Album Cover Research/Planning

Magazine album covers

In this post I will be looking at the conventions of a magazine advertisements.

Jesse J Who You Are:

This magazine advertisement covers all the conventions that you expect to see for an artists upcoming album.

The first convention is it has the name of the band/performer. In this case the artist is Jessie J you would expect to see this because the artist will want to work on there image and getting seen by the public. This would be very important for somebody like Jessie J especially because she isn't like other pop stars in the way that she has a unique style and way of acting.  

Another convention is seeing the album name. This is a very important for somebody trying to promote something as you will want to know what it is that they are promoting and trying to sell. Otherwise people may not want to buy it.

Another convention is seeing the record label name and logo. You would see this because it will mean that you are seeing what label they are part of and what label is producing the music. This will also give you some clue to the type of music the artist makes.

Eminem Encore:

Again this magazine follows all of the conventions that the first album followed.

You can see the record label. And for Eminem who has his own record label this will mean that he will also get a chance to promote himself and his label as more people will see it.

You can see the artist as well which is a convention this will mean like Jessie J he will be getting in the public eye a lot more. Also by wearing a suit it shows that he is not like other rappers and can be seen as different as this is not what you expect to see from somebody in the hip hop genre to wear.

The last convention is seeing the name of the album. This is called encore which has connotations of meaning that the audience want to carry on performing meaning that he feels blessed to have fans that are so loyal.  



Album magazine advertisement - Zak Swindell

With this first magazine advertisement for the cover of Eminem's new album "Recovery" straight away we can see that there is a lot of space in this image, a reason for this could be because looking back at the name of the album cover we can link these two together and say that with the artist on the advert we can say that this recovery could be linking in with Eminem meaning that more emotion and thought has gone into this advert to really show to people what this album is about. Key things such as the colour theme and also the costume of the artist it could be suggested that in this specific album their will be much more emotion and also more darker subjects and situations which could be discussed in his songs.Other information is placed on this advertisement such as the release date for the album, this allows the fans of Eminem to know when the album is released so they can go out and buy it. Other information such as the single of "not afraid" this gives the fans more information about the album which could mean that if they like that song then there could be others which they might like so this could mean more albums sold.

 

This magazine advertisement for Lana del reys album called "Born to die" With this advertisement we can see that the colour theme is bright and colourful linking in to the type of music which this artist provides. Some conventions which are followed in this advertisement are that the artist's name is on the advert, also the name of the album is on the advert "Born to die" also an image of the artist is at the centre of the advert. Extra information is placed on this advert such as the date of the albums release which allows the artists fans to know when they can buy the album. If we look at the artist we can see that with the shirt she is wearing and the make up we can see that she looks formal which isn't linking towards her music, a reason why she could be shown in this way is because of the album name "Born to die" is more serious and has much more meaning to it.

 

With this magazine of Tinie Tempah the magazine advert has an eye-catching layout and colour scheme. The background of the advertisement relates to space and has quite an futuristic theme. This has been done because the title of the album is Discovery and so it suggests something different and new in his album. With the advertisement the way the artist has merged his face in with the Milky Way, it allows the artist to stand out and it allows the reader of the magazine to instantly recognizes him and may want to buy his new album. The design links in with Tinie Tempah’s signature logo of his name as well as his number one single Written in the Stars this allows people who are reading to recognise and show of the fact that the album has number one singles on it encouraging people to buy it and listen. The date that the album is set to be due for is also on the advert in bold and bright numbers. This allows the readers and also his fans know when it is available to buy.

Construction Post - Taking photos for the album cover

In this construction post I'll be discussing when me and Robbie went to purley arcade to get some pictures for our album cover. A problem which we faced with this task was that both our artists couldn't come with us to purley because of personal reasons so me and Robbie though that we would still go there and take pictures. Below are some of the pictures which we took, from this we can take some ideas which will take in for the photos which we shoot with the actual artists. For next time we need to make sure that both the artists can come with us so the pictures we take can be used for the actual video.

when getting the images for our album cover we need to make sure that we have the artists in the shot also to have a more variety of images for example at a different location and also maybe different variety of shots types. Maybe having creative crops and costume that will make our album look more creative.

Construction post Greenwich- Michael

In this post I will be discussing our time filming at Greenwich foot tunnel. I will be explaining what was good about the shots and what wasn't so good about the shots.

Greenwich foot tunnel was a very successful filming session. The trip to Greenwich helped us gain more shots for the video other than just green screen footage. It allowed us to get footage at a different and unique location as well as having the sort of look that we wanted from the video.

Shot of the tunnel from behind the camera

We filmed some footage along the stairs of the video and along the tunnel its self, By doing this it really allows us to have some change in the video and not just looking at the same things for the length of the video.

Shot of performers from an angle 

Negatives of the session. Unfortunately when we got to the tunnel there was a lot of posters around therefore we had to be very careful when filming to not include these in the shots. Another problem was there was a fair few people that was using the tunnel therefore we had to do a lot of waiting. And the last problem was we was only allowed an hour in the tunnel therefore we had to rush an awful lot meaning we made a few mistakes.

Album Covers conventions-Michael Clack

In this post I will discussing various different album cover.

Construction post album cover

Album cover designs Zak Swindell

These are the images which i drew for our album cover with these images i had to come up with designs which could be potentially used for the actual album cover. with the designs i tried to draw all my images around an arcade machine theme. For example i drew a shot of the screen of the machine and the name of the artists and also the album are on the screen. Other images which i drew was the two artists have there faces on the screen. The reason why i drew these were because i tried to link the album cover theme with the main song of techno girl because in that video we have a technology theme and video games loads of young people can relate to it.

In this post when we start to get the images for our album cover we as a group need to make sure that each image we use looks creative and appealing. ways in which we could do this is by doing what i have done above and use bright colours also being creative with the shot types and also the theme of the album cover.

Album Cover Plan

Album Cover Conventions

Album cover conventions - Zak Swindell

The titles for our music video

These are the titles which i have made for our opening title for our pop music video. With the two which i have created me and my group didn't know what one to choose. 

What went well when making these titles are that i got a creative font which suited our theme of video games. Also with the effects i managed to add creative movement to the titles meaning that when the titles are on screen they are looking creative an effective.

With these titles we hope to have them in the pop music video i feel that they will both make our music video much more creative meaning that we could get potentially more marks .

Shooting Schedule 2

This is our second shooting schedule we had to make a second one because with the first we had some problems and we wasn't able to keep to the schedule that we originally created. So as a group we made a new one which we have managed to keep.

With this new shooting schedule it allowed us to plan more future dates for our filming plus it has allowed to plan for new scenes in which the previous shooting schedule we havent discussed any dates and times for.

With this shooting schedule we need to make sure that we try and stick to it because it will end up like the last one which when we didn't film on most of the days which we planned to. To make sure we stick to it we need to be more organised as a group and also make sure to remind each other when we are filming and also what we need to take and what were actually filming.

Creating The Titles In Photosop For Our Music Video

First font created i managed to get a font which symbolizes our video game theme, with this i played around with photoshop and changed the font size and searched for a variety of different colours. When doing this i learned more about using photoshop which was a positive for me.

Some problems which i had with this was that because I'm not that good with Photoshop so finding all the effects was difficult but i feel that now I've managed to make this opening title I've learned much more.

Other problems which i had was that was deciding the colour for the title as you can see below i went from grey, blue and also green.

Finally i managed to create this font i managed to cross the colours of grey and also red to give it a technological feel. Me and my group decided with this style and colour theme for this font because we feel it will be the most effective for our pop music video.

Album Cover Research POP

This is the album cover research analysis of Katy Perry's album 'One of the Boys' which is of the POP genre.

Filming at Greenwich Zak Swindell

In this construction post i'll be showing and discussing what we did when we filmed in the Greenwich underground footpath. By the images below we managed to get a good amount of footage which we can use for our pop music video. But there's a chance that we might have to go back because we might have to get a bit more footage to fill out the time of the pop music video.

From this shooting session we can take a lot of positives, for example we got more footage which we can include in our 2nd draft, the shots we got bring more exciting and creativity to our pop music video. This footage that we got now brings more to our pop music video which will hugely help us for when it comes to trying to get a high mark.

If we do go back to get some more footage we would like to get some more in the elevator this is because most of the footage that we got was on the staircase and also the actual footpath, the elevator looked good on camera but we ran out of time to get a good amount done so getting footage in the elevator would be something that we would try and get done.

Getting to Greenwich

Animatic Feedback - Zak Swindell

This is the feedback for the animatic me and my group made. From looking over at all of the responses to the questions that we asked, a high amount of the responses contained positive feedback which is a good sign, there are some things that we need to think about improving on, for example at some stages of the animatic it didn't make that much sense so for the actual music video we need to improve on that.

with this we can look at what negative feedback we got and make improvements so we can get a better overall make meaning a higher grade. when looking at any negative feedback we can go back to the animatic and make the changes which are needed.

