Overall Summary of Project

Overall as a group we felt that we all worked extremely hard and all had an important role in producing the overall project. We all agreed with the choice song and the particular genre, as we felt we could do a lot with this genre as it was well known to us all, also the subject of the video was something as a group we could all relate to because we focused around As a team we all made a huge amount of effort into this project we, all had  specific roles and aided each other in particular times with our strength and weaknesses. We felt that for the evaluation this was the hardest part of the project as we felt that we did not have enough time to evaluate all of our work such as the music video(rough cut and final cut) , digipak and advert. As a group we all worked well and there was no problems with us, we felt that we all worked well together and would happily work together again.

Final Cut Sienna Rose

Rough Cut Sienna Rose

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Final Advert & Digipack

Yesterday saw the completion of our advert and digipack. After discussion over which photos to use, we decided on a close up for the front of the digipack, and a close up for our advert, all in the same location as our final video scene. We decided that it was best not to use some of our long shots as they looked more 'farmer-esque' then indie singer due the costuming. As well as this, we also thought that a close up was more personal, reflecting the subject of the song.

We also included logos and other features that followed the codes and conventions of the products. For example, basic features that are needed to make them professional - a bar code, record label logo etc. Other key aspects, such as a date release on the advert and a small picture of the album to show the audience the product were also used -bringing all the products together. 

Other photos we used were, scenery shots for the disk design, roses for the inside of the album and a mid-shot for the lyric sheet insert. The dark scenery picture on the disk kept it simple and related back to our night running scenes in our video. This went on top of more scenery pictures, however with lighting that was brighter then the disk. Lighting was something we played around with on a couple of pictures, by having a bright light coming into the picture, perhaps representing the new beginnings that could be seen in our video. 

The spine of our digipack, simply featured the scenery shots of trees, linking the back and front together.  

Add caption

Photoshoot Two

Due to our last photo-shoot losing light, therefore making the shutter speed slow down and not giving us the shots we wanted without blurring them. We took more photos in the same area as our final video scene, which put the location into context. We kept her outfit similar and simple, much like artists we researched - Birdy and Ellen Tondra from Daughter. 

We took more close ups for our advert and booklet inside the digi-pack. These were then edited on Photoshop to create the professional touch you would expect to see on any album or advert. As for positioning and facial expression, we told Amelia to keep her face neutral, as the song on our video is not something that can relate to a happy poppy photoshoot.

Best Shots

Photoshoot

Last night we attempted to complete a photoshoot for our advert and digipack. However because of the lighting going down too quick, many of our photos didn't work. This was also made worse by lack of focus on pictures. However we feel we still have a few shots that could work on the product. We will take more photos today to complete the set, then edit and place them in the digipack on Monday.

Video Completion

This week saw the completion of our final cut. After working hard to re film certain parts and editing repeatedly after school and in any free time last week, we finally got to see the end result. As a group we are happy with our final product. We felt that as the subject must be approached delicately, we captured the struggles of a teenage girl and her appearance in a subtle manner. This was extremely important to us, as the topic of anorexia is a subject has all affected us through our friends. Using just Sarah (the actress) and no other characters reflected the loneliness and personal side of the problem, which makes us think about what people are like behind appearances.

As the project has progressed we feel that the video has really made us think, and hopefully will make our audience feel what felt when making and watching it.

Film Equilibruim

As we decided on an appropriate ending, we looked at more music theorists. We decided that Todorovs theory does not really apply to our video, with us going against his five stage theory. As our video begins with the problem, the equilibrium is already broken and the problem needs to be restored at the end. However, because the song doesn't actually come to a conclusion, we didn't want the problem to be fully restored. We wanted to leave it up to the audience interpretation. This has led to our artist being used as some sort of 'hero' figure. From our rough cut, we found that the audience saw the performer in the end scene as perhaps a ghost/angel, helping the living with problem. However the audience won't find out what happens after the the performer is introduced in the narrative and offers some sort of help.

Diary Entry 34

Yesterday didn't turn out as expected, with us not staying back to complete editing. This was because the date coincided with parents evening as well as Abbie being ill. However we will use tonight as our time to place all other clips into the video timeline. This should leave us with enough time to edit everything else on Friday. On Friday we are also filming our end scene once and for all. This can easily be edited into place on Monday. Today we also planned some ideas for our Evaluation. As it approaches we want to be prepared with a range of ideas which will save us time in the long run.

Diary Entry 33

Today we continued editing, however we are staying back tonight to edit the bulk of the footage. This will help in hopefully completing most of the video by Friday. We plan to film on Sunday, which although leaves us with a very limited time, it is the only time our actress can film and should be achievable as long as we complete all other editing by Friday. Charlotte S and Matthew have continued planning for the digi-pack and advert, giving us a range of ideas for the final draft of them. 

