Complete Magazine Advert For Music Video

Below is my completed ancillary task (magazine cover). Within lower research and development (shown in lower posts within my blog) you can see my 1st draft for my magazine cover. However after discussion with teachers and work mates we agreed the concept of the iPAD wasnt evident within the advert to attract a large demographic.

Complete Music Video

Lyrics, Meaning & Orignal Video

Lyrics:

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Might as well fall in.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Might as well fall in.

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Fallin.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm lovin, fallin, lovin, lovin.

Might as well love you.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm turnin, turnin, turnin, turnin,

Might as well turn in.

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Might as well fall in.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Might as well fall in.

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Fallin.

I don't know about my love.

I don't know about my lovin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm lovin, lovin, lovin, lovin.

Might as well love you.

I don't know about my dreams.

I don't know about my dreamin anymore.

All that I know is

I'm fallin, fallin, fallin, fallin.

Might as well fall in.

Meaning:

For me i think this song is about a guy who has just met this girl, perhaps having recently ended a previous relationship, so his minds a bit everywhere ( I don't know about my love, I don't know about my lovin anymore) he maybe doubts his own judgement, doesnt know what he should be feeling etc.

But meets this girl, and is totally absorbed by her, and as much as he tries to figure his emotions out and be rational about it, he cant help but fall for her. (All that i know is im falling falling falling, might as well fall in).

What I find interesting is the title. The Wilhelm Scream is a stock sound byte that was original used in the movie Distant Drums in 1951 and was then recycled over and over in action films whenever someone got shot with an arrow or gun. Perhaps he's used this as a sort of dark and obscure bit of humour, as if to say, 'Oh great, here we go again'. And perhaps to say that he is being shot, perhaps by cupid's arrow... yet again and is apprehensive, as everyone relationship before has ended so, so badly.

Original Video:

Magazine Cover: Photoshop & Sketch

I originally sketched the below magazine cover for my music video. When drawing/sketching it i decided i would continue to use the colour scheme similar to my film and digi pack itself. I also planned to use the same font, in this way viewers and audiences can relate each advert/video/cd cover to each other. I also made sure to keep a small hint of what may be involved in the music video. As an example, to the left of my sketch you can see a hand holding something, this informs viewers/readers that the artist has a form of conceptual idea within the music video, however it doesn't reveal too much information. In addition, i have also sustained the circle logo (in the top right) with the artists name inside. This can also be seen on the CD cover itself. 

Below can be seen a general step by step of how i created my magazine cover on Adobe Photoshop. Rather than starting with a "fresh canvas" i decided to develop & Minipulate my current DigiPack Cd Cover into a magazine cover. Doing this allows me to alter yet remain the same theme consistantly, throughout all my producs of the music video. 

Below is my final Magazine cover advertising the release date of "James Blake's" "The Wilhelm Scream" album. I used a similar technique to Michael Jacksons "This Is It" advert. This "technique" is rather cleverly to keep a sleek & simple approach to the design (assuming the audience already know who the artist is). In this way i can keep an aesthetically pleasing advert with sufficient information (release date etc) without overloading text on the page. 

RESEARCH & PLANNING: Music Videos

 Performance, Narrative & Concept


Types of Music Video
Over the past 10 years, the development of music videos in the music industry has grown and changed immensely. New technology, abstract images and fresh ideas have encouraged artists these days to expand how they represent themselves in their music videos. 

There are three main types of music video; performance, narrative and concept. There are also a range of mixture and animated videos which are not as well known as a ‘type’ of music video.


Performance
A performance video focuses on showing footage of the artist or band either in a casual environment, i.e. socialising with friends, or performing, live performance or staged performance. This style of video uses the band/artist/group throughout the majority of the production and the artist, band members are often miming the words to the song. The genre of music where performance videos are common is indie and rock. The costing on this type of production are also most likely to be the lowest as the producers are in effect giving the audience the most realistic image of the band as it is only the band they are showing. The downside of this is that the band will need to be relatively established to pull off the video, or else interest will become saturated.

Concept

Concept videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. This unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in. Concept videos usually are combined with one of the other two styles as the market demands for greater accessibly rather than the somewhat niche that is pure concept art. A successful concept video will keep the audience entertained and constantly looking at what or who is on the screen. No particular genre or type of music is more likely to use concept videos, in fact a range of artists covering all genres have used concept/ art based videos.

Narrative
A song with a narrative based music video the song includes a narrative story of the lyrics/ words being acted out in some way. This style relies on imagery to produce a story for the audience to follow and some narrative videos include clips from films that the song has been featured in. This seems to be used a lot in slower songs, and often tend to be love stories

above shows famous rock band oasis member sitting on a vesper moped. This was part of a music video shot solely conceptual based (hence the artistic flare within the bikes design etc). 

