HELLO EXAMINER

Welcome to my A2 Media Studies Blog. The below posts contain: My music promotional video, magazine advert and the album artwork (digipak). The posts below will visually show my thought processes as the product developed from the initial idea, to final products. My evaluation questions are on 4 separate pages which can be easily seen at the top of my Blog.

William Jones 9038

OCR A2 Media Studies

April 2011

Video Brief:

To create a music video along with its ancillary products.

FINAL PRODUCTS

MUSIC VIDEO FINAL
CLICK HERE TO VIEW MY FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

DIGIPAK FINAL

MAGAZINE ADVERT FINAL

 

DIGIPAK CONSTRUCTION

I chose to use the vinyl as my front cover image because it is very conventional nowadays for artists to not feature themselves on the front cover and generally somewhere else. As I also had an image with no clutter, it made it very easy to put text and other features on, but the main reason I used it is because vinyls are very retro and it would definetely stand out on a shop shelf.

On the inside of my digipak, I wanted to include images of the band in live performance, in contrast with the static cover images. I used a mix of camera stills and screen shots from the footage itself as I wanted to capture the energy of a live performance, and this came across better from the video than from a photo shoot itself. This also connects with the video again; continuing consumer recognition. I wanted to feature all of the band members in action with a couple of instrument shots to compliment the live scene and bring in product promotion (my Fender Stratocaster).

The inspiration for the grid on the inside of my digipak was taken directly from the cover of The Rolling Stones album 'Rewind', except I used a double canvas with 32 grid places not 16. I had to scale a grid to the right proportions to get the required images into the correct places. When I tried it with 64, it looked too busy so I changed to 32 and the images were clearer.

My first draft of the inside contained the thumbnails featured above with the keyboard animation scenes for further continuity. However, feedback from others indicated that my images were too flat, therefore needing enhancement in photoshop to bring them out. I increased the polysaturation to 100% on every image to increase the vibrancy and suggest a more arty/psychedelic look.

My back cover contains a still image of the keyboard, with all of the keys coloured in; a variation from the video animation and continuity as well. Continuity is also taken from the front cover with the 'cookies' font used for text and the white/pink combination from the vinyl label to print the text.

The Final Product:

MAGAZINE ADVERT - CONSTRUCTION

As I previously stated in planning, I needed to keep continuity from my digipak and/or my promotional video which is why I used the still image me and my partner were able to capture of the vinyl.

As the format of a magazine is different to that of a digipak: approx A4 but definetely a rectangle by comparison with the digipak's almost 'square' shape. I realised I would need to change the format or use a different image. I wanted to use the same image so I scaled it up and cropped it on the right slightly as this didn't take off any of the vinyl itself. I still had a large area of empty space which I wanted to use for reviews and other details as I had seen on other full page ads in my research. I created the stars using microsft word as photoshop didn't provide the shape I required.

I wanted to include a list of the singles as typically included on an ad.

Feedback was positive about the layout and colour schemes, especially about the continuation of the Scrabble letter colour, lower in the ad. However, it was felt that the white lettering on the vinyl disc did not work, promting me to change it to the beige-like colour on the scrabble letters. I was told by my peers that I had not featured enough in the reviews section at the bottom and that the writing/stars needed realigning.

I had also realised myself that there was not any label information or vital details typically featured on an advert.

This is final draft.

MAGAZINE ADVERT - PLANNING

Conventional magazine adverts tend to use the album cover artwork, this builds consumer recognition of the item being promoted - the album. Therefore I will follow the convention and use a variation of my digipak front cover to maintain continuity.

See my previous Prezi for detailed analysis of magazine adverts

Other conventions can include (but not all need to be present)

• record label information
• a release date
• list of hit singles
• band website details
• press reviews

A new convention is to include a qr code - smart phones can read this to obtain information/image/music.

I would like to include all of the above. The website details and qr code are probably the most important feature for the target audience for this product - smart phone using young people! For this reason, I feel they should be quite prominent.

These are some of the images I will be using:

• the first is my digipak front cover; I will use my same photoshop template to use some of the same layers on the cover (vinyl, scrabble pieces etc), guaranteeing continuity from the cover.

• Also included are going to be symbols of the record labels Foster The People are signed to, and the qr symbol.

DIGIPACK ATTEMPT ONE

This is my first attempt at the Digipak front cover, in my personal opinion, I believe that more could be done to the vinyl player itself to make it look more arty or professional! However, i must work on audience feedback before making further changes!!

