CD COVER - TEST PIECE

To make a start playing around with images and effects, I found this wallpaper online, and was drawn to it because of its colour pallet. The blue/green/grey colour is exactly what I wanted to incorporate into my work, as you can see by my earlier mood board. These colours are also the colours that I am aiming to capture in my moving image in my chosen setting of a forest. Furthermore, I noticed that this wallpaper was worn and dirtied, and looked like it had been exposed to sunlight for too long, which is something that appealed to me, so I decided to use it as a test piece in preparation for my final piece. The raw image was too bright, so I altered the exposure in order to make it much darker, allowing me to use an off-white font.

I got my fonts from www.dafont.com and decided that I wanted a thin font that looked similar to handwriting. The full title of the song is 'Please Let Me Go' however I felt that this was too long and didn't give me a lot of scope for layout. Because of this, I decided to shorten the title, making it a much smaller and much more aesthetically pleasing three worded title with equally weighted words; 'LET ME GO'.

As soon as I put this font onto my wallpaper I knew that it was way too thin and couldn't be seen against such a busy background image. This lead me to find the font to the right- a similar but much thicker font that stood out against the background and was clearly legible. At first I thought that I wanted to place the font towards the bottom of the image. I had it smaller and in the right hand corner, however I decided that the weight of the font called for it to be larger, so I made it the width of the image. The image doesn't have a focal point, so I have made the title the focal point, putting it in the very center and making it the aspect that the viewer would notice at first glance.

To try out a few different versions, I increased the brightness of the background as I felt that I wanted less of a contrast between that and the title. I was pleased with how this turned out, and felt that the title was much more visible and strangely stood out more than it did against the darker background. Alternatively, I also made a grey-scale version of the image which I also quite liked, however this has proved to me that I want to use colour, as the black and white version doesn't link as well to my vintage vibe or colour pallet of my location.

INSPIRATIONAL TEXTS - CD covers

These are all examples of CDs that I own and feel have certain similarities to the look that I am aiming for. I really want to go for quite a worn down theme, and these covers provide that for me to take inspiration from.

Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
This is actually a perfect example of how I want my album cover to look. The vintage vibe that I have previously mentioned is shown perfectly here, with the frame and the worn down/ripped off wallpaper. Frame and wallpapers are definitely things that I want to incorporate into this cover as I mentioned in my initial ideas post, and I feel that creating something along the lines of this cover would meet my expectations completely. Something that I really like about this cover is the ripped effect, where the wallpaper rips away to reveal a housing estate. This gives the album cover a very gritty feel, and also follows my concept of the 'broken home' where my couple are breaking up.

Brand New Eyes - Paramore

This is the cover of Paramore's third album, however it isn't the main cover that has most inspired me, but the inside pages of the booklet. The front cover obviously holds the cover image, and within that there are several pages that include the lyrics for each song on the album. Many albums include this lyric booklet, however it was the images behind this that I was most drawn to.

Each page within the booklet features a random image that looks worn and has the typical vintage vibe that I'm going for. These two pages show legs behind a curtain and a locket hanging against what we can assumed to be wooden panels  The simplicity of these images is what drew me to them in the first place. From what I as a fan can grasp, these images may link to the lyrics on top of them in some way, however this isn't obvious is the slightest, with the true meaning behind them only being known by the band. This mystery and allusiveness is what I want to try and embody in my work, leaving the audience curious and eager to buy the album and listen to/look at its contents.

A frame has been used on another page, which also stood out to me as I have been considering using frames in my own work. The frame is ornate and when placed on a white background, draws the viewers attention to it which in turn draws their attention to the lyrics which have been aligned to stay marginalized with the frame.

Although the pages are all different, it is obvious that they all follow a them, which in my opinion is worn and vintage; appealing to the trends of the time and giving their target audience what they want, along with the music. The page for the song 'Misguided Ghosts' is particularly appealing to me as it shows a road into a forest, which is my chosen location. One of my proposed shots (see storyboard post) was that of a path in a forest, where my characters would walk down holding hands, then cutting to a shot of just one character walking to clearly show their break up. This has inspired me to definitely use this shot, and to even take a still image of that particular location and use it as part of my advertisement documents.

Employement - Kaiser Chiefs
I really liked this CD cover beacuse it has the 'worn' look that I want to go for. I believe that this cover is depicting an old box, as the sides of it resemble the work edges of a box lid and the sticker on the front involves the words "A box of tricks". This cover shows me how I can successfully achieve the worn/tattered look that I am aiming for, without making it look too deliberate. If I was to make this too deliberate, or too neat, I would lose the authenticity that I want my cover to have, making it a comical attempt at a vintage style.

