1. a website homepage for the band;
2. a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
3. a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

We decided to choose the CD cover for the music video release and also the magazine advertisement for the CD, along with the compulsory music promo video. We chose these options because no one in our group has any substantial experience in making websites and therefore we would not be able to learn and make the website homepage for the band. Also we thought that as we are exposed to CD covers and Magazine Advertisements in our daily lives it would be more simple for us as we already know some of the basic things we are looking for and therefore could reproduce the ideas as our own. To create the CD cover and the Magazine advert we used PhotoShop because we already have the technical skills because of our experience last year with the programe and from our other subjects. This method allowed us to make complex and interesting designs and make it easy to relate a house style so that the CD cover and advertisement linked together well. We created some SMART targets (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, Time based) in a time-table form so that we had everything we wanted to have done by certain dates. This had to be very specific because we only had a limited time frame to get these three projects done and it needed to be well planned and thought out so that it was complete by the deadline and met the project brief well.  We did some research on the options we had chosen from the brief, by looking on the internet for album and CD covers and advertisements, we also looked in magazines and in shops. We specifically focused on looking at the layout and graphology of the adverts. This is important because it attracts the audience and therefore causes the audience to either be interested and take in what you are promoting, or not take any notice at all. We found that the font size, style and layout for each magazine advertisement was very different depending on the style of music and artist. This gave us a wide range of ideas to work with because we could basically choose anything as long as it promoted our artist and music video. We also looked at music videos that were already out so that we could get inspiration and create our own ideas on what we wanted to do. 

 
Our initial idea was to have an acoustic song and someone playing along to it on their guitar sitting on their bed. Behind them would be ideas and a story of the lyrics of the song. That part would have to be created with stop-motion. After debating with this idea and seeing if it was possible to do we decided not to use this idea because it was too complex and not a realistic target but we did decide to use stop-motion for our music video. This lead to us looking up many stop-motion videos on the internet. Some were just created to show stop-motion but some were videos for songs. This was very beneficial because it helped us understand how stop-motions are put together and how to make them seamless. Also it gave us some ideas on what we wanted to create for our video. This research lead to us create some small stop-motion videos using play-dough and other small props. We did this to practice our skills because we have never really made a stop-motion for this kind of thing before. Also this gave us an opportunity to see how many frames per second we needed to make the video smooth and not jumpy. In industry they generally use either 12 or 24 frames per second but 24 is too many for us to be able to do and therefore we aimed to do more like 12 frames per second. In the end we made three videos, our longest being 40 seconds long, consisting of play-dough creatures. We used techniques such as focus pull, and panning to make the stop-motion more interesting. 
 

We went through many songs that we liked to see if we could find anything suitable. We decided to go for and indie/ rock/ pop style song because they are generally upbeat and have a good tempo and rhythm. This style of music is very popular with our generation at the moment and appeals to a large number of people in the target audience (14 – 25 years).The acoustic idea was also quite dominant because it is generally quite a fun and a nice sound that is liked by a wider range of audience. The song we chose in the end after much deliberation was ‘Have I Been a Fool?’ by Jack Penate. We contacted the CD company, XL, asking for permission to use the song within our project. We received an email back telling us to contact another member of the company and fill in a request form, but after this we did not receive another reply from them. We used the song anyway making sure that everywhere the video is seen we have credited the artist and state that this is not our song. This song is very upbeat and catchy and therefore would appeal to a large percentage of the audience. It’s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head and therefore people will pass on the song and therefore the video by word of mouth. This song has the theme of love and relationships in it. The lyrics talk about the relationship breaking up and not going as well as he has hoped. This creates a great storyline to work with as relationships are a main feature of everyone’s lives and generally sung and shown via video. 

 
Once we had chosen our song it was easy to start our storyboard. Our idea was initially objects in a room coming to life such as staplers and chairs. We then refined this because we thought it would be too difficult to get the continuity the same. We minimised this work space to a desktop with the same concept of objects coming to life, but using smaller things like pencils and rubbers. We used 5 pages to make our storyboard, each page having 6 detailed drawings on showing the main scenes. Each picture has notes and annotation around it describing what was happening and for how long. To get the timing right we had to sit playing the song in sections to see where each clip would start and finish. 

