Final Post

So, the blogs are due to close tomorrow and it's time for me to say my goodbye's. I have really enjoyed being a media student for the past two years and I have learnt a lot of skills which I will like to take further in my life. I hope to study Film and Television Production at University for the next 3 years and so all my filming, editing and analytical skills I have learnt will really help me with this.

Evaluation question 2

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

When I first had to create my ancillary tasks, I wanted to ensure that I had a consistent theme running throughout them so that my target audience of teenage girls would have appeal to them and that they related to my music video well. For the inspiration of my Digi-pack and magazine advert I looked at Pixie Lott who was the artist of my chosen song for my music video, "like a broken arrow". We wanted to portray Pixie Lott as a young teenage girl who is trying to connect with her audience. So, I decided to use locations that teenagers would be familiar with such as parks, benches and their front living room.

For my Digi-pack I used the black and white theme that I have running throughout music video which gave it the professional look that I wanted to and I think it fitted with the lyrics/theme to the song (relationship break ups). For the front cover I took a print screen from my actual music video where Elle is resting against a white wall. I used this image as the audience will be familiar with it from the music video and it will clearly show that she is the main female protagonist being re

presented in the video. I adjusted the contrast a little more so that she stood out against the all and adding in a "swirly" font which i downloaded from a fonts website as I think this fitted with my pop genre and showed the young and girly character, inspired by Pixie Lott herself.

For the inside covers I chose a "kiss" shape to represent the love within the music video and on the other I used a black silouette of the cupid with an arrow as I also had this in my music video as an overlapping shot of when Elle and Alex in the video are arguing, the arrow breaks over them.

Here is my second ancillary task which is my magazine advert. Again, I have kept the consistency running throughout by continuing the black and white theme and again using a "swirly/girly" font to keep the initial idea of portraying Pixie Lott as much as possible. Again I have used screen shots from my music video so the audience can relate to the advertisement as they recognise them fro the video itself. The purpose of this was to promote the album itself. I used quotes from famous music magazines to make it look more professional and believable.

Overall, I think the overall effectiveness of the combination of my ancillary tasks is good because I have used the same locations, fonts and images throughout that my target audience of teenage girls will be able to relate to and along with the storyline and narrative of the music video.

Audience Feedback

Through out the whole process of my music video being created and edited, it was vital that I had some audience feedback so I knew what people liked/disliked about my video and whether any changes could be made.

I spoke to my friend Savanna via bbm messenger on my blackberry and asked her what she liked about my music video and what she thought could be improved:














So, from looking at this conversation I can see that Savannah really likes the fact that my music video is all in black and white as it makes it look more professional. Also the performance shots as it broke up the narrative of the edited shots with Elle and Alex together. She said to improve that the editing needed to be more "choppier" so with this feedback in mind I went through all my shots in my music video and for the clips where Elle and Alex are lying on the bed in IKEA, i edited it all to the beat so it looked more choppier and not just a long run of smooth clips.





On the day of the after school viewing of our music video's, some yellow slips of paper were given out for people to say what they liked out our music video's and what were their favourite parts and why. Here are some of the comments my group received:

Black and white fitted well with the tempo of the song.

Good narrative that fit with the song.

It was a realistic portrayal of the story that the target audience of young teenagers can relate to.

They used good locations.

I liked the idea of the reversing clips. It really made it clear to the audience what was happening.
The photo's looked realistic.

The studio scenes looked professional.

The play fighting scene showed how much they loved each other, and I liked how this was contrasted with the fighting scene behind the broke arrow to show that they had broken up.

I liked the split screens at the end, with the contrasting light and narratives.

It was perfectly composed, a really good music video.

Good story telling.

I loved the editing, especially the L.O.V.E and the bed scenes in IKEA. I thought this was edited to the beat well.

I liked the L.O.V.E

The camera angles and effects were effective.

The black and white made it look more natural and fit with the emotion of the narrative.

Good transition between footage.

It fits well with the pop genre.

It was really good.

I loved the animation of cupid with the heart.

The L.O.V.E was effective.

Good different angles and speeds.

I liked the broken arrow.

Good portrayal between past and present.

I like the change of scenery, it made everything really touching and the fast forwarding made the video feel emotional.

I like the romance of the characters portrayed and how one shows the difference of how their relationship changed with their body language.

Good lip sycnhing and creative angles used throughout.

