picture) that may we may be able to use. 

Within the Castle grounds there are a number of different locations that we plan on filming that you can see in the above pictures, I didn't want to film in just one place as it would look boring and all the shots may look the same, therefore myself and Darcy decided to do these location recces to ensure that there were various places in the grounds that we could film. This then enabled us to make a detailed storyboard as we now know the exact spots in which the shots will take place. 

Task 8- Final proposal (risk assessment)

Since doing the location recce's I have completed the risk assessment. I did this two days before we started shooting because I thought that it would be more accurate with regards to weather and the assessment of the area at that time. In addition to this, I have made sure we are filming inside of the house at a time that all of the children are out and I have booked the recording studio for a longer time frame than we should need so that before we start filming and recording myself and Darcy can go and make sure that there are no loose cables or wires. 

Task 8- Final proposal (email to Sony)

Task 7- Role allocation

Me: Director and film editor.

As well as all of the research and planning for making the film, I am also going to be filming the majority of it too. Myself and Darcy decided to take it in turn to film which so far has worked. Currently I am editing the video with the help of Darcy and we are finding this good as we have the chance to both participate and collaborate on ideas. I have also conducted some detailed research surrounding music videos in general. Together Darcy and I have created a storyboard, risk assessment, production schedule and location recces. From the beginning of the project we both decided to have an equal role in everything rather than one of us do the filming and the other editing etc. This is because we both felt that we had a range of varying ideas and our skills didn't differ to much. 

Faye Stockley and Mark Dennison are the actors in the video. I felt that if me and Darcy had of acted in the video it may have taken our focus away from the overall product and not have given us the best possible result.  

Task 6- Storyboard

Task 4- Audience research

Every film or media product has a specific target audience in which they aim to sell their production to. This audience usually varies based on age, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity etc. For my A2 production- ‘Mine’ I  have researched thoroughly what type of audience a pop music video would attract so that I can add elements into my coursework, which will keep this audience interested. Based on what I have researched, my target audience would be predominately teenagers between the ages of 15-20, the average age would probably be 17 year old females from a middle class background. My ideal target audience would be as follows:

Name: Sophie
Age: 17 
Car: Ford KA
Phone: Iphone
Shops: River Island, New Look, Outfit
Artists: Ed Sheeran, Birdy, Sam Smith
Enjoys: Spending time with family and friends
Magazine: OK!
TV Shows: Celebrity Juice, Big Brother, X Factor

I think that my audience would mostly be passive, due to my coursework piece having  young actors in it. This means there may be a chance that a more passive market could be persuaded to watch it. This could be because teenagers see from a stimulus (pop up or suggestion on YouTube) that someone their own age is in this video then they may feel that they could connect with the video. In this case the teenagers would become part of the promotion as they would more than likely use social media to express their views on the video and in turn help to promote it. This would add to the effect of more teenagers wanting to go and see it because they may have briefly seen a piece of information about the film relating to the hypodermic needle effect. 

To get the wider range of ages as my target audience social media wouldn’t be the only from of promotion used, things such as newspapers and magazines could also be used to reach my audience. Despite the fact that they would actively choose to watch a video for gratification, some passive methods such as TV Spots to advertise the album/song on in the background would need to be used as well. This is so the particular film is widespread because social  media can't be the only form of advertising used. Using TV spots during the day wouldn't be the best time because the age range for my target audience would probably be at school or college, therefore late afternoon or at night would more than likely be the best time to promote the video.

The original artist of 'Mine' (Phoebe Ryan) is within my target audience's age range, as is the protagonist for the video, Faye. As said before, this would mean that the audience will be able to connect with the video more due to the actors being the same age. I decided that it would more than likely predominantly be watched by teenage girls because with artists such as Taylor Swift, Jess Glynne and Rhianna, this is the main audience and fan base. 

 

Task 4- Audience Research (questionnaire)

1. How old are you?
2. Where do you shop? i.e: River Island, New Look etc...
3. Do you drive? If so, what car?
4. Who is your favourite musical  artist at the moment?
5. What phone do you have?
6. What are your hobby  and interests?
7. What is your favourite TV show?
8. Do you read magazines? If so, which one(s)? 

I asked 20 people from a range of different backgrounds based on their ethnicity, age, gender and social groups the above question. There were a range or responses and the answers were as follows:

Question 1

7 people- 17                  
6 people- 18
2 people- 15
1 person- 23
1 person- 31
1 person- 14
1 person- 39
1 person- 19

Question 2

7 people- New look 
5 people- River Island 
3 people- Topman 
2 people- Burton menswear
1 person- Asda 
1 person- Primark 
1 person- Sainsburys  

Question 3

11 people- Don't drive
2 people- Ford KA
2 people- Fiat 500
1 person- Audi A3
1 person- Renault Clio
1 person-  Nissan Micra
1 person- Citroen C1
1 person- Mini cooper 

Question 4

3 people- Ed Sheeran
2 people- Adele
2 people- James Bay
2 people- One Direction
2 people- Coldplay
1 person- Jess glynne
1 person- Bastille
1 person- Lady Gaga
1 person- Take That 
1 person- Justin Bieber
1 person- The Weeknd
1 person- Eminem 
1 person-  Rudimental 
1 person- Ellie Goulding 

Question 5

5 people- Iphone 6S
4 people- Iphone 5S
4 people- Iphone 6
3 people- Iphone 5c
2 people- Iphone 4S
1 person- Samsung Galaxy J5
1 person- HTC One

Question 6

5 people- Reading
4 people- Sport 
3 people- TV
3 people- No answer
2 people- Gaming 
1 person- Dancing 
1 person- Cooking 
1 person- Playing piano 