The vinyl shot circled in orange is the one that my partner and I decided to use as the front cover of the digipak as it is the closest to a crane shot. It presented the best angle to use in photoshop.

DESIGNING THE LOMOGRAPHY

In the last lesson, my partner and I spent time working with a tutorial we found on photoshop (link to go here). My partner and I wanted to re-create a vintage look and the perseption of our cover looking like an old film camera.


















Although the image that we took was very good, when working on it we realised that we made a fundamental error. The proportions were not correct for a digipak, therefore meaning it could not be used.

FINAL FONT CHOICE

From the feedback my peers provided, the majority said that they preffered the third font 'Cookies'. This was actually our peronal favourite as well which is ideal for all of us.

FONT CHOICE FOR DIGIPAK AND MAGAZINE ADVERT

For the production of both the digipak and the magazine advert, an appropriate font has to be chosen for the text on both products. For continuity, they both have to use the same font but as my partner and I found ourselves struggling to find a good font in photoshop, I decided to go to dafont.com, a website that can provide thousands of different design fonts, easily downloadable to use in photoshop, word etc.


Here are some of the fonts I have found and are potentials for our cover:

As our ideal font would be arty but also bold enough to stand out to the consumer, I went through a different number of fonts to test for feedback. The one that gets the best reception is the one we will use for the products.

These are the other possible fonts we looked at but ruled out:

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CALL SHEET FOR HELENA BEAT (STUDIO SHOOT)

• Track - Helena Beat - Foster The People
• Length - 3:45
• Shoot date - 26th January 2011
• Location - Music School - Claremont Fan Court School
• Shoot location 

• Crew: Alex Atkinson, 07523208980, aatkinson@yahoo.co.uk
• Crew: Will Jones, 07708633380, willjones567@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Jonny Bohane, 07789764914, jonnybohane@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Richard Holt, 07592016332, richard_holt@hotmail.com
• Crew Joe Eddy, 07473026285, joeeddy@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Ben Ressa
• Camera equipment: (Canon EOS 550d)
• Lighting equipment (Angle Poise lamp)

Props

• Instruments - Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Snare Drum with sticks and Synthesiser.
• Band Clothing - Generally own clothes (Converses and shades for Will) (Same as bike shoot)

YESTERDAY'S SHOOT

The majority of yesterday's performance shoot was a success. We were able to incorperate elements of the ideal videos (Blur and The Strokes) in our video, with the outcome of a much more lively performance as less staticness than our previous shoot.

PERFORMANCE CHOREOGRAPHY

As part of feedback on our first performance shots, we were told by our peers that the footage for our video was very static and needed more charisma and dynamism. I have found footage from the music videos of Blur's 'Song 2' and The Strokes 'Last Nite' to use as an influence for the band's stage persona and have posted the videos onto everybodies Facebook pages for them to look at tonight and incorperate into tommorrow's shoot.

PLANNING THE DIGIPAK

There are two options for digipaks: 6 panels or 4. I weighed up the options and decided that my design worked better with 4 panels rather than 6. For 6 panels, I felt I was including unnecessary artwork and it looked contrived. There is only one disc in this Digipak so the extra fold seemed surplus to - to be environmentally friendly, you shouldn't include more packaging than is neccessary for the product. I considered adding a fold-out leaflet of song lyrics but again this would involve more paper which is not only environmentally unacceptable for today's consumer but also increases the costs of production. The target market for this cd would find the lyrics and other information on the internet rather than read a small print fold-out. I believe that most single cds wil revert to this format of packaging in the near future for these very reasons. requirements

1. Cover
- Album name: Mind Games - my partner and I decided on this because it was a good reflection of what was going on in the video itself: games is a play on the Boggle and the Scrabble letters and the video itself plays games with the mind of the viewer, as well as the actors.
- Scrabble letters printed ontop of vinyl spelling out Foster The People: We chose to use Scrabble letters to continue the theme from the video, the current trend in retroism drew us to the idea of mixing old with new: an old vinyl player with very modern Indietronica music. Also, there is currently a trend for scrabble to be used: in adverts, on mugs, in home and kitchenware etc.

2/3. Double Spread Inside cover: Band members information as this is very typical for an indie album as in this foldout by The Strokes (Is This It).

I want to try two different ideas with this.