BIRDY CD COVERS

Because Birdy's video concepts have been of huge inspiration to me, I decided to have a look at her CD cover designs in order to help me to create mine. I really liked the way in which Birdy films her videos, and I feel that they link closely with my concept, therefore knowing that an artist should keep their material consistent, I knew that this should be of inspiration to me.

The first image is the cover of Birdy's self-titled debut album which features the tracks that I have taken inspiration from for my video. The second image is the deluxe edition of this album, and the differences between the two are minute. Many artists do this, and simply make small changes such as colour in order to create a different cover that customers will still recognise as coming from the artist. In order to differentiate these covers, Birdy has taken off her jumper, and when closely analysing these two images you can also notice the change in lighting. In the top image the lighting is focused in on Birdy's face, which I feel doesn't look appealing and makes Birdy look drained and very young. However, the lighting has been altered in the second image to give a much more flattering tone. Birdy is also wearing make-up on the second cover, which could be symbolic of her growing up, or could be an attempt to move away from the young age that everyone associates her with.

Personally I prefer the second image as I feel that she looks much more attractive, which may not be the main thing that she aims to achieve, but could widen her audience. The angle has been adjusted to more of a straight-on medium shot which aids the angle at which the light hits her face. Furthermore, the costume in this cover is much more subtle, as I felt that the red jumper not only disrupts the natural colour pallet, but it also puts emphasis her young age and could have limited the sales of her album. This could be the cause of the change for the deluxe edition.

As mentioned in previous plans, I wanted to have the characters of my video in very natural coloured clothes, and wearing minimal amounts of make-up, and I feel that Birdy has achieved this and in my opinion it is really effective. Covers from artists such as Beyonce, Cheryl Cole, Rita Ora and Rihanna are always very over the top and glamorous, which suits their genre of music, and that is what I feel Birdy has achieved; a cover that suits her genre of music and personal style.

Adding to all of this is the fact that the background of Birdy's cover is worn wallpaper/walls which appears to be in a run down house. Seeing that a young artist like Birdy has been able to pull this off is reassuring for me, as not many current artists have gone for a similar theme to me. This is proof that my selling point of 'vintage' will be successful.

INITIAL IDEAS

I feel that my video concept and song has quite an indie vibe, and something that is popular in the indie scene is vintage. This has become very contemporary in the past few years, with people shopping in vintage shops, companies taking advantage and having their products covered in a vintage print etc. Because of this, I want to roll with this theme and base my print documents around it. Vintage floral wallpaper patterns are appearing a lot on products such as bedding, cushions, actual wallpaper, note pads and other household items and are a popular choice for young adults which are the target audience for my product. These products can be seen on websites such as Urban Outfitters which is a shop that my target audience would typically buy their clothes from, so it's reassuring that a website like this sells products that incorporate my theme;

Another product that is also sold on this website that I am a huge fan of is frames. I have many frames in my house and my bedroom and love having pictures of my friends and family out where I can see them and not just in a photo album. I've used frames in past creative pieces and know that they work well and can give a vintage feel. 

Obviously, frames can be hung on a wall, which has given me the inspiration to use vintage wallpaper as the main background for my album cover.

Together, frames and wallpaper can provide me with the vintage feel that I want to achieve, and can also appeal to my target audience by incorporating patterns and items that they're buying from retail stores. The image below is a collage I have created that incorporate the two items, and highlight the basic theme that my CD cover, and also my magazine advertisement will follow.

The frames and the wallpaper are items that you would typically find in a house, particularly a happy home where the owners take pride in decorating and enjoy having loads of photos around their house. This also suggests a married couple, who are happily married, which is the exact opposite of my video concept. The couple featured in my chosen song and video are in the process of a break-up, therefore the wallpaper, preferably damaged and worn, represents a broken family or a broken relationship. So as for the frame, I will either have no picture in it, or a negative picture that represents the break-up.

STARTING MY PRINT WORK

Instead of getting carried away by over planning my video, I have decided to move onto creating my two print pieces. As I've mentioned, out of the three provided options I have chosen to create the CD cover and the magazine advertisement as I feel that these two could prove to be the most relevant to my proposal and are also two areas in which I believe I have the skills to create professional documents that will fulfill their purpose. 

Initially the reasoning behind choosing the CD cover was that the location that I plan to use would have provided many photo opportunities which could have be used for the album cover. I thought that these would have given the artist a distinct image and a consistent advertisement theme/concept, however I've realized that this isn't realistic. After seeking inspiration from previous A2 portfolios, I recognized that the CD covers that used a still from the moving image were not as successful as the covers that used a separate image from the location or a different image all together. Furthermore, as forthcoming posts will show, the CD covers that I own don't use a still from the artists videos, however they are still recognizable as being from that artist.