Diary Entry 32

Today we basically just carried on from yesterday, with editing our video footage and planning the photo-shoot. We also Have been considering a new logo of just one letter, the first letter of her name 'S' would be appropriate, much like Rihannas 'R'. We hope to achieve this by finding and downloading more fonts which could also be an appropriate logo.

Diary Entry 31

Today was spent with Charlotte J editing and Charlotte S designing and planning the photo shoot. Matthew has also been helping with photo shoot planning. This meant creating an almost animatic style drawing for the shoot, with ideas for all categories under mise en scene. We decided that we would stay back tonight to complete more editing so that we could potentially finish on Friday. This will give us over the weekend to think of any extra touches that might make our final cut better. We also realised that we have the camera booked for Wednesday and Thursday which gives us just enough time to complete an end scene for the video as well as any extra clips we want to try out. 

Album Tracks

For our album tracks, we came up with a long list by coming up with any relatable random words a or phrase we thought could connote sadness, nostalgia or emotion in general.

• Antidote
• Me & You
• Time
• Medicine
• Do Wah Do
• Euphoria
• Balancing Heartbeat
• Glass Jars
• Jamie
• Fire Burning
• Crash
• Reunite
• I Am
• Blank Canvas
• Sun & Moon
• Back Home

From this list we will vote for our top 12 tracks which will relate to our artist brand image. 

Filming Last Night

Last night, we successfully filmed all of our remaining narrative. This has taken a lot of the pressure off, as now all we have to do is edit and finish the advert & digi-pack. We filmed at Charlotte J's house, a new location for us, however we planned all the props and room scenes that we would need. This was done particularly better then our rough cut as we have learnt that planning and carrying through mise en scene in the shot is highly important. Our second location was the Broadway road, using rule of thirds and camera movement to make the shots more interesting. It was also another night running scene adding the anorexia and over-exertion we want to come across with the character. 

DigiPack and Advert Development

After more research, we were inspired by Rihannas digi-pack for her album 'Loud' as well as Lana Del Rey photo-shoots  As our artist, Sienna Rose, has a flower in her name, we decided it would be a good idea, although cliched, to have our motif as a a rose. We decided that it would be a good idea to incorporate roses into our photo-shoot, we liked the look of this in Lana's photo-shoots against a plain background, however we will probably try out some close up shots with a hint of the roses in the shot. 

Album Title

To decide a album title we came together as a group, and decided that synonyms of medicine as well as extra words that could have some related meaning to the song, would work well as a title. We researched a host of words and then voted on our favorite. The list below is what we came up with, narrowing it down further to 'Antidote' and 'Sovereign'. Our final choice was 'Antidote' as we thought it had more relevance to the song. 

• Antidote
• Redemption
• Freedom
• Cure 
• Medicine
• Remedy
• Elixir
• Sovereign

Logo & Font

Our first logo and font, seen in the logo development post, has been changed. We decided it would be easier to download a font rather the transferring the original and changing it's colour. After consideration we found 'Brain Flower' on dafont.com. We thought the simple, sans serif font, represented a indie genre.This will be used on our advert and digipack. 

Diary Entry 30

Last night we successfully finished our performance which we will edit tomorrow onward. Today Matthew is editing audience feedback, while Charlotte S is researching more ideas for our photo shoot. Although last night we did take a range of photographs for our advert and digipack, they might not be suitable as not all were in focus, good positions etc. Charlotte S is in charge of the photoshoot as we decided she is probably most skilled in the area after last years project. We have also been concentrating on our digipack, as far as we can go without photos. Charlotte J came up with idea of covering the CD with the name 'Sienna Rose'. This was done in the same font as our advert to keep the artists identity.

Advert Plans

After researching more adverts we decided Jessie J's 'Who You Are' album advertising was simplistic and effective, leading us to taking inspiration from the layout. The simple white on black text and three-tone colour scheme was something that we like as it wasn't overly dramatic and commercialized. Similarly we also did this, yet we had a simpler font that seemed to represent our indie artist more then a pop icon.

Our next step was to research a relevant record label and magazine to feature in. We decided upon NME, which hosts a range of music genres, and Atlantic Records, which signs the likes of Ed Sheeran. Their logos were then placed on the advert to make it more professional and realistic.

Diary Entry 29

We are filming tonight our re-shoot for performance. This will be at our first location in a friends house, yet this time we are moving furniture around to fit into our video rather then the other way round. We will also be doing a photo shoot for our digipack in the same location. After researching a range of different positions and poses for our photo shoot we are going to try a few and see what looks best.  

Today's lesson was dedicated to our advert, which will be completed with our photoshoot tonight and the completion of our digipack.

Diary Entry 28

Today we carried on planning our advert as we have no new footage to edit. At first we were worried that we wouldn't have enough time to edit our footage, but after planning when and how long we would edit we realised we should be on target as long as we put in the extra work. 