The rewinding scenes which embody the essence and meaning of the clip.

Good use of photographs.

The singing seemed very realistic.

Good use of black and white.

Good links between shots.

Evaluation

After having an enjoyable Easter holidays break, myself Elle and Emma decided to meet up in school before we went back and to do our evaluation together. We discussed the possible ways in how to portray our evaluation from a PowerPoint, scribd upload or simply to just type it onto our blogs. However, we wanted to be more creative and so we decided to sit in front of our MAC and film ourselves having a discussion answering questions 1,3 and 4 and decided to record the whole evaluation, except for question 2, which is a personal opinion on our own digi packs. Most of our answers although pre arranged/planned were from our own opinions, which made the discussion seem more real and interesting as all three of us were having in depth convosations about our media production.






Also, after completing our evaluation, we decided to sit down and watch our music video just to see it and we came up with the idea of doing a voice over narrative to some of the clips and explaining why we chose them and how they are portrayed. We muted the song down when we were talking and this gave it a really good effect as we weren't talking over the whole video so you can still here the music playing. This wasn't compulsory towards the evaluation but we thought it just gave a little more explanation as to why we used certain shots that we did and also shows that myself and my group are being creative.

Summary of Editing Changes

Opening Credits - changed ikea shot - changed lip synching - new opening [x] - l.o.v.e to the beat [x] - changed clip behind the broken arrow - unreversed the arrow - edited to the beat (bits in ikea) [x] - Added the water umbrella "ooh" shot - made alex+elle appear on the split screen when the word "love" is sung - alex+elle brighter contrast - happy times, elle on own - darker Here is a summary of the most siginificant changes to our music video which as a group we have made over the last week. the "[x]" means I have blogged about it and as youc an see, some of the changes I still need to blog.

Editing to the beat

We also noticed as a group that the start of the chorus all of the editing was a bit miss matched and was not edited to the beat at all and we though this would stop us from gaining as many marks as we can in receiving the highest grade possible.

Although our song choice is slow and hard to edit to the beat, we sat as a group and listened to the song over a couple and times and tried to highlight the key points of the song as to where a more "upbeat" was. We noticed that at the start of the chorus where Pixie sings "and your, sitting in the front row, wanna be first in line..." was where the beat was most evident throughout the whole song.

So in order to edit this to the beat correctly, we as a group looked at what footage we have placed to his part of the song. At the start of the chorus, Elle and Alex jumps on the bed in IKEA, imitating (500) Days of Summer that we had used for our product research earlier on in the year which inspired us to film in IKEA. We as a group made sure that Elle lands when the first symbol sound is played. On the next symbol sound we made sure that her face was shown and then quickly on the next one his face was shown. After that a two shot of the couple together was next shown on the fourth symbol noise and finally on the fifth symbol noise he kisses her.

So, now looking at our "media checklist" we can tick off the "successfully editing the footage in time with the beat" as we have completed this task successfully!

Changing the opening

At the start of the film we as a group decided to replaced the bit where Elle touches her top area of her body when adjusting her dress as we felt that this was very inappropriate for an innocent pop music promo. We decided replaced it with a clip of Elle in Ally Pally running up to a telescope and looking into this. We think that this starts off as an establishing shot to set the scene that she's in Ally Pally, alone and broken up with Alex. It also can act as if she is looking down the telescope into the music video as it goes straight into the stop motion of L.O.V.E. At first we thought that this looked a bit weird as the cross dissolve transition that I was putting between these two clips were not working, but other members of our media group convinced us that it looked a lot better than it did before so I kept it.

Opening credits research

In order for our music video to look more professional, we were told that we need to have the song title and artist to come up at the beginning and perhaps the end of the song as well. I was watching MTV the other day when I saw the video "Pack up" by "Eliza Doolittle" come up. I like the plain simple font used with the black writing and I also particularly liked the pink banner that the credits were written across. I particularly liked the banner as its pink and girl and this reflects my groups chosen genre of "pop" and it being a female artist of Pixie Lott, I think the colour pink indicates this well to our audience. However, on the IMovie tools, the only colour you can achieve for a banner type effect is white, and this doesn't really fit with our music video, especially because our video is all in black and white, I thought a bit of colour would help but we unfortunately can't achieve this. So, instead we have just gone with a plain simple aerial font and written the following: Line one - Broken Arrow Line two - Pixie Mix Line three - Pixie Mix EP EP stands for extended play, which makes it not quite a CD, but not quite an album either, it falls in betwee both these brackets. So, the CD in the shop would have our single "Broken Arrow" plus maybe three or four ore tracks alongside this. Seeing as myself and the three other members of my group have all included around twelve songs on our Digi-Pack covers, so this would count as the full album and would be considered as "Pixie Mix LP" (long play). So, to avoid confusion, we as a group have added "Pixie Mix EP" to our opening credits to mean the single and so that it will avoid any confusion over our album covers.