 
Once the storyboard was complete it was also simpler to start designing CD covers and the advertisements. Because we knew that the basic characters would be stationary we could start putting together and sketching out some drafts. We used the information found from our research to work out some layouts and styles. As a group we decided we liked the idea of Polaroid photographs and that we could use them throughout our project. This was then the main theme to our CD covers and Advertisement and we arranged them in different ways to create new ideas and drafts. We used our focus group to choose which CD cover they prefered from our sketches so that we could eliminate the other ideas and work on the one that’s favoured. We chose a focus group that is in the middle of our target audience; the target audience is ages 14 years – 25 years old and the focus group was aged 17 – 19 years. Once we had found our basic idea for our CD cover and Advertisement we postponed the production of this for a while because we needed to start filming and also because the pictures used in the filming would be used in our other media pieces. The actual construction of the final pieces was quite simple because we already have knowledge of PhotoShop and how to use it because of last year and our other subjects. After us all making some templates and designs on the computer Jas made the final CD cover and Advertisement with input from Holly and I. This worked out quite well because when Jas had the ideas it left me and Holly to go and shoot, or work on the video. Dividing the jobs up like this worked best than all trying to do one task because we were doing more things at once and it was hard for us all to get involved in a computer activity apart from give ideas and input our thoughts. For both the CD cover and Advertisement we went for the noticeboard and Polaroid theme with handwriting style text; this then became our house style. This style relates to our target audience well because this age range is generally into socialising and recording their experiences. Also this style gives a retro feel to it because Polaroid cameras are very rarely used now but the effect is still created on the computer. Having a house style is a good thing to have because then when someone sees our products they will automatically be able to realise that they are for the same thing and therefore make more impact. 

 
For the stop-motion recording we used a small room (LG1-end room) that was designated for our media work only. This was good becuase then we didn’t have any problems with continuity as there was no-one alowed in to move our objects about. Creating the stop motion was harder than we anticipated I think. It was more time-consuming and therefore our SMART targets all got pushed back by a few dates. Also our original ideas were a bit optimistic and some were unrealistic making it hard for us to create. At first we were all very enthusiastic but as the weeks moved on and some of the shooting ’ go as well as we had hoped it started getting quite tedious. As we were filming I was uploading the photo sequences onto the computer so that I could stay on top of the work. I found it easier to make each sequence into a small video clip so that it was easier to edit, move and change the speed if it didn’t quite fit with the music. At first, because I had never really used Final Cut Pro I found it difficult to use all of the features. It got quite confusing at times but I managed to work out a system that helped me organise and also so that I didn’t lose or ruin our work. Once we had completed about 50% of the work it seemed as if it was difficult for us to get motivated as a group to get more work done. This was frustrating because I wanted to get the music video complete so that we had a reasonable amount of time to get the rest of the project finished. After a few lessons, as we planned the rest of the video in more depth we became more motivated and we ended up doing a large and substantial amount of work in a small amount of time. The short videos were filmed on a new Ipod. We decided on this because it is small and compact but with a good quality camera. This meant that we could take it anywhere as it is small but it is also subtle enough not to draw too much attention to the fact that we were filming. This acceleration in progress was good because it means that we could meet our deadline. Once we had some of our main videos shot we realised that we did not have enough video to fill the space in the song. I decided to try to see if I could cut out some of the song to make it shorter. This worked really well because I cut out the bridge and it fitted back together perfectly. I think if you don’t know the original song you wouldn’t realise it was missing. This also meant that we did not have to find more ideas for videos because now they all fitted in perfectly. Towards the end of creating the music video I realised how well it all fitted together. Some of the shots could have been done better as they were a little bit jumpy and wobbly but we could not re-shoot because we did not stick to our schedule and therefore ran out of time. Although when showing the video to the target audience there was positive feed back on a particular scene that we would have re-shot if we had the time. The comment was that ‘it gave a home-made feel that fitted the whole theme’. This is quite interesting because we didn’t feel this was one of our strongest scenes. Although we managed to get it finished I think that the reason why we didn’t get it done to schedule was because we had not planned sufficiently. Although we had planned and discussed the video a lot, when it came down to it there was not enough definite plans to keep a consistent working ethic. 

 
In my opinion our final product were good for the skill and time we had but I think if we had used our time more wisely and had planned it more thoroughly it could have been better. When making the video by the end there was quite a bit that we had changed since we made the plan. Originally our plan was too complex and we over estimated the time it would take for each frame, ending up with us having gaps in the video that was not filled. Although we changed the plan a lot, I think that our final draft was better than previous ideas. I think that if I hadn’t of cut out the bridge of the song, it would have made the video too long and could have potentially been boring. The music video used characters and real people to narrate the lyrics because the target audience would relate well to this idea. The thought that your stationery could come to life is exciting and the real people in the film create a sence of reality and can link to situations that could, and most likely, have happened to the audience. As a whole, our music video turned out well because it meets the project criteria, and suits our target audience. 
 

