Sample Album Cover

Today in lesson I made my own sample album cover in order to prepare me for making the real one. I used photoshop to do the editing. I used one of the photos in which I was in from my photo shoot. I then went on google and searched for a background and put the original photo on top of it with a bit of editing. I used the Parental Advisory logo as I just wanted to put different symbols which I had seen on other album covers as this was just a practice.

Photo Shoot In Media Lesson

Today we had a surprise photo shoot instead of a lesson, no one knew about it so no one was really prepared . We were told to pose in different positions. The photo shoot was to prepare for our album covers so that we could edit it on photoshop and have an idea of what our album cover might be or how we would want it.
Below are some of the pictures that we took.


Me And My Group

Preliminary Task- F*ck Education

Below is my finished Preliminary task

Editing Preliminary Task

Today I started editing my preliminary task using final cut pro. We were told to use all the shots that we collected as a group and produce a music video individually. Using final cut I looked for the clips that I wanted to use and started editing. This really helped me with my editing skills as I got to play about with final cut using different effects.

Preliminary Task - Planning And Filming

We were set a task to create a music video for a song called "The F Word". Our teacher wanted the term F**k education to be used throughout our video. We got split into groups to start filming. As as group we had to plan what kind of shot as we will be using in the video and the different locations. We thought of ways in which students could show that they disliked education. We thought of many ideas.

When we started filming we filmed differnt scenes of students terrorising teachers,littering the school and saying "f**k education". I found this very fun as we got to mess around the college.

Below is the camera which we used : SonyHDV180i.

Practice Taking Pictures For Our Album Cover

Today in groups we had to take pictures of things which relates to our music video. As a group we took pictures of people and objects to represent scenes in our video.


Flowers
In our music video we will be using flowers as a prop. The flowers will represent the romance between the couple.

Table for two

We took pictures of a table in our college bistro this is to represent a table for two which is the couple however no one is sitting down as the couple are no longer together. It shows what they could have had.


A man playing the guitar

Whilst using the camera we took a landscape photo of one of the music teachers in our college. This represents our artists as in the song the guitar is being played. This gave us an ideas on our albums covers.


Close up shot of table for two

Analyzing Album Covers Who Are Similar To My Artist.

Kings of leon- Only By The Night

This album cover is quite creative and catches the audiences eye because the image is very unusual. I like this as it makes the artist look interesting which will make people want to buy the CD. I think that kings of leon have chosen this as their album cover as the image dominates the cover and they want the audience to notice this and see that they are a very unique artists.

James Morrison - Songs For You, Truths For Me

I analyzed in depth James Morrison's album cover as he is similar to my artist. I wanted to see what similar artist's have in common, whether there is anything that all pop rock artists have in common. This album cover is very laid back and casual. From this I can automatically tell what kind of artist he is and what genre he does.

I want my album cover to be similar to this as I want the audience to automatically be able to tell what genre my music artist does.

Album Covers

An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially-released audio recording product, or album. The cover main purposes are to advertise and identify the contents of the music product, to convey the artistic aspirations of the original artists and In reproductions of the artwork, to serve as a primary image in the promotional efforts surrounding the product, as an identifiable image associated with it.

As we now have our artist and song, We are thinking of ideas for our Album cover . As a class we analysed different album covers.

Oasis album cover

Oasis did not use images of themselves on their album cover. This shows that they are established artists and do not need photos of themselves to help their music sell as they are mainstream and excepted globally.

One of the album covers which we analyzed was Jay-z,The Blueprint 3. We looked at his old album covers and compared it to his new album cover. We could see from analyzing that now that Jay-z is an well established artist he no longer has to put a portrait of him self in order to sell. Before he was based on hip/hop and rap but now he is crossing over to different genres and working with different artist.

Old Jay-Z album cover before he was well established

Jay-Z new album cover

The colour white on this album cover represents pure. The 3 strips represents the number 3 and the musical instruments are their to show that it is an music artist. Whilst analyzing this album cover I saw that the single of one of the tracks on the album, Run this town has also got three red strips on the front cover. This is brand continuity as the album and the single both have three strips this automatically lets us know that they are linked.

Jay-Z Run this town single cover

There is also brand continuity in this poster

Pre Production Work

Part of our production was to do a Storyboard and Treatment.