Draft four

Here is draft four of our music video. It is very similar to our original first draft. Other than the fact at the beginning we have added opening credits in the bottom right hand corner stating "Pixie Mix - Broken Arrow" with a line separating the two to make it clear that it's the name of the song and the artist who its sung by. We did this to introduce it and to make it look more like a music video rather then just a series of clips along with a piece of music.

Draft three

Here is a draft version of my music video, but as a group we removed all evidence of the black and white editing and experimented with the contrast whilst the clips were all in colour. As a group, we decided to click "revert to original" on each clip as this way the clips were all of a similar contrast and made the music video flow better. I'm still undecided as to whether or not I like the music video better in black and white or colour...

Editing Techniques

This is a video of a song called "Together" by a group named Herve. The reason why I have uploaded this to my blog is simply because of the editing used in this video. Regardless of the genre of the song, I simply love this video as because of how creative it is. The fact that the whole music video was based simple on images which had been photo shopped in order to create the images to "move" in their own way. Now that we are moving on to final cut pro to produce out final editing, I thought this video may help, only in perfecting ours top motion, not the whole music video as we have moving images and not just still photographs like this video.

Evaluation

Once I have completed the final finishing touches to my editing of my music video, I will have to answer the following 4 questions successfully: 1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? 3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? 4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Rather than just creating a powerpoint and uploading it to scribed, myself and my group want to answer these questions in a more creative way in order to gain as many marks as possible on our creativity skills. I was looking for examples of evalautions which have already been uploaded to YouTube in order to give me an idea as to how to answer these questions successfully. Here is one which I particualrly liked and I felt they answered the questions correctly and precisely:

I just noticed my digi pack doesn't fit on my blog properly, so when I analyse it, I will upload each panel separately, that way it can be viewed properly!

Digi pack - Final version

Here is my completed Digi-Pack, finally! after editing the photos on picaza and paint, I was fianlly able to produce the Four sided Digi pack that is promoting my album - Pixie Mix Broken Arrow.

[anaylsis to be blogged]

my first attempt

Here is my first draft/attempt on my music advertisement. It's not exactly how I had produced my plan, but when I "got in the zone" this was how it was finally produced.

I decided to use a black background with white writing simply because from previous research I had under taken a lot of music advertisements use this technique and it seems to appear successful and also because my music video to Broken Arrow is all in black and white so this corresponds with this idea well.

I used a print screen from the actual music video itself as the main image on the advertisement. The reason I used this one was because I had already edited it for when I use it in my digi-pack so it saved me time. I blurred the background by using tools on "picaza" and was able to have my own take on what the Stereo Phonics did for their album advertisement by using a black and white background but having their photo in colour, I have made sure that Elle stands out in a similar way.

For any writing on this poster I used a font from the website http://www.fontspace.com/category/cute,girly which I downloaded as I think it a similar font to which Pixie uses for her own albums, but I made it unique to me. the writing which I included on the main image was a quote along the top saying "available to buy/download from 11/05/11". I made sure this was in bold and written across the top of the photo as the release date of an album is one of the most important conventions so the customers can know when it is available for them to listen to.

In the bottom left hand corner I included this image of Elle which is (I think) the image I will be using for the front cover of my digi-pack. I included it small when writing "including the debut single - broken arrow" this way if someone has already brought the single before the album has come out, they will be able to relate to this image.

I also included most of the other conventions such as star ratings and quotes form magazines, one being a sort of "slip line" saying that the music on Pixie Mixes new album enables your mood to change instantly. I though this added a unique touch to my advertisement as not many album advertisements include slip lines, but I think there great and will encourage more people to buy it.

This is only a first draft and so i may make more changes, but I'm very pleased as to how it has turned out first time!!

My own album advertisement

Here is a very rough outline that I have drawn to give me an idea as to what my advertisement will look like actually on paper and not just as an idea in my head.