After looking at more music videos to analyse performance, we considered a second location for our singer, however after discussing what it would look like, we decided that it would be best to restrict it to one location. This gives us more opportunity to perfect our shots and make it as classy as possible. The second location could have worked if we had more time to plan and would give more variation for such a slow song. However, it would have been easier to make this fit into our video if we planned it in our rough cut, rather then our final cut.

Micheal Shore

Micheal Shore concludes that music videos often use stereotypical views, and overload a video with information. For example, to appeal to a male audience, producers often use attractive girls and fast cars. Despite this, we do not want our video to be too obvious and brash. We do use the stereotypical image, of teenage girls being unhappy and under pressure to look a certain way, however this isn't overworked in the video. We decided to concentrate more on the girls' personal problems, and her isolation in them, rather then a general pressure for all teenage girls. 

Diary Entry 27

Today was dedicated to creating a draft for our advert. After talking together as a group and with the teacher, we decided that our new performance footage, despite being more thought about, was not as good as our first shoots. This has lead to us deciding that we will re-shoot in the first location but change the position of furniture, mainly the piano. This will be moved into the center of the room, which will imitate  previous music videos we have looked at. 

When developing our advert, we have went back and looked at more from established artists to gain a better knowledge on  what would work for us. We decided that it would we should download a particular font to create the image we want, as well as making sure the advert is not too cluttered with information. 

Sven E Carlsson

When looking at Sven E Carlssons theory of performance vs conceptual categories for  a music video, we felt that ours fell into the conceptual side. This was because when viewing our rough cut, our audience had different interpretations of certain scenes, in particular the ending. Our concept is simply a girl who felt the pressure of a certain appearance, suffering from  and eating disorder. However her illness isn't specified and is subtly implied. Our performance, is loosely connected to our narrative, depending on how the audience interprets the video. I think as a group, we enjoy making a conceptual video more then we would a performance, as we feel more emotional attachment and involvement to the idea.

Diary Entry 26

Today we are editing our performance in Premiere and editing logo development feedback. This feedback will eventually lead us to our digipack and advert. As for editing our performance, we have found that we may have to film some more shots again, mas we tried to do some handheld scenes which worked well for some shots but not all. As well as that we didn't quite get as much footage as we wanted as we only had a limited time with the camera that night. 

Targets and Plans

We came up with a plan for everything we need to do to complete our project and a time frame for each action. This will be useful to keep us on track and complete everything we need to for a successful project.

•           Go through rough cut and decide what is and isn’t being kept for the final cut        (2 lessons)
•           Edit new performance footage and put it in the video                                     (2 lessons)
•           Convert new narrative footage and edit in Premier                                         (every lesson after it has been shot)
•           Work on the digi pack and advert                                                                       (every lesson)
•           Get feedback on all new parts of the project from our target audience                  (every few days, or once a week)

Diary Entry 25

Today we created a 20 day plan, to organise our remaining time on the project. This consisted of taking new footage, creating a professional digipack and advert. This lesson we are going through our video to decide what is and isn't being used in our final cut. We need to plan for our narrative filming as we have got our performance out of the way we have less to concentrate on. Now we have a plan for the next few days which will help us make better use our time. 

Diary Entry 24

Over the holidays, our filming did not go to plan. This was mainly due to not organizing our actors for the planned days. We need to think about our narrative more and develop specific scenes that do not seem right within the video. From our audience feedback watching our rough cut, particular scenes such as getting chocolate out of the fridge didn't look very professional, something we realised as a group and were also not happy with. Another aspect that we need to develop is the ending. This raised much debate as to what it represented, however we decided it would be better to let the audience see what they wanted to see. Despite this we need to reshoot the end, to improve lighting and to stop it from looking like a a advert from counselling. 

We decided that the best plan of action to get a suitable ending, is to do a few i find from our audience which is the best. 

Diary Entry 23

Today we all began to plan for the advert and digipack after completing and exporting our finished rough cut.  Charlotte and Abbie went out to film audience feedback on the album cover drafts, which they will then edit in tomorrows lesson, as well as taking on board the advice given. Charlotte S and Matthew began to draw out advert designs which can later be scanned into Photoshop to develop further. Overall, we feel as a group, that we are coming together and are ready in preparation for the next draft.

Deadline - Rough Cut

We finished our rough cut of the video yesterday before the deadline day. This pleased us as we feel like we have become more organised as a group. We have already planned re-shoots for the scenes we aren't happy with, in the holidays  as well as over the weekend. This way we can get all filming done and plenty of time to edit. Today we are going to draw up some drafts of a advert which will help us kick start the final cut.

Album Artwork Draft

Today was partly spend creating a cover for the cd, however these are just draft as we haven't got a photograph of our performer that we can place on the case yet. We have our top favourites, but Charlotte and Abbie will be getting feedback from our audience tomorrow, helping us decide which one to use. We created them on Photoshop, incorporating the logo we previously created, making it easier for us to experiment with positioning and fonts. 