We had to draw a story board of our music video. This was a step by step drawing of the different scenes and what will be happening in the scenes.


In my media lesson, the group and I discussed how we were going to film the music video and what the scenes would look like along with how the camera shots and mise en scene would be presented in the music video.


Scenes 1-6

Drawings 1-4 shows Charlie Green singing the lyrics while playing the piano in the theatre. Drawing 5 shows Charlie green In Alexandra Park, walking with his girlfriend and in the 6th drawing , a photographer who approaches Charlie and his girlfriend and asks to take a picture of them.


Scenes 7-12

The drawings from 7-12 shows Charlie the singer in the theatre, Another setting the bistro with the camera on the table to signify the camera the photographer used to take the photo of Charlie and his girlfriend and the last few drawings will be set in Alexandra Park where while walking the photographer is watching Charlie's girlfriend who turns around and is smiling at him.

Scenes 13-19
The drawings from 13-19 show two wine glass cups and a bottle of wine that represent Charlie and his girlfriend planning to go out to dinner. A medium shot of Charlie's girlfriend walking in the corridor towards her and Charlie's bedroom in their apartment, Charlie outside the apartment, a close up of Charlie singing verse 2 in music and a shot of Charlie walking towards his and his girlfriends bedroom.

Scenes 20-26

The pictures from 20-26 show Charlie walking into his bedroom finding his girlfriend cheating on him with the photographer, an over the shoulder shots of Charlie looking at his girlfriend, a point of view shot of Charlie's girlfriend receiving a text stating 'it's over'. A picture which is also another point of view shot of Charlie writing a letter to his girlfriend stating it’s too late to apologize.

Treatment

My group put together all our ideas and formed one treatment. Our treatment includes a step by step guideline of what will be in our music video. It contains the different camera shots that we will be using and gives a detailed explanation of what will be happening and where. I hope that when making our video it will follow the guidelines of our treatment.

Similar Texts - Music Videos

Similar Artist and Music Video

A similar artist to my artist Charlie Green is James Morrison .James Morrison is a BRIT Award- winning English singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rugby, Warwickshire. In 2006, his debut single "You Give Me Something" became a hit in Europe, Australia, and Japan, peaking in the top five in the UK and New Zealand. His debut album "Undiscovered", debuted at the top the UK Albums Chart. He released his second album Songs for You, Truths for Me in 2008, which entered the top five in the UK as well as topping the Irish Albums Chart.



Charlie Green is a pop rock mainstream artist who is a singer and plays instruments such as the guitar and the piano which is similar to James Morrison.He also has the same style of fashion in comparison to James, he dresses casual in T-shirts, jeans ,and a casual jacket .


James Morrison- You Give Me Something

This music video takes place in a studio where morrison is seated in a chair, surrounded by microphones while singing and playing guitar. His backing orchestra plays behind curtains that show only their shadows. Watching him are a woman with a lollipop , a group of jump rope girls, and a group of show girls. This music video is similar to the video me and my group want to make. In this video there are many shots of Morrison playing his guitar , this is very similar to my video as we will be filming shots of Charlie green in a theatre with his guitar and piano whilst singing in front of curtains. There are different scenes in this video which represents the video such as the girls skipping. In my video me and my group will be using different props to represent the song such as a letter which says "I'm sorry from Lisa"

Similar Music Video

Timbaland feat One Republic - Apologize

This is not the original video for this song. This is a similar video to the one me and my group are making. Throughout the video props are used to represent the song. In the video a letter is being written which states its too late to apologize. Also flowers , glass cups and close up shots of a person playing the piano. In our video we will be using similar props in order to represent different things happening for example we will use the flowers to represent the romance between the two people however at the end the flowers will be dead this will represent the feelings between the couple which will no longer be there as he has not accepted her apology.

Eamon- F**k it ( I Don't Want You Back

This video is similar to me and my groups video because of the concept. Both videos have a similar concept as the girl cheats and the boy does not want her back.

Artist Background Informtation

Background Information

The music artist I am creating for my media production is a solo artist called Charlie Green. Categorised under the genre of rock/pop music.