I have included the "pixie mix" logo which is in a "hand written/girly" font, 2 print screens Of Elle from the music video itself and then other conventions such as ratings/comments from magazines and critics, the release date, the name of the album etc.

I will make my magazine advert in either paint, photo shop or picaza in order to construct it correctly and make it look the best it possibly can!

album advertisement analysis

In last weeks lesson we were focusing on album advertisements that already existed today to give us further research as to when it comes down to designing our own.

We annotate 3 different album advertisements; The killers, Stereo phonics and Nirvana. All of these are different from my genre of "pop" but I thought this gave me a good idea that not every album advertisement matches the genre of the music.

For example, Stereo phonics are alternative/indie music yet there advertisement for their album is really unique. It includes a dull grey background of the seaside with the band sitting at a "cafe" table in the sea itself, yet they are all in colour. I like the iconography to this as to me, it implies that they the band themselves like to think that their different from all the other boy groups out there and so that's why I think they may have chosen to put themselves in colour to show that they "stand out from the crowd" and are different. This is the impact that I would like my advertisement to have on people when they first look at it.

This analysis and research has really helped me to know what I want to achieve in my own music advertisement now! Something unique, eye catching but something that doesn't go too outside of my genre of "pop".

Pixie Lott - Music Magazine Representations

Seems as Pixie Lott was the inspiration for myself and my group to create our artist "pixie mix" I thought that I shoudl condusct some rsearch has to how Pixie herself is represented in both music magazines and normal ones. I will look at her clothes, make up etc and hopefully this will give me enough inspiration for when it comes to making my own music advertisement but using Elle and "Pixie Mix".





FHM magazine
FHM magazine is a typical "lads mag" that focuses on page 3 girls, football and gadgets etc. However, this iamg eon the right hand side which i found using the search engine "Google" is a special "Music Issue" and so this is why they have chosen to put Pixie Lott on the front cover.


On this front cover Pixie Lott is posing very seductively. She is wearing small almsot none existant black hot pants with what appears to be an electric blue bar/boob tube. This is wear Pixi completley goes against the steroetype that poeple giver her of her being an "innocent" and "angelic" 19 year old who is a "pretty in pink" pop princess I woudlnt want to advetise her like this on my music advertisement as I think it will compeltely attract the wrong audience.


Sugar - Teen Magazine
This image is much more typical of Pixie Lott. Having her hair lose in natural curls accompanied with natural make up along with a pretty summer dress, this is wear she adhearing much more to her sterotype of being a "young, innocent and pop princess".


This is more as to how I would like to pose Elle on my magazine advertisenment, I love the fact that she is smiling and looking directly at the camera. (this is known as "The Gaze"). I think if I did this on my music advertisement, the buyers of the album will be "drawn in" more as the artist is looking directly at them.
I prefer the "natural" look and I definaltely think this is a must when it comes to the styling of Elle (who is playing Pixie Mix) for my album advertisement.





Q - Music Magazine
Here is a photo shoot and 4 page article in the quirky rock magazine "Q". here again, Pixie Lott is posing secutively and isn't weasring much in the form of clothes. The knee high leather boots and the fact that she is dressed all in black and pictures posing liek this on teh side of a motor bike automatically sends out a message to the people reading this magazine.

Her hair is flowing and making her appear "sexy". In some ways, sex appeal is good but in some ways it can send out an innaporopriate message as this isn't the "real" pixie Lott, she has simply been made to look liek this for the appeal of the magazine and the situation she is in for the photo shoot. I defiantley wont be imitating any of this in my own music advertsiement, apart form the hair, I like the way it looks like it's flowing in the wind.



French Pop Magazine



Here Pixie Lott is posed in what seems the most natural i have seen in all of the magazines I have looked at. Her hair is straightened with slightly lose curls, and her make up is very natural which I think looks better than when she has a lot of make up on as I think the "natural" look fits her overall image and genre of her music more.

Here she is wearing something that doesn't usually 'fit' with her image that she usually portrays but I think this may have something to do with it being for a French magazine rather than a British one.

Magazine advertisement research

Here is an image I found with the help of the search engine "Google" whilst looking for examples of album advertisements in music magazines. Although all 3 images are similar, they all hold very different and unique conventions for a music magazine advertisement. I am going to analyse the 3 separately and comment on the convention that they hold and what makes them a good example as to what I could replicate when it comes to creating my own.