4. Back Cover - to feature barcorde, record label information, tracklisting and links to the online institutions (label, band etc). Needs to include an image and incorperate elements of Indietronica, our video and the Front cover.

MAGAZINE ADVERTISING

I have done alot of research into magazine adverts for albums, using a wide variety of music magazines, results are detailed in a prezi:

Click HERE! to view the prezi!

PERFORMANCE SHOOT - FIRST FOOTAGE TAKE

The shoot of our group's performance today was a success, we used very good lighting and had an extensive equipment list, giving our shoot the sterotypical extensive range of instruments commonly featured in a music video (drumkit, bass and electric guitar, 2 synthesisers, amps and a microphone/stand). However, the majority of the shots were very static with limited movement and did not convey the approach that was our ideal. We wanted to shoot a more lively and adrenaline driven performance but unfortunately got a Robert Palmer style video which is the opposite of what we wanted.

It is because of lack of performance footage to use on the final clip that me and my group are going to do a second shoot with better choreography and livelier charisma from the band; ideally taking influences from The Who, The Strokes, Blur and The Rolling Stones.

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CALL SHEET FOR HELENA BEAT (BIKE SHOOT)

• Track - Helena Beat - Foster The People
• Length - 3:45
• Shoot date - 11th December 2011
• Location - Alleyway on Palace road, Hampton Court

• Crew: Alex Atkinson, 07523208980, aatkinson@yahoo.co.uk
• Crew: Will Jones, 07708633380, willjones567@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Jonny Bohane, 07789764914, jonnybohane@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Richard Holt, 07592016332, richard_holt@hotmail.com
• Crew: Joe Eddy 07473026285, joeeddy@hotmail.co.uk
• Camera equipment: Nikon D3100 Digital SLR
• Lighting equipment: Natural lighting (outdoors shoot)
• Props
• 4 Bikes
• Band Clothing - Similar to performance shoot - Generally own clothes (Converses and shades for Will)

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CALL SHEET FOR HELENA BEAT (PERFORMANCE SHOOT)

• Track - Helena Beat - Foster The People
• Length - 3:45
• Shoot date - 9th December 2011
• Location - Joyce Grenfell Centre Hall - Claremont Fan Court School
• Shoot location 

• Crew: Alex Atkinson, 07523208980, aatkinson@yahoo.co.uk
• Crew: Will Jones, 07708633380, willjones567@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Jonny Bohane, 07789764914, jonnybohane@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Richard Holt, 07592016332, richard_holt@hotmail.com
• Crew Joe Eddy , 07473026285, joeeddy@hotmail.co.uk
  
• Crew: Greg Flynn
• Camera equipment (Nikon D3100 Digital SLR camera - backup camera (Nikon D5000))
• Lighting equipment (Stage lights that filtered) 
• Props
• Instruments - Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drum kit with sticks and cymbals, Keyboard, Synthesiser, 3 amplifiers, microphone and mic stand.
• Band Clothing - Generally own clothes (Converses and shades for Will)

NEW SPOTIFY APP ON THE GUARDIAN

The Guardian has just released a new Spotify app which allows users to listen to albums reviewed by the guardian or observer.

This updated version of Spotify allows commercial partners to tie in for mutual benefit - synergy.

A2 MEDIA STUDIES CALL SHEET FOR HELENA BEAT (KEYBOARD & BOGGLE ANIMATION SHOOTS)

• Track - Helena Beat - Foster The People
• Length - 3:45
• Shoot date - 2nd December 2011
• Location - DT Studio Claremont Fan Court School
• Shoot location:

• Crew: Alex Atkinson, 07523208980, aatkinson@yahoo.co.uk
• Crew: Will Jones, 07708633380, willjones567@hotmail.co.uk
• Camera equipment (Nikon D3100 Digital SLR camera)
• Lighting equipment (Angle poise lamp)
• A Green Table Cloth, One Roland Keyboard (Same as used in the performance shoot), One Boggle set.
• 2nd Animation scene so no costume included.

OUR VINYL SHOOT

The shoot of our spinning vinyl was a success. We decided to use a vinyl in our video because it helped us to achieve a retro feel in the mise-en-scene.

In the set up, we had some problems achieving the levels of light needed for capturing our footage, however, we found that the best way to achieve it was to use natural lighting instead of our own.

Here are some of our stills in the shoot, showing the different lighting in different parts of the room: