C.D. cover & Article

We completed our music video last Friday the 28th of November, so now were working on completing our other tasks of a c.d cover and an advertisment in a magazine to promote our band which is called Hoku!, as you can see from our previous post we have done some background research on c.d covers and all the different ones you can get, whether it have images of the artists, of a photo of scenery, we decided since Charlotte the perfomer in our music video is in it through out, she looks like the singer to the audience,

so it would only be right for her to be on the front of the C.D cover, and the storyline to be on it, so we were thinking to do half a face good girl and half a face bad girl alot like the Kings of Leon C.D cover which we all agreed stood out the most, we wouldn't use all the idea simply use the half a face, we are now deciding on the back of the c.d cover, as we have only got one song. do we make up other songs, or do we carry on the photo to the back cover. The next post will show the research we carried out on the back of C.D covers

Whilst were completing the C.D cover we will be comming up with ideas for the article, that will capture people's attention and make them want to buy the C.D and that promote the band. using images and Charlotte as the performer.

Here are some idea's of different lay outs we could use for our magazine article. Either we use a large image and write across it, or we use more text and lots of smaller images, either way i feel images will be needed, as when your reading your attention gets pulled to thoose articles with images, and not to much to thoose which are just text.

Here are some further idea's that we found in Kerrang magazine, that we have scanned in, theese are the adverts we gained the most from, about what to write and what kind of image to use.

Kerrang Advertisments

Final Idea's

When we were making our own Magazine advertisments, we had a choice of 2 this one and our final one, we decided on the other one becuase it looked more proffesional, even though we did like this one, we felt a verticle one would stand out more and the other photo, where Charlottes face is alot closer to the camera captures your attention alot more than this one.

The NME, advert we had on the other one looked more proffesional on the other one, and the albumn cover stood out alot more. We agreed on the other one as a group.

Cd Front Cover Research

We have been researching an idea for our cd cover promoting the song "Perfect Day" which we have created a video for. Our intention is to use a photograph of the girl that acted in our video, as the artist.

Here are examples of some front covers from our research. Ideally we would like to use the idea of these covers where the lead singer is the main focus of attention which creates a star personna to the viewer.

Although we have decided to use the overall concept of this album cover where the main image of the singer has been distorted into sections making the image different and creating different conceptions of the cover. This makes it more interesting and unique. The idea of this cd cover would work well however we plan to keep the image simple by just using the face of the singer and not including other animal faces edited into the photo.

The text on this second cover has influenced our decision to use a simple text within our cd cover as it doesnt take too much detail away from the main image, is easy to read and stands out.

Costumes

For our music the idea of the good girl bad girl, we decided on the costumes, and how they would contrast, which would fit in with the mis-en-scene of the video. The bad girl would be wearing a biker leather jacket, mainly black clothing and the good girl would be wearing a floral dres, with high heels, the contrast will be shown on screen.

Also towards the end of the video, we decided to add a new scene where both good and bad girl will walk past a homeless person, and show there different reactions, which will emphasise there personalities. and portray to the audience more about our story line. so the good girl will stop and give the homeless person money & food. where as the bad girl will take the money which they are begging for. For this scene we had to use costumes. so we wore what we thought would represent a homeless person and tried to create a good mis-en-scene around the person.

Here are some shots we took of Charlotte wearing both of the outfits.

Good girl

Bad Girl

shots

Through out our music video, we have used a variety of shots, as using the same shot would not hold the audiences attention, so we use a variety of mid-shots, long shots, close ups and even extreme close ups on charlottes eye, each shot is different from the next and therefore will capture the audiences attention and hold it. when we have used close ups, we have added them altogether with a fast editing speed.

We have done this becuase at the beginning of our song it starts out with a slower tempo and as it gets faster towards the end our cuts and editing becomes faster to pick up with the tempo of the song. But we feel that the longer shots at the beginning of the video are needed, as it helps to explain the story line, and what is happening withing the shot needs to be shown to the audience.