Charlie Green is a young British singer-song writer, who plays musical instruments such as the piano and guitar. Born in Enfield, England, North London on 9th September 1989 to an Afro Caribbean British mother who was a school teacher and father who worked as a music producer. His passion for music became evident from a young age when he started taking music seriously, becoming fond of musical instruments such as the piano and the guitar, his parents assisted him on playing the instruments, which he entered numerous amounts of singing and talent contests at school and the youth club.

Going to university to study performing arts, Charlie stimulated a passion to write songs about his relationship with his first love Lisa and other girls along with what he learnt from it, and this triggered him to write songs about his life growing up as a child losing his parents and what he experienced through his teenage life. As he connected to social websites, Charlie started promoting his music through face book and MySpace and then later was signed to Island records group. As he caught the attention of one of the music producers who was a big fan of his music.

One Republic - Apologize

Through looking at different music videos, as a group we decided to do this song as we all liked the song and could contribute different ideas for it.

One Republic - Apologize

"Apologize" is a pop/rock song written by One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder from the band's 2007 debut album "Dreaming out loud". The song explores the personal pain of multiple relationships gone awry and the necessity of moving on.

Artist Image

We had to create a look for out artist. We discussed as a group what we would like our artist to look like. We decided to look at other artists who we think our artists are similar to. in terms of style , Asher Roth and James Morrison.


Asher Roth is an American rapper. Asher Roth is very different to most rappers in terms of the way in which he dresses. You would expect him to wear baggy clothes and big chains around his neck however his image is far from that. His typical wardrobe is cardigans and jeans with neat trainers. By analyzing Asher Roth this showed me how stereotypical the media is because if I was to have a first impression on him I would never think that he was a rapper. From this I learnt that when choosing an image for my artist I do not have to base it on the genre of music he does because society is changing however it cant be too diverse from the genre.

James Morrison is an english singer. We choose to look at him as he had the look that we visualized. He dresses smart but casual and this is the type of look we think that our artist will fit.


We compared the genre of our artist to their style as we cannot really have a pop rock artist dressed in hoodies and gold chains. We decided we liked the Asher Roth look so when creating our artist we will make their style similar to his.

Music Videos

As a group we started looking at different artists and music videos. We used youtube to search for ideas that we could use for our final music video. I looked at different videos under a variety of genres.

Asher Roth- I Love College

Asher Roth is an hip- hop american rapper. I love college was his first singe which was released April 20th 2009. The song is about the college parties that he attended whilst as West Chester university. The single was produced by Mike Caren and Ben Allen. The music video was directed by Jonathan Lia and Scooter Braun. The video is set at a house party and features activities such as drinking,strip poker and hooking up. The target audience for this video is for people between the ages of 18-21. I liked the fact that this video was all about having fun.

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Young Jeezy - Put On

Young Jeezy, is an American rapper and member of the Hip-Hop group USDA and a former member of Boyz n Da Hood. music video is aimed at the 2008 recession. In the video, silver and black American flags are hung up around neighborhoods and businesses, representing change.

Trip To The Rich Mix Centre

Today we went on a trip to the Rich Mix arts centre in Bethnal Green. It was a trip for people who studied media. It was a day experience learning about old and new music videos and talking to music video directors. I had the opportunity to meet a producer from Warner Bros. Company, the CEO of OCR Media studies and a music director called Corin Hardy . The CEO of Media studies discussed different genre of music videos with us for example 50 Cent-Candy Shop .

The examiner gave us tips on making our music videos. We also had to do a task as a college. We had to make a treatment for a song which was given to us and at the end we got to watch what the actually video looked like, we also got to watch music videos made by people at other colleges.

I gained allot of knowledge on this trip which I can use when making my music video

Below are some of the videos we looked at:

Jay-Z - 99 Problems

50 Cent- Candy Shop

We looked at this video in relation to the cuts. This music video has many fast cuts.

The Beatles- Help

The Prodigy- Warriors dance

This is one of the videos we looked at directed by Corin Hardy.

Ben Peters : Music Video Director

Today in my media lesson we had the opportunity to meet an experienced music director that goes by the name of Ben Peters. He has worked with artist such as Davinche, N-Dubz, Bashy and Ghetts as well as many other artists. He talked to us about different jobs which are found on a video shoot set for example producer,cinematographer etc and what each job includes . He also taught us how to produce a treatment which refers to a description of the concept of the music video. Treatments are written to help people visualize what the video will look like.