Diary Entry 22

We are continuing to edit our footage as well as convert our most recent footage filmed last night. We have shot our end scene and more running clips. We feel like we are almost ready for the deadline, but we will be finished editing. After placing all the clips in the correct order, we will then go on to to add transitions and effects. 

To match the performance and the narrative, we have changed the lighting so that they are both a duller, grey colouring, matching the mood and message of the song. As for transitions and other effects, we want our video to include dissolves and fades to both black and white. 

Logo Development Video

This is a short video of a number of people giving us feedback on our shortlist of logos we wanted to use. We gave them a number of logos and then from that they gave us feedback on what they liked about each logo and what could be improved. They also told us what features of some made them better logos than others we had.

Diary Entry 21

Tonight we are editing a lot of our footage from filming over the weekend as it took too long got convert in our lesson. This has often led us to converting before the lesson, however we did not have time. We are also filming later, which should complete all of our footage for the rough draft. 

Plans For the DigiPack & Advert

We decided that with the rough cut deadline coming up, we should start planning our digi pack and     advert. We will be using InDesign and have already decided on a basic idea for our album artwork. Like similar artists we have analysed, we decided the artwork would follow a certain structure. However we will make a moc up of a few different ideas and get feedback from our audience to choose the best.

Digi Pack Criteria:

- Location: Basic background, perhaps on a vintage style chair, near a window

- Costuming: Same costuming from the performance, as well as the same performer

- Hair & Makeup: Hair down, minimal makeup

- Lighting: Not too harsh, soft lighting

Diary Entry 20

Today we converted and edited our performance footage as well our new scenes for narrative. We will continue to edit after school tonight, until around 6 o'clock when we are filming our night running scene. This scene has been left until last as we wanted to film all major chunks of footage before this scene, which is specifically at night.

After this final scene, we will have completed all of our footage for the rough draft. However for our final draft we are considering changing our main character for narrative as we want the performance and narrative side to be more of the same style.

Diary Entry 19

This weekend we have successfully filmed all performance scenes and extra narrative scenes. We decided, after watching old footage back, that we would re shoot narrative, where our character is weighing and measuring themselves. This was due to the fact that the costuming didn't look right, as tighter clothing eg. a vest top instead of a jumper, was more realistic. As well as this, after researching anorexia and shots we could film ourselves, the new footage seemed better suited to our aim. 

We are happy with our performance shots, with after more organisation materialised into what we wanted. Not only did we enjoy filming them, as we all joined in singing, we achieved the camera angles and movement we wanted. After looking at our previous footage, we decided that more movement was needed to keep the stationary performance interesting. We filmed long shots of the song being played in a host of different angles and used the same parts but with movement and focus pulls.

Diary Entry 18

Today we are filming all of our performance scene, ready to edit on Monday. We decided to video the whole song through but at many different angles, giving us more choice when editing. After analysing more performance, we have changed our location to a friends house, which is more appropriate. 

Another thing we looked into more today, was typical behavior of someone suffering from the illness. Although all of us know someone who has faced the anorexia, we thought it would useful to look into it more. This will not only make it easier to be tactful with the subject, but also more realistic. 

Performance Analysis

Alicia Keys - Fallin': To help us in our performance footage, we looked at 3 different videos from female artists who predominantly use piano and singing performance. Firstly we looked at Alicia Keys early video ‘Fallin’. From this we found that the performance was in some sort house/living area which is sparsely decorated. This draws all attention to the singer and the piano. We particularly like the effect of the grand piano in the centre of the room. What we also noticed was the range of different shots on the piano.  Close ups of the hands playing and shots of interesting parts of the piano are used to make it more interesting and draw attention to the professionalism to the performance. The shot begins as a master, showcasing Keys and the piano in the centre of the room. It then goes on to zoom in on her singing, switching to a close up as she begins the song. On the pause where she isn’t singing, a 2 second shot of her playing the piano is introduced, showing the audience what is expected in editing. When singing she looks down, then looks up into the camera at key lines, ‘you’ and ‘blue’, as if she is singing to her boyfriend rather than the audience. Extreme close ups are used, typically to show emotion, something useful for us as we are creating a video on an emotional topic. These are particularly used when she is singing high notes, giving a more intense emotion across to the audience. 

Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles: We decided it would be useful to look at a completely different kind of song with a female performer on piano to give us more variety in ideas, in this case 'A Thousand Miles' by Vanessa Carlton. This particular video interestingly shows the performer throughout the video; however she is also within the narrative, journeying through a variety of scenes with the piano. This video shows the performer playing in a more passionate way with more movement in performance; this adds a sense of passion to the song. We like this idea as it really shows the emotion from the singer, something we need to achieve. Another aspect we liked was the complete range of camera angles and shots used. This keeps the video interesting, instead of one continuous shot. Many of the angles we had already incorporated into our animatic, however it was still useful to see them used in a professional video. For example, we particularly like a bird eye view shot of her and the piano, as well a close ups of her playing the keys. These close ups added a clarity to the video, as on the softer notes with no vocals, the audience a concentrate on the music alone. Extreme close ups on the face are also used, like Alicia Keys video. I think these would be a good shot for us to really expose the emotion within the song. We didn't think the locations of this video would be completely appropriate for our video, not to mention unpractical. Despite this, it is cleverly made, finishing in the garage that it began in, giving a definite conclusion to the narrative/performance. 

Birdy - 1901: The next video we looked at was Birdy’s, '1901'. After previously analyzing the entirety of the video, we then focused on the performance. The video is done on a handheld camera, which is too shaky for the scenes we want to create, however they have a good performance side. Filmed in some sort of music shot, the room has a vintage feel to it, crammed with assorted instruments and old-fashioned furniture. This adds a sense of old-worldly grandness to the shot. This inspired us to change our location for performance. We previously wanted to film in the school hall with a grand piano. However, we decided after this video, we could create a similar effect at a friend’s house. The location has large windows and vintage furniture, as well as the key element of a piano. Birdy’s video has many over the shoulder shots which play with the focus in the shot. The camera does focus on her, but blurs some sort of decoration between the performer and the camera, as if the audience is actually there. We see from close ups of her hands playing that she is fluent with the song, giving the video a professional reliability.

Piano Chords

We decided to help us be more organized, we would give the chords for the piano performance to our performer. After research we came across a simple diagram, which explained the chords were broken up into 4 parts and repeated over the whole song. This is extremely helpful as it will quick enough to learn for a practised piano players making our video more realistic.

Diary Entry 17

Today we have realised that we probably haven't been organised enough when handling performance scenes. Although we found a suitable performer we didn't organise specific details that are nesscary for a good performance, for example we didn't check if she knew the song well. We can take notes from this when completing our final draft, in making our production more effective and organised.

Diary Entry 16

Today we will continue to edit our footage shot Monday and Tuesday. We plan to to film tomorrow, where we hope to get all of or most of our performance footage. We found a suitable performer who plays the piano and has a very different look to our narrative character, keeping the two sides separate. After consideration, we decided it would be effective to film the performance in the drama room at school, on the grand piano. We decided the room will be empty, with no other background detail then the black curtain surrounding her. Not only this, but the room is big enough to allow us to film scenes from above the piano and circle the performer.

Diary Entry 15

We successfully filmed more of our video this evening and added a few extra scenes that weren't on our storyboard in case of needing more footage then we thought. After our preliminary task at the beginning of the project we found that it is better to have too much footage in case of situations such as us cutting certain scenes and needing something to replace it. This preparation will be useful when it comes to editing as we will have more choice if we decided one scene we first like in our animatic, in fact, doesn't work. 

Planning for Filming

We are planning to film tonight the scenes in the house where our character is upset and comparing themself to magazine 'role models' and looking in the mirror. 

Scenes:

Close ups – crying

Sitting in the room crying, upset

Throwing magazines

Scales and tape measure scenes

Looking in the mirror

Props:

Magazines

Mirror

Tape measure

Scales

Location:

Bedroom – needs a mirror

Bathroom – scales

Dining room – table, food scenes

Costume:

T shirt

Leggings

Lighting:

Hazy

Lighting equipment borrowed from school

Diary Entry 14

In today's lesson we focused on editing the main music video and uploading our animatic and audience feedback. As we are progressing we have encountered a few technological problems within Premiere. For example we haven't been able to export some of our audience feedback. Despite this, we are slowly overcoming them and have planned to film again next Tuesday. We decided that filming then and on the next weekend would be more time effective and allow us more editing time. We hope to be finished shooting footage for our rough draft by the end of next weekend. 

Final Logo

After drawing a range of logos for our musician, we decided, after help from our audience which one we wanted. Our next decision came to colour. After a lot of consideration, we decided we didn't want the typical red/pink rose, and after trying block colours from all the spectrum, we finally tried putting a picture of roses in the text. This ended up as our final logo, creating a merge of colour, and keeping it a bit different.

First Drawn Design

Adding Colour

Deciding what the Rose logo would be like

Adding the same colour background to the Rose logo

The Final Design

Diary Entry 13

Today we are doing more editing on our footage from yesterday, as well as getting more feedback for logos. We have decided on one and are using a rose motif to relate to the artists name. We have split the group into jobs to be more time efficient, two people doing editing and two people getting feedback, then editing their work. 

Logo Ideas

Logo Ideas:

These are a few of our ideas for our artists logo. The option highlighted in red is the one that we chose to start with initially, as we discovered it would be the most suited to our musical genre - according to our target audience. We will follow on from this by developing it into a final logo using Adobe Photoshop.