Today sir helped us with our split screen shot, as we have attempted a couple before but we have done them outside, even though we did the shots one after another the lighting had changed in thoose seconds, making the shots out of sync and the camera also had moved, which made the shot useless and we couldnt slot it together with the one below. So when we came to editing the split screen again, we had it perfectly and used an effect called ........

we only have minor peices of editing left to do now, its simply making sure each shot fits in with the peice of music and that each makes sense, with the previous shot.

Editing continued...

The group has decided that to enhance the music video's presentation, the use of effects would be significant, and also to manipulate the shots to make it appear as if both characters, the bad girl and the good girl, are in the same shot. This is what occurs at the end, to educate the viewer about the concept of "bad" and "good" being in everyone, and that these two characters seen throughout the music video, are merely two sides to the same person. However, this only reveals itself at the end, as the video comes together (as a sort of play on words). However, there is one shot at the very beginning of the music video, of the "two" characters in the mirror, and this is a mere understanding given to the viewer as to the fact that they are supposed to be identified as two separate beings.

Changes to our original idea

We have decided to change our original idea of having a performance element fitted within the story of our music video as we felt that the storyline shots were strong enough on there own and looked more professional and realistic. This means our video will focus only on the "good girl, bad girl" storyline.

Our song choice allows us not to use a singer and this decision makes our video more simpler and means we can focus on creating stronger shots of the story to use throughout the work.

Good girl, Bad girl.

For the main character of our video we decided to use our actress Charlotte and dress her in a good girl bad girl costume. We used a stereotypical view of a good girl and bad girl attire for the dress code.

As the good girl we decided to dress Charlotte in a flowery dress and high heels and having a dignified, neat appearance to fit into the mise en scene of her role.
As the bad girl we decided to dress Charlotte in a leather jacket and boots with messy hair and melted makeup to fit into the mise en scene and to show the audience her attitude.
We felt that these costumes fitted in well with the idea of the video, which is where we decided to show how a perfect day could go one of two ways.

Techniques

As a group, we have decided to add in particular special effects to boost the presentation of the music video. Tying in to the plot of the music video of a good girl and a bad girl we have come to the conclusion that we could include the two girls (who are in actual fact the same actress) in the same shot. This will require green screening two separate shots of Charlotte (our actress) in the individual attire mentioned in the previous blog. Moreover, the basis of this is to, in essence, combine their appearances and produce a "middle ground" version of both the good girl and bad girl to put across the point that there is "good" and "bad" in everyone.

Editing so far.

We have been editing for a while now, each time we look in detail at the footage you have uploaded onto the computer and see whether any of it would be suitable for our Timeline.

We have orginised some of our timeline but we, need to wait untill next weeks lesson untill we can upload the footage of me singing to the camera, as the only shots we have on our timeline are thoose of charlotte playing the "bad girl" and "good girl" so once we have deffiantly decided on where they shall be placed we will then place my singing around the storyline. Keep cutting back to the singing in the chorus and different sections to add varity to the music video, keep the audiences attention.

Becuase our song choice was Hoku the song isnt that fast, so the edits in it will not be as fast as those for a Justine timberlake music video, we will still have alot of edits but due to our song choice there may be less than others, as were still wanting to get across our story line.

Screengrab Locations

These screengrabs display a contrast of locations, consisting of either dark, dingy backgrounds or brighter, "cheery" backgrounds. It is due to the role of "bad girl" and "good girl" that the group decided to take up this direct juxtaposition of locations, so to match their personalities in a way. The mise-en-scene therefore represents that of the characters personas (both acted by Charlotte) and throughout the duration of the music video, begin to intertwine both types of locations until the characters are seen in the same shot, towards the end.

singing

We have a story line throughout our music video which is the contrast of the good/bad girl. But we felt that maybe a singer would be needed so today we went out to film me being the main singer, using all different camera angles& movement. From watching Hoku perfect days video we attempted to take inspiration from it & add it to our music video. Here are some screen grabs of the singer.

We liked how the singer was in a varity of locations whilst singing, so decided we too would try a varity from a park to a main street & garden, each having a different backgroung and creating a different mis-en-scene for the audience, and keep there attention on the video. making them want to watch more & not having to repeat scenes.