The magazine advert for Ellie Goulding mirrors the title of the album, 'Lights'. The image has been manipulated with gold streaks amongst her long feminine flowing hair; she too seems to glow much like the font. The image is flattering and her head positioning captures her in a elegant way, thus the advert immediately gives an impression of the artist. Reviews from the music industry have been used to promote the album, star ratings are a easy visual to read a rating. As she is a debut artist a close up image of her face has been used to promote artist recognition toward the artist, she has a intense gaze yet is not looking toward the audience to give the appearance of being captured in a non posed way.

The advert for The Temper Trap and their new album "conditions" is plain and simple yet effective. The black background used makes the image of the young girl stand out more to the magazine reader. It's different to any normal magazine advertisement because all it includes out of the main conventions you would expect magazine advertisement for an album to is the album name, the artist and the release date. All of which are written in a small arial font in the bottom right hand corner. However, I think the way in which the Temper Trap have gone against the normal way in which an album is presented in a magazine id for the better, as I think advert will grab more attention for the concept of it being "outside the box" rather then your typical average album magazine advert.



Finally is the advertisement for The noisettes's new single (rather than album) "Don't upset the rhythm". Again the black background as been used and I think this really makes the lead singer of The Noisettes stand out on the cover. The fact that she is standing in the middle of a lit up "pyramid" type shape makes her silhouette stand out even more. Again, small white writing in simpel font has been used and I think this is to make it stand out against the black background (as white and black are the best contrasting colours). The genre of The Noisettes music is pop, but with a 60's/70's twist. From this, they have left the font of their name in a font which matches this genre/era. I think it really catches your eye and will help the reader of the magazine relate to this advertisement easier.

AND THE WINNER IS....

Out of all the 3 magazine advertisements for albums/CD'S my favourite one of the three I have analysed (so far) is definately Elle Goulding - Lights. I just love this advertisement as I reallt think the way the gold streaks have been highlighted in her hair make her apear extra eye catchign and striking and I think that if I was flicking through a magazine, if I saw this advertisement, I would stop and read who it was for. I also love the iconography of the fact that the album is called "Lights" and the light in her hair has been highlighted more and this makes the advertisement seem more real and believable and will hopefully help people relate to her music more.

Conventions of a music advertisement

When a new album is advertised in a magazine, there are always certain conventions which are included in order to make it recognisable to the readers of the magazine and so they know it's an advertisement for a new album. Here is a brief list as to whats usually included:

- Most magazine adverts for new albums nearly all the time have some form of review on them. Wether this be "*****" or a comment such as "this album is simply unmissable". By doing this it makes the reader of the magazine more influenced into buying it.

- The release date of an album is one of the most vital pieces of information that needs to be included on a magazine advert. By including the release date the readers will then know when the album is available to buy and this will then enable the artist to then make as many sales as possible.

- The Advertisement itself usually features a similar image of the artist/band from the actual album cover itself, this way the listener of the music can relate to the image on the poster and when buying the actual album.

-Any extras that aren't essential but sometimes occur are things such as the album record label, possible tour dates and also a web address/my space of the band/artist too.

- There will definitely be a description of some sort as to where you can buy the album from - this could either be an online website or a music store such as HMV.

-some albums have added extras such as a "slogan" that's fits in with the overall theme of their album.

- Finally some have exclusive offers/downloads which can be made available to the buyer of the album.

After researching this, there is a lot more that can be included on an advertisement for an album than I thought and I will be taking these points into great consideration when it comes to designing my own one.

Further Digi-Pack Research

My "putting together" of my digi pack is taking rather longer than I thought, but I want to get it looking to the best quality it can and in order to do this, I need to edit the photos the best I can. My Sister was recently in a photo shoot and her friend who is studying graphic design at uni editing some of the photos and the contrast on them came out looking fantastic! This is the similar contrast I want to achieve on my photos of Elle as it will really make her stand out and the audience will get her attention on this album cover straight away.

Digi pack ideas...

I downloaded "paint pro plus" and was able to expand on my editing skills. The first photo I uplaoded is a balck and white shot of Elle. I changed the focus usign the "spot" tool. I hand drew (quite badly) a red pouted kiss shape and then in a swirly text I wrote "Pixie Mix - Broken Arrow". This was in a small black font so it was visible, but Elle was still the main focus.