Talent Release Form - Zak Swindell

In this task we had to get our artists to sign these talent release forms agreeing to be the artists in our pop music video. As you can see below both artists have signed our release forms agreeing to be the artists in our music video.

Music Video Draft

This is the music video draft with only green screen footage. From this we can evaluate the what we have done so far.

Many things did not go out as planned for example, we do not have our original performer so we have decided to go ahead with two new artists for the music video.

A positive aspect of this draft is that it is still based around our concept idea and we are still filming shots that were planned on the storyboard.

However, this green screen footage needs to be re shot because there are some issues with the framing and the focusing which involves the use of the camera. To improve on this the camera can be turned on to automatic focusing so it is always focused throughout the song and the artist's movements are always in focused. With the framing there needs to be less headroom at the top for some of the shots which will be done next time we reshoot

Also the artists performance needs to be emphasised more and have to be more enthusiastic so they look like actual pop artists. To emphasise that they are pop artists the performers could have accessories to wear such as glasses, hats or brighter clothing to give them that unique pop artist look.

Other areas of improvement include shadows and creases that come up on the coloured backgrounds. This can be improved when editing the music video and will be done when everything has been reshot.

Album Cover Research - Zak Swindell

Music video Draft 1 - Zak Swindell

Album cover analysis- Michael Clack

This is my analysis of One Directions album cover

Music video first draft-Michael

This is the first draft for our music video with some things that we have done well and some things that we will need to improve on.

Positives:

The first positive for our first draft is the costume that we have used is very similar to the type that we planned on using. We planned on using very colorful shirts and we was able to use these we feel that the costume has a pop looking feel to it with a few additions in terms of accessories but the basic costume is what we wanted to have.

Another positive is the framing for the shots of myself are good and every thing is in frame. This is very good because it will just give the music video that touch of professionalism. If we was to have lots of space around the artist and above the head it could look very unprofessional and wouldn't get the best grade.

We also had a go at trying out the green screen. In terms of the green screen we had no idea how to use it therefore it was always going to be difficult. Therefore by getting the shots done and some sort of effect on it we have a little experience now and it should be a lot easier as we go forward.

Negatives:
Lack of shots. We have a very low amount of shots and this is something that will need to be changed for the final deadline as it will look very unprofessional otherwise. We have planned to shoot at two more locations therefore it will look at lot better when it is finished.

Changes of colour in the green screen. As you can see there are various different colours in the green screen which doesn't look very professional. Therefore we will need to change that. When shooting again we will need to look out for things like creases and shadows which has caused this colour change.

The artists in the video look do not look very professional at the moment. This is something that we will need to improve in the next shoots

Construction post - Green Screen

In this task we showed that we could set up the equipment for the green screen. So for this we had to set up the greens screen and the lights. Below is the proof of us setting up the equipment. In this task we learned how to correctly set up the green screen and the lights. Now as a group we can create the set for the green screen

For our pop music video, our theme is of a video game so by using the green screen we will be able to do this effectively. We will be adding movements which the artists will be doing throughout the music video such as hand swipe from left to right, a finger press to show a push of a button and a drag motion.

Some of the commands which i described above are shown in this test shot video, With the green screen me and my group want to give it a futuristic feel so when we start to edit then we will be putting in these effects.

Construction post- green screen

This is us setting up the green screen. To set up the green screen we had to get the screen matched up at the same height at both sides. We also had to make sure that we placed the lights in the correct place to minimize the shadows from the lights as much as we could.The reason we had to do this is because when editing the footage it may recognize the shadows as a different colour.

We will be using the green screen to help develop our theme for the video our theme is a video game therefore we will have the artist moving objects around the screen such as icons and words. As we will have commands for the artist to follow.

Setting up equipment for Green Screen

In this task we showed that we could set up the equipment for the green screen. So for this we had to set up the greens screen and the lights. Below is the proof of us setting up the equipment. In this task we learned how to correctly set up the green screen and the lights.

For our pop music video, our theme is of a video game so by using the green screen we will be able to do this effectively. We will be adding movements which the artists will be doing throughout the music video such as hand swipe from left to right, a finger press to show a push of a button and a drag motion.

Equipment Permission

In this task i had to send an email regarding me and my group renting the equipment to film our pop music video.

This is the email which i sent regarding me and the group using the schools equipment, as you can see below i requested the DSLR.

Props

We will be using this as a prop when to represent technology.

This will be filled up with water and used as a prop to throw water over the artist to show a bit of the narrative.

The artist will sit on this chair when we film part of the music video in the school.

All of these phones will be used to represent technology as well as using the Apple Mac.