We decided we wanted to have a simplistic image of a rose beside the text, which would make sense considering her name being 'Sienna Rose'. We are yet to put our rose designs into Photoshop, to see which one fits together with the text most effectively. As with all our initial ideas, we will put each imagery ideas with the text, trying different colour schemes and collect feedback from our target audience.

Birdy - Analysis

Album Artwork: The album begins with a smaller version of the artists name, ‘Birdy’, as you can see it is in very small writing in the left hand corner. The text used is not very bold however the design of the text capitals have been used so it stands out a small bit but does not stand out fully. The background theme of the album artwork is a use of pale colours on the wall a contrast of pale blues and whites have been used as a washed out colour on the background a very vintage colours used. The vintage theme of the colours on the background also give people an idea of the type of music this artist has produced. The mise en scene of the artist; the posture of Birdy herself is quite tight as her legs are crossed showing she is stood in a very serious position. Her hair and make up are both very neutral her hair covers half of her face to show she is hiding. The artist has chosen to use a very bright red jumper to highlight the album artwork which makes a stand and makes the album art work stand out. However the skirt she is wearing she has chosen to wear a pastoral pink colour. From this album, I gather that Birdy is trying to portray a very 1940’s image of her music and herself. The album artwork is very plain and a good use of a vintage theme, and the usage of neutral colours which still makes her stand out.

Music Video: You can see here a scene from Birdy’s, '1901' video. This image shows the performer Birdy playing the piano for 1901 throughout the video. Shots of her singing are used to go along with the narrative, the narrative is about a couple who begin to date and the female falls in love with the lead character, however she begins to fade away as he stops noticing her. Like Birdy’s video, we intend to use a female performer, Sienna Rose, and a female actor to perform the narrative. Here are two shots from the video, as you can see Birdy has continued her retro-vintage style from her album artwork to her music video, reflecting the artists stylised approach. These two shots show to vintage furniture shop and a clothes shop. You can tell this by the location of the shops, both of them consist of dull colours and are both very clustered which is a normal theme for clothes shops and furniture shops.The video for Birdy’s ‘1901’ is shot on a handheld camera, although this isn't what we want for most of our video, it includes useful aspects and some good camera work. For example, performance is done solely on a piano with extra shots of the performer singing, something which we can take a lot away from. We particularly like the fact that the narrative and performance are kept separate with a different performer and main character. 

Diary Entry 12

Today we imported the clips that we filmed last night into premier. Before we could import them into premier we had to convert the videos so that they would run smoothly when played on the program.  Once this had been done we edited the clips so they were what we wanted them to be. We slowed some of them down to emphasis what she was doing, and we generally clipped some of them down so that they were the size that we wanted. We could cut out any laughter that may have happened when we were filming, and we could shorten some of the clips that were too long and had bits added on to the end that we didn't need.

The XX - Analysis

Artist: The XX
Album: Coexist

Digipack: This is the album artwork for the xx’s album coexist. It is a fairly plain album cover there is nothing really to it. It is a plain white background with a cut out of an X in the centre. I believe that this is the most important aspect of the album, that the simplicity of it all will draw people in. The X will represent the name of the band more than anything. One of their main songs off the album is “angels” and that as a music video to it. The image/pattern within the X on the cover looks as if it is taken from the video of that song. The song “angel” creating the message of something pure and innocent and the background colour of white backs up that message. It creates a strong powerful meaning, not only to that song, but to the whole album. And it has been done in a very subtle way. The artwork is not big, bold and in your face. It is toned down compared to some other album artworks. It only uses a few colours, that makes it good in that sense and by using a limited amount of colours it still manages to carry a good strong message with it.

In our album artwork we also plan to make it a fairly plain cover. We don’t want it to be a really bad mix of lots of different colours. We want to keep it plain and simple. Similar to this one. We want to use a limited colour scheme, colours that link well with each other and colours that represent the artist and most of all appeal to our target audience. When it comes to creating the artwork we will most likely be conducting a questionnaire on our target audience to determine what colours will appeal to them when they are looking at album artworks on the shelves. And from the results we will choose the colours for our artwork. It is important to us that we appeal to our target audience but also represents the artist.

I think unlike this cover we will have the artist on the cover. She will be the focal point of the cover. We will aim to dress the artist in an outfit that best describes her. One that shows her style with a quick glance. As well as showing what she stands for and what she believes in the outfit will also have to represent our target audience. The artist will have to somehow, in the way she dresses, appeal to her audience in more ways than just her music.

Advert Analysis: This is an amazon advert for the xx’s album ‘heart skips a beat’

The advert is dominated by one main image and the text is placed around that image. It is an image of a back alley which has a large piece of graffiti on the wall. On the floor there are old cables and an old, broken bike. The scene made out in the image reflects the image of their band and appeals to their target audience: gritty, young and down to earth people. Its nothing flash and wildly in your face colour wise, and I think this is done to show the pace of their music.