The CD cover and Magazine advertisement were also quite well done. Along with the video I do think that if we had used our time more wisely that they would have been at a better standard. These were created using PhotoShop and therefore we could easily create a house style. The house style was the idea of cork boards, Polaroid photographs (also seen in the music video in the sketch book) and hand written fonts. This related to our audience because at this age (14 years to 25 years) people generally like to document and write accounts of important and special occasions in their life. This is now generally done on the internet now on social networking sites such as Facebook; but before it used to be written in a book and had photographs and other items suck in. This is what we were aiming for our products to look like; rustic and homely. I think we managed to achieve this by making notes on PhotoShop and making them look like they had been ripped out of another book, and pinning them and Polaroids to a noticeboard. We used handwriting style fonts to make it connect with the audience more. If this was a harsh bold text then I do not think it would relate and be as influential for the audience.

When researching similar media products we had to look at the graphology, style and target audience so that we were able to see what each audience was looking for and to also make our media products more professional and therefore be able to compared to existing media products. I believe our target audience would ‘receive’ our media products through a variety of different outlets. The music video would mainly be streamed on websites such as YouTube because there is a large fan base here and it is on demand to anyone who wishes to watch it. Also the video would be seen on the Artist’s website and on the music channels on TV. The CD cover would be seen in shops and perhaps TV advertisement but also when downloading music now you get the CD cover artwork that shows up on your computer documents, Itunes/ Windows Media Player, and portable devices such as Ipods. The Magazine Advertisement would obviously be seen in music magazines such as Karange! and NME. It would appear in this kind of magazine because the style of music is very ‘indie’ / rock and this magazine generally caters for these styles plus many more. It could also appear in middle market magazines such as Instyle and Bliss or Cosmopolitan. These magazines are mainly focused on the fashion market but they also look at what is ‘Hot’ that month. This can be from new films out to new music. This would be good advertisement space because it would be targeting an audience that might not have heard of or listened to the song/ artist before. Similar artist’s such as Paolo Nutini used TV advertisement to get himself noticed. These advertisements showed the CD cover and the artist himself. We used this idea within our house theme. On the CD cover, Advertisement and in the video we have placed our ‘artist’ (He is not the real artist of this song but for copywrite issues of photographs and merchandise we have used him). We used photographs of the singer because it helps the audience relate to the song better and makes them empathise with the character they play.

Overall I think that our Music Video, CD cover and Magazine Advertisement worked well as a promotion for the album of this chosen song. I think that it fitted the brief of the coursework well and related to our target audience. There are a few things that I would change or work on in the future but in reflection of the experience I have learnt new skills such as how to use Final Cut Pro and how to create a stop-motion. Also how to link different media pieces together so that they promote and suit the targeted audience.

CD cover:

Magazine Advertisement:

Music Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA_jxnr3eNA

The videos didn’t take that long to film because we had chosen simple movements and locations.

The first video we shot was in the park. At first it is a shot where we are watching the couple walk away from us toward the swings. It then cuts to a front view of them sitting down. I like the transition between the side view and the front view because it fits together well where Elliot’s (Tom’s) movement matches up almost perfectly between each shot.

We then cut to a closeup of their hands moving in together which is continued from the front view. The last shot seen is a closeup of them holding hands.

The second video was also very simple. The location was a bench. Elliot was meant to seem quite nervous at first then do the comical ‘yawn and hug’ move that is well known and is used in many comedies. The view is from the front slightly looking downwards onto the couple.

I then did a close up shot of mainly their faces and shoulders once Elliot has his arm around her. She then leans her head on his shoulder.

These videos are in contrast to the ones we filmed the other day that go at the beginning of our music video. These videos show the relationship at its early stages and shows how happy they are together ‘hugging, holding hands’ etc. I think that these videos work well with the scrap book that we created because the idea of ‘dates’ correspond with these videos as they can be classed as ‘dates’.

In the afternoon we filmed the transition from Polaroid photograph to the next Polaroid picture in the scrap book. I was taking the photographs and Holly and Jas was moving the books, photographs and pages. This was quite tedious because we had to zoom in and out of each picture and we had forgotten at one point that we had to change the photograph and had to re-shoot the scene at the end. We used the opening shot of each picture when we were zooming in because then it blended well when the video played straight after. When zooming out we changed the photograph so that it was the end shot of the video for the same reason. We did this for all of the videos except the last one because it cuts straight into the chorus where the characters are saying the lyrics with speech bubbles.