Improvements to previous "Flaws" encountered

In regards to the issues and flaws faced i encountered whilst filming, i have substancially managed to build on them and simply 'rule them out'. Below are a list of the technical issues faced and further below them are the techniques i used to overcome them:


issues
1) The faces where of different sizes on the Ipad screen. 
2) The faces where of different alignment on the Ipad screen
3) The Ipad itself was either too dim or too bright in comparison to the foreground.


improvements
1) Whilst editing footage (pre ipad transfer) i aligned each head to the exact size)
2) Whilst editing footage (pre ipad transfer) i aligned each head precisely in the centre of screen.
3. i managed to gain control of brightness of the ipad and judge what locations where too bright/dim for the ipad (i generally found the lighter the foreground and actors body the lighter the ipad should be (visor verser).


Below can be seen 3 images of the newly shot ipad & face combination. Make sure to analyse facial alignment and brightness of ipad in comparison to body. (Also compare image improvements to previous post regarding "Flaws").

Technical / Filming "flaws" I Encountered

During the process of filming we encountered & discovered a number of technical issues which we soon tackled. Each issue was majorly related with the "IPAD FACE SHOTS" which was simply a video on the ipad of faces singing lyrics to a song. However after our first day of filming we discovered a few issues:


1) The faces where of different sizes on the Ipad screen. 
2) The faces where of different alignment on the Ipad screen 
3) The Ipad itself was either too dim or too bright in comparison to the foreground.


Examples of each of these issues can be seen below within the images. Please be sure to note all 3 issues mentioned above when analysisng. 

 Above the head displayed on the ipad is far too small to even remotely look realistic/believable. 

 Above the ipad is not held in alignment to the actual actors body (breaks sense of realism)

Above the head on the ipad is too small & actors body is not lit well enough in comparison to the bright Ipad screen. 

Andrew Goodwin

1. Andrew Goodwin’s Theory (Applied to music videos)
2. How to analyse music videos
3. Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look out for which are:
   • . Thought beats – Seeing the sound
   • . Narrative and Performance
   • . The Star Image
   • . Relation of Visuals to Song
   • . Technical Aspects of Music Video
4. Thought Beats – Seeing the sound in your head
   • First step is to look at the music itself. We must take into account the structure of the song for e.g. Chorus/Verses .
   • Secondly , the voice of the song. The artists voice is extremely unique and can form identification or trademarks that work well with the star image. Roland Barthes theory of the Grain of voice can be related to this. He sees the singing voice as an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.
   • Thirdly, Goodwin also points out the artists mode of address. Songs can be seen as stories and the artist the storyteller, making the music video a two communication device, them telling us a story and us listening.
5. • Songs fail to give us the complete narrative!
   • We only tend to get a gist of the meaning of the song and then tend to make up our own idea of what is being told.
   • Goodwin explains that music videos should ignore common narrative. It is important in their role of advertising .
   • Music videos should coherent repeatability . Narrative and performance work hand in hand it makes it easier for the audience to watch over and over without loosing interest.
   • The artist acting as both narrator & participant helps to increase the authenticity however the lip sync and other mimed actions remains the heart of music videos. The audience need to believe this is real.
   Narrative & Performance
6. Star Image The star image is another vital aspect of music videos. Meta narrative which is a big story that describes the development of the star over time, it has an important part to play in the music video production process.
7. Relation of Visuals to Song
   • There are three ways in which music videos work to promote a song
   Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics & genre, this is the most common This is similar to repeatability. Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our vision This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored
8. Technical Aspects Technical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mise- en -scene editing, sound and special effects. Speed, camera movement, editing , cutting and post production are all forms of use of camera. Lighting and colour help set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect Mise-en-scene, the setting of music videos is vital, it needs to look authentic to attain professionalism . Beats, music videos use cuts to go with the beat or rhythm making the video more entertaining.

Digi-Pack Analysis

CeeLo Green - The Lady Killer

I have chosen to look at this digi-pack as the bases of it, is based around Cee Lo green. We know this as from on the front cover we are able to see an image of him, which takes up a large percentage of the pack. And we also have his name. Which they helps the audience to clarify who he is. If people are unsure.I feel that it is very effective having Cee Lo Green on the front of the digi-pack. This is because a couple of reasons.

 1. Is because it means that as an audience we are able to see who the artist is. We are also able to gather a kind of style which he may have. This is due to what he is wearing. Also the colours used on to highlight him as the centre point. 2. It means that the audience may be able to relate his image to a song which they may have heard either on the radio, internet or on a music channel. This is also helped by having his name as a centre point of the front cover, as it means that the audience may be remember some of his work.
These elements must all stand out as it is going to be the front cover of an album which will help to see the single or album if the audience member does not know this person may be or what songs they have released.