The second photo is my favourite. It's shot of Elle standing against the big gate with a beautiful house in the background. I used the "spot" tool once again and this time I changed the focus so that Elle stood out much more then the background. I think this looks really effective and will make a great album cover. I hand drew "pixie mix" with the airbrush tool and used black as this stood out against the background. I used a baby pink and did "hearts" for the dots on the eyes as this gave it the little girly edge that Pixi lott would have. I then used a swirly font and wrote broken arrow in a smaller font.

The last photo I uploaded it the same as the first one but this times it's in colour. I then used the airbrush tool and hand drew pixie mixx as I did on the second photo.

These are all very basic ideas but I hope to put my final piece together over the weekend!

Digi pack attempt...

This is very VERY basic, but having not used photo shop before, I am struggling a lot! I uploaded a pohot of Elle which was a print screen from our music video. I then converted it to black and white, adjusted the contrasted and also added the album name and artist in a girly font. This is just a rough idea and over the weekend once I have got to grips with photshop I will look fowards to being able to producing all 4 sides to my digipack!

Album/Track List

Now that I have an actual idea of what I want to appear on my digi-pack design, I thought ti would be time to think about the names of the tracks that will appear on my album. Having looking at Pixie Lott's album, here is a list of her songs:

1) Mama do (uh oh uh oh)
2) Cry me out
3) Band aid
4) Turn it up
5) Boys and Girls
6) Gravity
7) My love
8) Jack
9) Nothing compares
10) I wish I was there
11) The way the world works
12) Hold me in your arms

So, looking at the names of her tracks, I thought I woudl do very similar names, but make them my own. Here is what I have come up with:

1) Papa Don't (mm hmm mm hmm)
2) Drown me in your tears
3) A & E
4) Pulse
5) Guys and Dollz
6) Space
7) Emotions
8) Tommy
9) Reflections
10) Wish I was there
11) Around the World
12) Don't Let go
13) the debut single - Broken Arrow

More music video research...

Only now is it that I realise there are already a lot of music videos that exist today which are all filmed and edited then produced in black and white. I think it is becoming more popular as it gives the video an overall more "professional" look and makes the video stand out from any others that have already been produced.

This following song "Wile out - Ms Dynamite ft Dj zinc is just one of these example. I like the video in black and white and how the beat has been edited in time with the clip transitions. Also, I really like the shots of Ms Dynamite when she is walking down the stairs with the graffiti on the walls. This would also be another idea which I could use for my digi-pack cover.

[video to be uploaded]

Here are a few print screens to show what I am talking about...

Further music video research...

I was watching the music channels over the weekend and I noticed another video that was in black and white and used similar shot types and conventions that we have in ours. this video "Breathe slow - Alesha Dixon" is also a song about love, like "Broken Arrow - Pixie Lott" and so similar slow pans, close ups of her face and smooth transitions are used to fit the mood of the song. I also really like the contrasts used in some of the clips as it is really soft and makes Alesha stand out from the background.

[Youtube wont let me uplaod any videos to my blog - but will put this video on asap!]

Here are some print screen to give you an idea, until the video get's uploaded!

draft 2

After making some final tweaks to our music video in last week's lessons, we have now uploaded to YouTube a second draft. We included more clips of Elle sitting against the brick wall (which myself and Elle had re filmed) and also put in another pan shot from the sky, down towards Elle resting against a gate. We also added in the reversed clips of Elle and Alex towards the end of the song to make the narrative of our song fit the lyrics more.

[wont let me uplaod video from Youtube - will upload asap!]

Here are some print screens until Youtube let's me upload the video...

editing

In today's lesson our whole group was in so myself and Elle were finally able to show the rest of our group what we had completed in the lesson they had missed. They really liked what we had done and they were also able to come up with some new ideas.

Where we have inserted the "stop motion" clip into our music video where the cupid emotion is firing an arrow, Emma said to use the Imovie tool of "picture within a picture" and so that underneath the stop motion we could put a clip of Elle and Alex so the two clips blend into one. We tried it and it looks good, but we still don't know whether we are going to include it in our final version.

Also looking at the music video, Elle who had come to the media room in her free periods the other day had made some further changes that I hadn't yet seen. She had added some clips of herself and Alex towards the end of the music video to give the video more narrative as we have already got a lot of performance clips of Elle singing. When the clips had been added, she "reversed" them to add to the whole "flashback" idea so it looked like they were looking back on the memories. She also ended the music video with 2 happy clips as the piano music that ends the song is quite happy, so she put in a clip of Alex giving her a "piggy back" and ending with a kiss by a tree with a pan up to the sky and then fading to black. I really like the changes that Elle made and I'm hoping now that all we need to do is finishes touches!