The second option of the magazine advertisement links very closely to the CD cover, as a small image of the cover will have to appear on the advertisement so that the audience know what is being advertised. Because of this, the two have to be compatible with each other and must have things in common to reinforce the artist's image. Things like colours, fonts, images and even the overall mood must be consistent to provide a tight, crisp advertising campaign that will essentially sell copies of my album.

MOOD BOARD

This is a mood board that I have created based upon my choice of song and original ideas for my music video. My chosen setting is obvious; a forest, from which I have based my colour scheme.

The colours that I want my video to include are very natural and woodsy, and are loosely based around greens and blues, and maybe browns. These colours would typically be found in my setting in late afternoon, while there is still some light but not as much as midday would provide.

BARTHES' CODES PREZI

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by Georgina, Hanni and Alex

AUDIENCE CONCEPT applied to my coursework

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS
Blumler and Katz
Personal Identity
This theory outlines the ability to compare your own life with characters and situations that occur in media texts, and to explore your personal problems and looks for solutions and reassurance.
I feel that this theory applies to my video concept as the narrative involves a couple breaking up, which is a typically occurence for the age range of my intended audience. They would be able to relate completely to the idea that a boy/girl doesn't want to be in the relationship anymore, when their partner does, and they go through a tough break-up. The emotions that I plan to convey would evoke sympathy from the viewer because guaranteed they will know someone, or will have a personal experience with this sort of situation.

David Gauntlett

STRUCTURALISM applied to my coursework

Anthony Goodwin;
I feel that my music video concept follows a number of Anthony Goodwin's theories of language use and structure in a music video. The first is 'Links between lyrics and visuals', which I have planned to embody by having one of my characters mouth the words to the song for some shots. I feel that the more emotional lines such as 

"I don't want you, and I don't need you anymore" 

would benefit from being shown coming from the character as I feel this would heighten the emotion of these words and will make them more believable, evoking an emotional reaction from the viewer. Furthermore, a lyric at the beginning of the song refers to holding hands, so I plan to film my two characters holding hands at this point, then gradually separating hands, which foreshadows their break up.

Another of Goodwin's theories of language use and structure in a music video that I feel links to my video is the similar 'Links between music and visuals'. The way in which I plan to do this involves a friend of mine coming with me to my location and actually playing the guitar melody for me to film. Because the guitar melody is so prominent at the beginning of the song I wanted to have someone playing it to give the video 'something else' to occupy the time rather than just the couple on screen throughout. Obviously, I plan to only film the guitar in a close up/extreme close up as I don't want to confuse the viewer by adding in another character, unless I choose to make the guitarist my main male character, which I have yet to decide.

Typical Structures;

My video concept, in my opinion, loosely follows a 'Fragmented' structure. Although it does have a narrative, it doesn't follow a solid 'fairy tale' structure whereby the couple break up, get back together and live happily ever after, etc. My narrative is literally that they're in the process of breaking up, but don't follow a string of events that decides their fate. I feel that this confusion/enigma is fitting for my chosen genre of Alternative/Indie, as videos from this genre rarely follow an obvious narrative like videos from Pop artists might.

Language Use;

Genre reflected language use is something that will be evident in my video. An example of this is in the editing style I plan to incorporate, which is very similar to other videos of the same tempo from my genre. For example, one of the editing techniques I plan to use is slow motion, but only slightly in scenes such as where one of my characters is running away from the other, to symbolize their break up.

Barthes' Five Codes;

Proairetic Code - My video follows this proposed code because at the beginning, the couple are going to be holding hands, and as I zoom in they will gradually let go of each others hands. By witnessing this event, the audience can understand that the rest of the video will be about their break up, and that the parting of hands represented that they are no longer together.

Cultural Code - I'm not quite sure whether or not my video could be considered to follow Barthes' cultural code, however I feel that it does in some ways. My video concept's narrative is based upon a young couple breaking up, which we see a lot of in society, and the lyrics make this obvious. Therefore I believe that because the audience will already have a clear understanding of what goes on in a break up, provoking their preexisting ideas based on the cultural stereotype of a couple experiencing this event.

PITCH

Genre - As I mentioned, 'Please Let Me Go' falls into the Alternative music genre, however I don't feel that it is like many songs that are categorized into this genre, as they are much heavier and don't appeal to a wide audience as my song does. For example, I'm 17 and I enjoy listening to this song, my Mam is 48 and she also enjoys this song and my brothers are 12 and they also enjoy it. This is because the song has a very smooth feel and a beautiful acoustic guitar melody which makes the listener relax into the song. I want this to be portrayed in my video in order to retain the wide appeal that I feel the song has the potential to have.