I think that all of this can be transferred into our music video. We can choose a location that reflects the background of our artist. The scene we set can show what sort of background she came from. It’ll give an indication on what she has had to go through to get to where she is now. We can use a colour scheme that represents her as an artist and will also appeal to our target audience.

The xx  - Angels

This is a song by the xx called 'Angels'. I think that this artist is very similar to the one that we have chosen, Daughter. I think that we can use this video and make comparisons to what we should be doing in our music video. The song is a very slow paced song and that is given off with the fact that there is only one take throughout the video. It is like you are looking at the sky through murky water. All that happens throughout the video is that there seems to be a ripple effect from the water. This could indicate that she is trying to break free from the water and be with that person she wants to be with, but she just can’t quite get there. As there is no people in this video I can’t really comment on the mise en scene that is used. Only that there is the sky as the main location. Which reflects the name of the song. Because in the sky is where the angels live and that is where this person wants to be.

There aren't many things we could potentially use from this video. We will be using a lot more takes than there is in this one. However our takes will be lengthy takes as it is a slow song and it wouldn't fit if there were lots of fast jumpy edits throughout the song. It will be a slow paced video, but not to the extreme that this is taken to. Unlike this video we will be using a range of different camera angles and using different camera movements. We will be using close ups to show the emotion of the actors in our video. Because we want to portray loneliness in the video we will be using a lot of wide/master shots to really emphasise how alone she really is. Also we will use some P.O.V shots to show how she sees and perceives the world. 

Logo Feedback

We filmed our target audience viewing our logos. This helped us choose what logo was most appropriate for our genre of music and what appeals to our audience. After consideration, we chose the best. See above for our feedback. 

Lana Del Rey - Analysis

Artist: Lana Del Rey

Album: Born to Die

Digi-pack - The album artwork for Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born to Die’ album makes her name a statement in bold, white writing. It states to the audience that this is who she is and what you see is what you get, with the simplistic font. Similarly the album’s title relates the lyrics and tone of music we should be expecting. The positioning on the name behind her underlines who we are listening to while the title of the album in front of Lana informs the audience of what she is presenting us. In this case her album ‘Born to Die’. This idea subtly states the facts of the album without overwhelming the audience with fancy fonts and decorations. The predominant colours, blue and white, aren’t too bold and balance each other out. Within the mise en scene, her makeup adds a small splash of colour, revealing the glamorous persona the artist presents to the world. The red on her lips suggests that within her genre, Lana is a bit different, and bold in her musical choices. This contrasts the white on her shirt, representing her classical image - unlike many pop stars, she opts for a more classy style. Likewise, her hair is perfectly styled, reflecting the 50’s style she aims to portray. Her still positioning and facial expression reflects her music – moody and slow.  The background seems to be relatable to an everyday lifestyle, with what seems to be a fence and a car against the blue, again linking into the colour scheme. The two tone colour scheme is something we could also try on our own work as it will give the artwork a professional feel without overwhelming the audience with too much colour. 

Video - Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ music video begins with a series of what seems to be home video footage. It gives the impression that the video was filmed in the past and is being viewed as a memory of what was, much like the lyrics in the song describe. The footage, being shot on a handheld camera, relays images associated with childhood, for example a cartoon, and children playing in a pool. The video, for me, seems to try and create a feeling of nostalgia within the audience in order to relate the song to a memory in anyone. Editing is fairly quick for such a slow song, with most scenes being around 3 seconds long. This makes the video seem more authentically like memories - snapshots of images.  The variety of clips could seem random to an unsuspecting viewer, however the overall effect makes a beautiful video. Like mentioned previously, I think this helps to make the video mean something different and personal for everyone. This is something that appeals to us in our video, for example ‘Medicine’ could mean a variety of metaphors for anyone. A recurring character in the video is a blond woman; however her face is always partially covered, again giving the impression that it could be any member of the audience’s memories. Interspersed with scenes of Lana singing, performance is limited to around 3 seconds on each take, much like the narrative. Towards the end of the video, we see shorter takes of flashing lights and police cars, perhaps signifying some sort of danger or a memory that is hazy or they want to forget. Use of lighting is particularly important here, as it makes the footage reflect a memory in a realistic way – blurred and not fully focused. I think lighting could be transferable in our video as we can use it to reflect our characters weakness, or lack of grasp on reality. An aspect of the video which is unusual, is a small snippet of sound on top of the song. This backs up the theme of memories, with the character remembering those few lines with a image. The line itself 'Are you alright?' is relatable to any situations, perhaps not just reflecting the situation literally but the character questioning if they are alright on a deeper level. Although this is an interesting extra to the video, I'm not sure how it we could use a similar technique in our video.