Digi-pack research

Going back to my original artist research, I remember I did some on the unique group called "The Streets" with it's main member Mike Skinner. I then went back and looked t my research and I remembered that a certain song of theirs "Never went to church", the video is all in black and white, just like ours is.



The Streets - Never Went To Church on MUZU.

I love this video because I think the black and white really portrays the emotion in this song about losing a loved one. There are some really nice scenic shots and close ups of Mike which I could also take into consideration when it comes down to designing my digipack. The close ups re really good and I love how his face is in contrast and the rest of the background is slightly out of focus. Here are a few print screens of my favourite shots from this video and have given me excellent inspiration for my digi-pack cover.

These two print screen I like because the mise en scene is excellent. I love the first image of Mike walking along a platform nearby to a river of some sort, with the beautiful mountain in the background. Obviously, when it comes to my digi-pack I need to keep my ideas realistic and that there are no mountains anywhere near I live! So, instead, I will focus on the river idea and perhaps get a photo of Elle walking long a bridge near the River Thames. The second image I really like because of the snow on the platform with the train pulling in. I love that the snow stands out in the black and white effect. However, because its February, the lack of snow is here so I will perhaps have a really unique image of Elle standing in the middle of train platform, perhaps smoking a cigarette, with the train pulling past her in the background.

These next two print screens were taken from the part of the video where Mike Skinner is sitting on the train. I love the image where is he looking out of the window and you can see his reflection on the window. This could be an option and if Elle is looking out of the window, it shows that she has a lot on her mind and this reflects with the title of the songs on her album. The second print screen is very relevant to our music video as he too, is looking at a Polaroid photo and looking back on a memory. I thought of another idea which I can do for my digi-pack is by taking a photo of someone holding Polaroid photo with a picture of Elle on it. This way, Elle is still included on the cover, but she is represented as a memory instead.

This screen shot is the favourite of all the ones I have taken from the video. I love it because it is both a scenic shot, but with Mike incorporated in to it in a clever way. I could perhaps take a picture similar to this, but use a car window for a reflection rather then the caravan/trailer shown in this shot.

The final print screen I have chosen is a close up of Mike's face. I really like this as the composition of the shot is perfect and within the headroom that is left, I will still be able to put in all the necessary details that re needed on a digi-pack such as the price, title etc. I also love the fact that in black and white, this shot will really capture the emotion in Elle's eyes and how she is feeling whilst singing the song "broken arrow".

Digi pack design Idea

Having completed some research into album covers and digi packs that are available, I am beginning to work on my own design fro what will be my digi-pack cover. I was thinking because we have chosen as a group to make our music video in black and white, for the front cover of the digi-pack I would like a shot of Elle against a background that will really make her stand out. I have taken a few print screens (which are in colour) which I will convert to black and white in photo shop of the sort of cover idea I am looking for. The printscreens I have included here are from "filming day 5 footage" where myself and Elle went and took some more close up shots, fter looking at the exam brief nd trying to ensure we had completed everything on the checklist in order to get the highest mrk and grade possible.

This is a shot of Elle against a brick wall. I love the composition of this shot and think when put in black and white it will look really effective. Also, I like the way Elle is looking directly towards the camera and this will bring the audience into buying the album more as it will catch their attention straight away.

This is another idea in which I can use. Rather then having Elle against a simple background, I may use this shot of her leaning against the white gate and looking down. I like the fact that she is looking down as this is showing the expression of how she is feeling in this album, as most of the songs are emotional and about love and feelings. I also like that Elle, the focus, is in the foreground and yet the background of the shot is slightly unfocused. This will look perfect in black and white for what I want on my digi-pack cover.


Of the three print screens, this is my favourite. When in black and white, the contrast of the white wall will really make Elle stand out. I also like how the rule of thirds is composed in this shot as there is space either side of her and also enough head room. In these spaces I will include the elements that re also included in a digi pack such as the bar code, album name/title with the artist's etc.

So, from my research I have decided that my image on the my digi-pack will definitely be black and white and will include an image of Elle with a certain background, being it a brick wall with great composition, or leaning against a gate, with a good background.