At one point we had to turn the page so that we could get to the next lot of videos. This is because when editing in our videos with the song and the shots we had already, we realised that there was only enough room for one happy video at the beginning. We did not want to waist the second happy video that we had created, so in the end I added it with the two sad videos at the end of the song so that it progressively gets sadder. This is why we had to turn the page; it made it more obvious that something had changed and a problem occurred, and also we suck them in wrong which in the end worked out quite well.

When I added in the transition clips to the video they fitted in perfectly and barely needed changing at all. They blended in well with the actual videos and created a quite powerful effect. This effect was almost like a flashback of event that had happened and therefore showed that he was lonely now. There is only one line in the song that we have not filled. ‘That is what it is’. We have been trying to think about what to put in this gap so will leave it till next time.

The first shot is of a closeup of ‘Emily’ pulling a key out of her door. This was meant to look like that she had just left her house and locked up.

The next view is an over the shoulder shot looking down ‘Emily’s’ path and watching ‘Tom’ arrive. He pulls out a bunch of flowers to give to ‘Emily’ from behind his back.He is extremely happy to see her and has a huge smile on his face.

The next video is a follow on from this but an over the shoulder reaction shot of ‘Emily’. She does not seem to happy to receive these flowers and we see her drop them. The camera angle switches to a side view of the flowers falling and hitting the ground.

This is effective because it makes it obvious to the audience that she is not happy to see him and normally when receiving a bunch of flowers you would not drop them on the floor.This changes the tone of the whole video because now we know that the relationship between the characters has changed and now the song is about relationships not working out. This is also shown within the desktop characters made by objects and plaster scene.

This is only part of the videos complete. On Thursday we will shoot the happy scenes that go near the beginning of the video. We will also shoot the transition videos where we move from one picture to another in the sketch book.

We also managed to find some sound effects from the internet that sounded like paper rustling, a light being switched on, footsteps and a door shutting. This helps the beginning of our video seem more realistic as before it was silent. This also stops it being boring to the viewer as now they understand more what is happening in the video. Finding the sound clips was quite hard because we had to decide what suited the movements and what wouldn’t look awkward in the video. I think that we managed this quite well although making our own effects would sound more realistic because they are the same textures and objects as in the video.

Also when looking though the video so far and comparing it to our plan we realised that we did not have enough video ideas to fill the whole song. I then selected a appropriate part of the song that I could cut out that would still make the song seamless. I chose to cut out the bridge because I could link it would the two chorus’ at the beginning and end of the bridge. This worked well because you cant tell that we have cut out a chunk of the song and also with the lack of time we now have this was a beneficial move as now we have time to focus on the rest that needs to be complete. Also When looking over the newly edited song we simplified some of the ideas we had for the gaps we have yet to film.

The gaps of video that we have yet to film are now fully developed ideas that we can transfer into video. There are 4 small videos and a photograph that tell the story of ‘Tom’ and ‘Emily’ our characters in the videos.

Ideas of the Videos:

Video 1: This video will be filmed in a park on the swings. Tom will be pushing Emily on a swing.

Video 2: This video is of the characters playing hide and seek around a tree.

Video 3: Tom giving Emily a bunch of flowers.

Video 4: Emily rejecting the gift

Photograph at end: Flowers scattered on the floor.

The first two videos show the relationship between Tom and Emily. The last 2 videos and photograph illustrate the breaking up of the relationship over a sequence of three. The whole video together shows the deterioration of the relationship as a flashback because at the beginning of the video we see divorce papers that foreshadows the events to come.

I used white text so that it showed up easily and clearly on the dark background. I also repeated the artist name small in black so that it shows emphasis on the name and therefore easier and more likely that viewer will remember it.

I also created this same advertisement but using a photograph of the person we will be using for our video. This then shows some continuity between people and also we will be using our own photographs for our CD cover and Advertisement rather than use someone’s picture of Jack Penate.

This advertisement uses the same font and layout as the one above because we decided that it worked well. The only thing I have changed is the photographs. I selected small squares from a photograph of our actor and placed them over the pictures on the advertisement above. I have no finished editing this advertisement because it is only one design that we are working on. To complete this I need to rub out the areas of the photographs that over lap so that it looks more like a pile of Polaroids.