Advert - The advert for her album again reflects her glamorous style, using costuming within mise en scene a key part. The gold jewellery adds a touch of star quality to the advert using expensively branded earrings as we can’t see any of her clothes. This is seen also through her hair, which, like her album styling is perfectly intact. We can see through this that her music will also have this seemingly effortless style to it. Her logo is placed in the left hand corner, along with her album title, in a fairly small size, not taking anything away from Lana’s face. Placed at the top of the page still makes it visible to the audience though and shows the importance of her stage name and album. The plain, light background is contrasted with the red rose in the corner. This again represents the artist’s glamorous, luxe style. A technique we like is the fact that the advert has a picture of her album in the corner with a review number to give an indication the audience should buy it. Props are limited apart from the cigarette which exudes her influences from eras when smoking was seen as ‘exciting’ and ‘cool. This also gives the impression that the artist doesn’t care what others think of her and is a bit rebellious. This is often seen in her musical choices, as she does not fit into the mainstream category of pop.

Daughter - Analysis

Artist: Daughter
Album: The Wild Youth

Digi-pack - We decided it would be a good idea to analyse the work of our chosen artist ‘Daughter’. Although we are planning to make the song our own, we wanted to look into the work of the group so that we could get a feel for the genre of music.  This seemed useful as we can take inspiration from similar artists within the genre of indie/folk pop and create a professional product. The album artwork of Daughter on their EP ‘The Wild Youth’, quite literally takes the title into the picture, using children with painted faces. This use of mise en scene within the photo is the centre focus, turning the children into ‘wild animals’ – in this case a tiger. The haphazard style that the face paint is done adds to carefree attitude associated with youngsters, linking back to the album title. The face paint also simply shows a child being a child – it could be just about anyone getting their face painted when they were young. We particularly like the way the children are innocently portrayed, acting as any one of us could when we were children. This makes the photo relatable to a large audience as many people could see themselves in this kind of photo. The picture shows the boy with his arm around the girl, an indication that they are perhaps brother and sister or share some close relationship. This is to perhaps show that the music on the album is something intimate and can have personal reasons associated with the songs and its lyrics to many people.  It also suggests that the music could remind the audience of a memory from their youth, and the people they were once close to. The simplistic white text adds a sense of purity to the music, implying that the artist wants you to concentrate only on her voice and the instruments. This is why we particularly liked the artist and the music they create, as it is stripped of the commercial side of the music industry and expresses raw emotion. This is something we hope to take on board in our own work, and take precautions not to over complicate and commercialize the video and artwork we produce. The image we want to portray is judged straight off from the album artwork, and we want to keep it simple so that it could universally relatable to many people. As well as this we don’t want to divert from the music or cover up the emotion within the song. We are aiming to build the song up in many aspects and levels so that the audience  can in some way associate with their own lives.

Video - Daughters only video ‘Peter’ is solely performance based, however we can still take away valuable techniques in making something so static still interesting to watch. The performer, Elena Tondra, is seen alone singing and playing the guitar throughout the whole video, meaning positioning and facial expression are highly important as it is all the audience has to concentrate on.  She sings to the camera for some of the song, however, at the line ‘I’ve forgotten what I wanted’ she looks away to the corner of the room she is in, perhaps wistfully, and reassessing what she wants in the relationship she sings about. To add to this she often looks down at her guitar, I think this is not only to concentrate on her performance, but also in sadness, as if she cannot bear to admit to the audience what has happened to her relationship. The video is shot on a handheld camera, however isn’t overly shaky, but enough to express the raw emotion she is feeling. The movement throughout the video tilts up and down between a close up of her face and the guitar. At one point, the camera zooms out, enough to show a mid shot of her and the guitar, as if the moment she is singing about is too personal and the audience should leave her in her element. As for editing, we see what is expected in certain places - on guitar solo, guitar is shown, when she sings, she is shown singing. The video is basically one continuous take, however focuses on certain bits when they should be shown. This is simple to achieve, but even 1 second out of time would ruin the effect. We can take away this editing technique to give our video a more professional feel.



 Advert- The advert for Daughters gig shows their same stylised approach seen in the digi pack. The title ‘Daughter and Friends’ makes the event seem welcoming and open to the audience. This is also seen within their music. The background of the advert uses the same artwork on the front of the album, relaying the ‘wild youth’ effect from the album and music to the audience. Again like the album, they use simplistic white font, differentiating key information in italics. This works effectively and doesn’t overwhelm or bore the audience with too much information. They also use a colour scheme, depicting the blues from the child’s top and colours other parts of the poster to make it stand out. For example the double circle around the date of the event. This is important and will be considered in our advertisement. The list of artists supporting the act, give the audience an idea of what they will be listening to. Another important aspect of the advertisement is the logo at the bottom. This shows the management or venue and again can give the audience an impression of what to expect.