Narrative - My interpretation of the lyrics is that the narrator is in a relationship and is trying to end things, and this is the narrative which I am going to base my video on. Lyrics such as "Oh just please keep still, cause I don't want this" make it seem that it's hard for the narrator to end things but as he says further into the song; "I don't want you, I don't need you anymore", he is ready to be on his own. This makes one of the characters more prominent than the other and means that one will have more screen time, so I must be careful who I choose to pose as the narrator. Even though it's quite a sad song in some ways, I don't want my video to be dark and depressing as you would imagine it to be. 

Location (forecast + timescale) -  When I listen to this song I imagine it to be set in a quiet, remote location such as a forest where life is uninterrupted by the outside world. I feel that this location choice fits in with my narrative very well as this couple are going through a crisis and don't have any concern of what is occurring in the outside world, as this is the only thing that is important to them at that moment. Also, the opening lyrics are:

"Please hold my hand tonight, cause it's so cold outside. And the trees are whistling to themselves, just trying to keep warm"

which support the image of a forest. These lyrics and also the song as a whole give me the feeling of Autumn when I listen to it. Autumn is my favourite season as it provides (in my opinion) the most beautiful colours such as reds, browns, deep greens. I feel that this colour pallet will compliment my song and will be widely available in my choice of location. Autumn is when I will be starting my project however the weather that I want for my video usually lasts longer, giving me plenty of time to get all of my footage. I want to film in the late evening as I feel that this time will provide the best lighting for the mood of my video - not too dark and not too light, a soft and pleasant light which also signifies the end of the day, tying in with my 'end of relationship' narrative. 

Cast (appearance and costume) - Because the narrative of my song involves a couple, I plan to include only two people in my video: one boy and one girl. These are the only two characters that I intend to include in my video as the emotion of the song is being experienced by two people in a crumbling relationship, and I want that to be uninterrupted by any background cast. In the song, the singer is male, and as the lyrics are in the first person he is the narrator of the story. I don't know whether or not I will keep the narrator as male, as it may be more convenient for me to use a female as the narrator. The lyrics don't come across as being typically male so using a female narrator won't take away from the emotion of the words. I will decide whether to use a male or female narrator once I have chosen the people I intend to feature in my video. Using my close friends is convenient for me as I have more flexibility of how much I can film them and I can rely on them to perform and follow instructions.

I would like the characters in my video to be attractive, as I feel that although this is a very stereotypical and somewhat shallow approach, it is what often attracts a viewer to the video and is what many famous bands/singers practise. The costuming for these two characters should be very relaxed and informal, and should feature soft/dull colours such as browns, blacks, greys etc. For example, I may dress my female in a pair of jeans and a baggy jumper, and the male in a casual shirt and jeans. I don't plan to use any props such as bags or microphones, however I may use natural props that I find at my location. For the female, I don't have any strong preferences for her make-up, other than I would like it to be natural and not too fake (no false eyelashes, bright lipstick, dark eyeshadow etc) in order to compliment my choice of song and location.

PROPOSAL

For my A2 Media project I intend to pursue the following brief;

A promotional package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

A website homepage for the band;

A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);

A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

I am very passionate about music and it has always been a big part of my life so I feel that this would be the best brief for me. I understand how to dissect a song and figure out the meaning behind the less obvious lyrics so I can best portray the emotions of my chosen song.

The song I have chosen to create a music promo video for is ‘Please Let Me Go’ by Charlie Simpson (Busted front-man gone-solo) from the album 'Young Pilgrim'. I would say that this song falls into the Alternative music genre however it isn't a heavy song, it is more like an acoustic set, where the most prominent aspects of the song are the vocals and the acoustic guitar melody. It is a song which I like very much and from listening to it leisurely, I already have an image in my mind for how I imagine the music video to look. Because both the singer and the song aren't very well known, the track doesn't actually have an official music video, meaning that whatever I create will be entirely original and not based on any pre-existing material.

Out of the three provided options I plan to create the CD cover and the magazine advertisement. I have chosen the first because the location that I plan to use will provide many photo opportunities which could be used for the album cover, to give the artist a distinct image and a consistent advertisement theme/concept. As part of one of the units of my Music GCSE I had to record a song and create an album cover for it, so I could use my experience to help me in this project. Also, the skills I have acquired from my Graphics A Level will help me to produce an aesthetically pleasing album cover which will appeal to the viewer, having a very simple and natural feel to ensure the cover is appealing to a wide audience.
The second option of the magazine advertisement appealed to me because like the CD cover, it focuses heavily on design and creativity, which I feel are my strong points. My AS Media project of creating a magazine gave me a taste of how magazines work, and therefore I can use the skills I picked up to help me create an advertisement which would fit into any type of magazine and would catch the reader's eye, making them take notice rather than just flick over onto the next page.