I then decided to work on mock CD covers and Magazine Advertisement. This went quite well. We, as a group, decided that we liked Florence and the Machine album advertisement with a large photograph as the main feature. This is good because it draws in the attention and makes more impact than lots of writing. Holly and Jas also started making mock covers and advertisements. The CD cover and Magazine advertisement that I created are not quite finished because I ran out of time. This will be completed in the next lesson or at home.

We decided to use the font ‘Hand of Sean’ found on dafont.com   http://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=hand_of_sean&page=1&nb_ppp_old=10&text=Jack+Penate&nb_ppp=10&psize=l&classt=alpha

We chose this because it is informal and looks like someone has written it. This goes with the Polaroid photograph style because people generally write notes on their photographs.

These are the ones I created:

CD Cover:

Magazine Advertisement:

These are obviously not  complete but when they are I think that they will turn out quite well.

Next lesson I think that we will focus on the actual advertisement and CD cover so that they are finished. Also we have decided that the last bit of filming we need to do will be done on Tuesday.

This is Holly’s work from today:

She has also used the same ‘Hand of Sean’ font that we have decided to be our house style. This also relates to the younger audience because it is informal and interesting. Holly decided to put a large still from our video in the center with the name at the top and information at the bottom.

This is Jas’ work from today. She did two drafts of one CD cover:

First draft:

Second draft:

Obviously the second draft is better visually and technically. This also follows the Polaroid theme and includes many of our characters.

This morning I took photographs of the props such as the yellow pencil, ruler and paintbrush so that we have the photos for our CD art work. I started putting this together on PhotoShop but I did not have much success so I did not complete anything. To complete the CD cover we need to find the right dimensions and create the Polaroid photographs to finish off the design.

I also created the video of the pencil drawing two stick figures on paper that we had previously shot. This was quite successful in that it was easy to put together but the quality of the shoot was not very good because it is quite jumpy and the people are difficult to see on the pink paper. If  we get time we are going to re-shoot this section and draw the characters in pen so that they are seen easier when created into the video.

We had to consult our storyboard quite a lot today so that we got the videos into the right places in the song. I realised that we should have been more thorough with out plan because it is quite hard to follow where the different sections start and stop.

Next lesson we plan to have all of the stop motion parts complete and start making the CD cover again. We want to wait for a day with nice weather before we take the videos but as we are running out of time we will just have to do them when it is convenient.

We created the desk scene using a pencil storage pot, a desk lamp and desk. We used a yellow pencil, two paintbrushes, a straight ruler, blue tack and a paint tube in the first initial scene, these were located in the pencil pot. Also in the first scene there is a scrap book. We took some time creating a real scrap book by gluing in relevant photographs and pictures. We also printed out a dinner receipt and cinema ticket to show that a date had already taken place. The first movement in the scene is of someone turning on the desk lamp and moving some papers around on the desk; this reveals divorce documents and therefore foreshadows the ending of the song.

A couple of lessons ago Holly and I started putting the videos to music to see how well they fit. This process took some time because we have to sort out the settings that Final Cut Pro and work out how to enter the pictures. This was quite time consuming because we have had only basic teaching on how to use the software. Although this was difficult I found this interesting and a learning curve because now I know for the future how to do some specific things such as: enter the folders of photograph, change the speed of frames per second and fit music to photographs/videos. Still we are finding it hard to match the amount of photographs to the right speed so that it looks seamless and professional. Also fitting it with the music has proved slightly harder than we hoped.

These are 3 of the videos we have made. I also made another one where I attempted to fit what we had to the music but this did not save.

Beginning of our video:

End of the video:

Final bit of the end with the robot:

Design 1:      5 votes

Design 2:      2 votes

Design 3:      4 votes

Design 4:      0 votes

Design 5:      0 votes

Design 6:      0 votes

Design 7:      0 votes

From these results we can see that Design 1 was the CD cover that was most liked by our focus group. The Design that came second was Design 3 and then Design 2 came third.

we also received feedback from a few people from the focus group:

• ‘I like the idea of the Polaroids’
• ‘The pictures should be from the video’

This is positive feedback because it lets us know that our design ideas are liked and how to improve them. What our designs did not show our focus group was that we were already thinking about using pictures from the video for our advertisement.

Next week we plan to start filming on Thursday. We will all bring in our equipment that we decided on before and set up the room upstairs in L building. If everything goes ok with the lighting and setting up hopefully we will be starting to film and get through about 30seconds of our music video once we have done some test shots.