As a music director one of Ben Peters role is to write treatments. He discussed with our class the process of him making treatments and showed us an example of a treatment that he had done for N-Dubz- I need you. he also showed us some videos which he had directed.

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Ben peters helped me to widened my knowledge and understanding on how music videos are made and what happens on a video shoot. I found it really helpful.


Below are some of the videos that he has directed:


N-Dubz- Wouldn't You




J2K -Danger

Ghetts- Sing For Me

History of Music Videos

A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. The origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the 1980s, when MTV based their format around the medium, and later with the launch of VH1.

Music videos use a wide range of styles of film making techniques, including animation, live action, filming, documentaries and non narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation and live action.

The first music video dates back to 1894 when sheet music publishers still ran the music business, Edward B. Masen and Joe Stern promoted sales of their song The Little Lost Child with a series of projected still images shown simultaneously with live performances and blurry animations of kittens; in what became a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song. This has been termed the first music video.

HISTORY OF MTV

MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. Today, MTV still plays a limited selection of music videos, but the channel primarily broadcasts a variety of popular culture and reality television shows targeted at young adults.

Before 1983, Michael Jackson also struggled to receive airtime on MTV. To resolve the struggle and finally "break the color barrier", the president of CBS records at the time, Walter Yetnikoff denounced MTV in a strong, profane statement, threatening to take away MTV's ability to play any of the record label's music videos. However, Les Garland, then acquisitions head, said he decided to air Jackson's "Billie Jean" video without pressure from CBS.This was contradicted by CBS head of Business Affairs David Benjamin in Vanity Fair. In any case, MTV began showing the "Billie Jean" video in regular rotation in 1983, forming a lengthy partnership with Jackson and helping other black music artists.

Michael Jackson was the first black artist shown on MTV. Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 14-minute music video released on December 2, 1983 and directed by John Landis, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jackson. Often referred to as the greatest music video ever,Thriller proved to have a profound effect on popular culture,and was named "a watershed moment for the music industry"

Brief Of Production Assignment

From what I understand the task that I have been given as part of my A2 media course is to create a promotion package for the release of an album , to include a music promo video together with a cover for its release as part of a CD package and a magazine advertisement for the CD.

The purpose of this unit is to use my ability to plan and construct media products using the appropriate technical and creative skill. I understand that I have to market a new artist to a target audience. When marketing my artist I need to ensure that there is a brand continuity through the three products. Everything on the CD cover must relate to the artist. The CD cover must signify the artist and there genre of music. When creating these three products to represent my artist I must encounter the artists look for example the style of clothes they wear, and props which may include musical instruments.

My AS Media Assignment

Last years task was to create a new fiction film, lasting a maximum of two minutes. In preparation for this we had to do an preliminary exercise, which was a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door,crossing a room and siting down in a chair opposite another character, to whom she/he exchanges a couple lines of dialogue.

Last year while filming there were a few things that did not go well. My group had problems with our actors/actress's as we had to keep changing them as some of them were unavailable when we needed them. Due to that problem, we had to start filming again which was very time consuming. Other problems that came about was that I did not contribute as much as the other members of my group as I was not very good at acting, and there was people in my group who could film better than me, so we left the filming to them. However this helped me develop my filming skills as members of my group showed me how to film. Other problems which occured were that our characters found it hard to learn their script. This year i plan to make sure these problems do not arise, by ensuring we have a good plan before filming.

As a group we had to do pre-production paper work for assessment, Which included a plan of everything to do with our film.We had to do three story boards, a two page script, two page synopsis, four main character biographies ,write three locations that we wish to use and essential props we will be using.

Filming was the main task as part of our production. While filming there were many codes and conventions that we had to follow. The film that my group made was a horror, so every time we were filming we had to follow the codes and conventions of a horror film. Our film was different to a normal horror film as it was similar to the blair witch project which is n a documentary format. Editing was probably the hardest part of the production. In a group whilst editing allowed me to understand how what kind of cuts should be use on certain types of scenes and how to use sound and the pace of the film to set the mood. This year we will be using he same program as last year which is final cut pro.

Final Cut Pro 5

This year I will make sure that the problems which occurred last year will not arise again. This year should be easier than last year as I will use all the things I learnt last year and apply them to my production this year.