Question 7

4 people- Friends
3 people- Big Bang Theroy
2 people- I'm a Celebrity 
2 people- The Simpsons
2 people- Coronation Street
2 people- How I Met Your Mother
1 person- TOWIE
1 person- Eastenders
1 person- The X Factor 
1 person- Strictly Come Dancing
1 person- Gogglebox

Question 8

8 people- Don't read them
4 people- OK! 
3 people- Hello!
2 people- Glamour
1 person- GQ
1 person- Vogue 
1 person- Empire 





 

Task 3- Mind mapping of initial ideas (Pheobe Ryan)

When looking for possible artists and songs in the planning stage of my A2 production, myself and Darcy started off by looking at quite famous, mainly British artists. However, every song we seemed to listen to didn't quite fit our idea for what we would like our narrative to be about. Most of the lyrics we analysed seemed to be very similar and didn't have the resolution at the end of the song we were looking for. We decided that we should start looking at songs that still had a similar message but were more upbeat to add to our range of song choices. We also thought that we should begin looking for less well known artists so that we could make our video more distinctive. Darcy then told me about Phoebe Ryan, an American singer who had recently brought her debut album out that i had never heard of. Darcy told had found out about her when her YouTube recommendations had advertised the following video:

After watching her cover this mash up of R.Kelly's 'Ignition' combined with Miguel's 'Do you like drugs?' Darcy listened to a few more of Phoebe Ryan's songs from her album. Once i had found out about Phoebe Ryan i listened to a few of her songs including 'Mine' and 'Dead'. We chose not to use 'Dead' as it was harder to relate the lyrics to the idea's we had for our narrative. 

We found that 'Mine' fitted perfectly with what we had wanted for the narrative. It has room for a resolution at the end of the narrative, the lyrics aren't specific to a certain story line so we could bend the to what we would want and it is fast paced and not downbeat like the other songs we had listened to. Using Phoebe Ryan for the artist also has it's advantages, she isn't that well known so our production won't be compared to the original video very much. In addition to this it would mean that we wouldn't feel we would need to copy many aspects of the original video to make it successful and therefore we could create it in a way we feel would be best rather than following certain conventions which we may have had to should we have used another song/artist.

These are the original music video and the lyric video:

When looking at both of these video's we decided that the original video is more of the style that we would like to incorporate into our production. We had already decided that we want a mixture of narrative and performance much like the first video. The lyric video is more like Johnny Cash's 'Hurt' which i felt didn't have enough of a narrative and therefore wouldn't connect with the audience as much should we use that style. 

When looking at the lyrics for 'Mine' I made the following annotations in order to begin to make connections with an idea for a narrative. 

Tasks 3 and 8- Mind mapping initial ideas and final proposal

For my A2 coursework I have decided to do a music video rather than a short film, documentary or a game advert. I made this choice because I didn't feel confident enough with writing a script for a short film and I felt that all of the ideas for a short film I came up with in the planning stages of coursework were highly unrealistic in the short time frame we would have to film and edit. I also ruled out a documentary for similar reasons. I had thought of doing a documentary about how technology has affected children and their upbringing over the past decade but decided against this due to it taking too long to film and to find children and parents to interview. In addition to this there are a lot of safeguarding issues around filming children which I felt would be a problem too big to deal with when there were other options available. Finally, I don't have much of an interest in video games so I felt I didn't have enough of an understanding or interest in which i could produce a good overall product.

After researching and looking into the above options I decided upon making a music video. From the start it was the option that had intrigued me the most mainly because I enjoy listening to various types of music and i was interested in the making behind the videos I have watched in the past. 

Once I had decided upon a music video I began to research the different types of videos I could make, the different genres of music and different artists. Inside and Outside of class I began to look at AS and A2 students past work from a variety of schools, I compared their work to the original video to see the similarities and differences. I found this useful as I realized that I can change and interpret my video depending on what I like, which is useful as it has given me freedom to do as i like with the video from scratch. 

Here are some of the videos that i initially looked at when researching other students work: 

I had already decided from my earlier research that a performance and narrative based video would be the best for me, so when looking for existing products such as the above this was what I aimed to look for in my research. From looking at these videos and the originals I found that I needed to incorporate a number of different locations within my music video. In addition to this the students work allowed em to understand the different/most common camera angles used, the types of editing I could use and the narratives that i could choose from. All of this research helped me when I was story boarding and brainstorming my ideas for my video as you can see below:



After I had mind mapped a few of my idea's and did some additional research into Birdy and Phoebe Ryan I found that Phoebe Ryan's song 'Mine' would be the best song for my video. I came to this conclusion because Ryan's song is less well known and therefore easier to brand as i wish. Also the lyrics could be analysed in many different ways leaving room for a number of different narratives to be used depending on what I felt would be most suitable. Compared to 'Skinny Love', 'Mine' is a lot more upbeat which is what I felt would be best for my video, as many of the other A2 productions i looked at were a lot slower and I don't want to conform to this.

Once i had decided upon a song the narrative came very quickly. I didn't feel as though I had to storyboard any other ideas because myself and Darcy had very similar thoughts on the narrative and just talked it through, debating ideas rather than mind mapping or making a list. Our initial idea was just to have one actor- a female who had argued with a family member and was trying to get as far away from home as possible. We took some initial idea's from Ed Sheeran's 'The A Team' which has a similar plot. However, after we began our first storyboard we realized that we wanted our video to be more original an I felt like we were copying 'The A Team'. With this in mind we discussed the rest of our options and thought that a narrative of a couple arguing/splitting up would be more fitting with the lyrics. Since then we have added more detail into our story line as you can see from my storyboard. In addition to this we have decided to keep a few shots in our final product similar to some in 'The A Team' for example:

Finally, I have planned out the props,costumes and equipment  we will need when it comes to filming, this should make it easier on the day because we will have it all there ready.