The CD DigiPak (or CD Digi-pak) is a modern, stylish alternative to the standard CD Jewel Case. CD Digipaks are a custom printed card packaging that can hold one or more CDs which are held in place with plastic trays (CD flexitrays) which are glued into the digipak. CD DigiPacks are especially popular in the music industry for CD albums as well as multiple CD disc sets. CD Digipaks give a product an expensive / professional look and feel.

Ministry of Sound – The Sound of Dubstep

The digipak (shown above) shows the front cover, the back cover and the CD design. The Digi-Pak is very dark and this is created through the use of metal mesh consumed all over each cover and CD. It is clearly designed to express the dark, underground scenes associated with the Dubstep genre.

As you can see the only illustrations on the Digipak is the Ministry Of Sound logo and the name of the Digipak. The colours used also give us an insight to the thoughts of the Genre on the CD. Black is the most prominent colour on the cover which symbolises danger and darkness, portraying the dark, grime of the songs. silver is the only other prominent colour used on the digipak, this colour is a contrast to the black and helps make the text stand out.

After carefully examining the digipak there are many symbols and logos printed on the covers. There is a director’s label, a producer’s logo, and export information. These are obvious things to point out but we must include these on our own digipak to make it look professional and believable.

In summary the artwork printed for this digipak gives of the feelings associated with the genre of music on the digipak of. This therefore has made this digipak very dark and in turn stands out clearly to catch the eye of the audience and therefore draws them in. I will use this idea to help produce my digipak.

The "IPAD FACE SHOTS" - "REVERSE" EXPLAINED

The video attached below shows our pre-edited shots of characters lip-syncing to our chosen song. We have searched and collected a diverse community of actors, and we have edited the video so each character sings a  different line within the song. However, with our aims to reverse the video yet keep the face lip-singing in-time with the song, we had to reverse the shots on the ipad. below can be seen the normal (forward playing) video of our singers, however the actual video on the ipad was reversed. 


Normal/Forward video:

Risk Assessment

When taking into consideration of the risk involved in shooting our music video, we came to the conclusion that there was no immediate danger within preforming or shooting any of our planned shots, therefore we put the risk at very low.

1) No filming in inappropriate locations.

2) Check safety of locations e.g. roads.

3) Minimise risk of theft of theft of equipment.

4) When filming on location ensure teacher or responsible adult know where you are and have telephone number and when you will return.

5) Check all equipment is working before you leave.

6) Ensure you have permission for filming if necessary.

7) Always film with at least one other person.

8) Ensure you have the permission of those you are filming.


In addition to the above safety precautions, we also watched many videos regarding safety whilst filming on websites such as youtube and vimeo. below can be seen one helpful (& entertaining) video we watched to improve our knowledge and safety whilst filming:

Behind The Scenes.

A Few shots taken whilst we were filming, so you can get an idea of the general process we went through to create our music video.

Filming a time lapse near buckingham palace, unfortunately we eventually didn't use it, as it rather simply didn't fit in with our other shots. 

Setting up the tripod outside waterloo station to film the first shot with Oscar holding the Ipad.

A photo from the reshoot, getting a shot of the iconic red telephone box and big ben in the background.

Another Photo form the reshoot at the telephone location.

A Shot from the original shoot, with oscar (our actor) standing in an underpass not to far from waterloo station.

Improvements from AS to A2

Location Shots - Filming for a Music Video

The images below show only a few of our pre planned shot locations. However the rest / remaining number of our locations were not planned we thought that if we over planned our location shots then we would not venture off and spontaneously find other interesting locations. Some of our locations such as the london eye were to large to shoot through a standard 18-55mm lens so we had to take the shot using a wide angle lens. The wide angle lens or 'fisheye' gives the shot a very indie feel and is not typical for a mainstream pop music video. Fisheyes are mainly used for filming extreme sports because they are very good at tracking movement shots, and because of its wide angle you don't have to be extremely close. 

East London is now one of the most sought after film locations in London, because of the diversity it offers. The East End can symbolise extreme sophistication with places like Canary Wharf and at the same time it can signify extreme indigence and lawlessness. London offers a fantastic range of locations from historic country houses to modern and minimalist loft conversions. The capital presents a mix of urban cityscapes, riverside and woodland spaces, rooftop panoramic views, underground tunnels and hi-tech futuristic offices. London is often used for its distinctive identity but it has also been used to double for other parts of the world such as the US, Russia and many European countries.