It's Christmas!

Yesterday was Christmas Day which is why I have not progressed in my album artwork. Soon I will be investigating some more album artworks and showing the process of creating my own. I will need to consider the name of the band, the name of the album, colours, and symbolic imagery.

Ideas For The Main Image On The Front Of The Artwork

All album artwork has a dominant image on the artwork. I need to think of what the image could be and how I will position it on the artwork. To get some ideas I decided to think about how the audience will associate the band name 'Forgetting Last Friday' with an images.

I asked a number of people what is the first image they think of when I say 'Forgetting Last Friday' and 'Bring Me To Life".

Amy: "Well I think of a huge house party if I am honest"

Ben: "A calender of some sort, quite a dark coloured one to match the genre"

Andrew: "The view of Earth from space, like you are on a different planet and are looking down and trying to forget. Also a coffin would make sense for the title 'Bring Me To Life'"

Jess: "A sunset or a sunrise to symbolise the end of a day (Friday) or the beginning of a new day.

James: "'Bring Me To Life' obviously must involve something like the living dead, a zombie or a graveyard, and for the band name I agree with Jess and it should involve the sun."

After receiving and reading back through these answers I decided that the main foc
us on my album artwork would be the sun and a zombie. The sun symbolises a new day and the zombie symbolises a person who is literally 'brought back to life'. Below is a quick sketch I drew of the initial composition of the images on the front of the album.

After this drawing I felt that it would be necessary to ask others what they thought about the initial image. The response I got from the majority of people was that they liked the idea of the sun and zombie however something else needed to be added. Danielle then suggested a tree or some kind of plant should be put into the image to give it more depth and make it more interesting for the buyer. So I decided to add a tree into the artwork image.

When I finished my drawing I looked closely at the composition of tree, the sun and the zombie and decided to have an apple hanging from the tree. I believe this could be what the zombie was walking towards. The apple also could represent life/new life and link back to the beginning of time in Christianity where one apple hanging from a tree was very important in the story of Adam and Eve.

My finished drawing of the main image on the front of the album can be seen below

Font Ideas For My Album Artwork

Before I begin and start planning my album cover for the band I decided to use, edit and create my own fonts. I decided to research a number of different fonts and needed to insure I keep the codes and conventions to the rock genre.

1)

 

I liked this font because of the use of the circles around the 'R' and 'A'. The circles look like moons which represents night and darkness. This is a convention of the genre rock. I also choose to make the font colour black as this too is a code for darkness and a convention of the genre rock.

2)



I like this idea because of the use of the patterns inside and between the letters. I believe this makes the text look quite gothic and suitable for our chosen genre.

3)

I like this font as it looks like it is hand written and spontaneous. It looks as though this was used on an album artwork then it gives the audience the feeling that this artwork was created with passion and personal to the members of the band. It is not a serious font either which is suitable for the age group of teenagers - young adults.

4)

 



The reason I like this font is because it has a fade out effect on the edges of some of the letters. I also like the way the font looks like a medieval font which could be used in a variety of different album artworks. I also like the fact that not all the letters are straight, instead they are slightly jolted, as if they have been placed randomly on the page. This makes the words seem more personal to the band.

5)

This is the last font I considered for my album artwork. I like this font because of the use of the lines scattered across the letters, as though they have been scratched into the font. However I do not like the excessive use of spirals on the edges of the letters and fact that all the letters are lined up perfectly.

6)

Before moving onto the production of my album artwork I decided to change my previous font as I was not completely happy with the layout and design of the letters. I edited the font one letter at a time and had them on separate layers so I can position them easily. One problem I faced while editing the font was the fact that the previous idea was saved as a .jpeg therefore when imported into photoshop a white background was placed behind each letter. This was easily sorted out by using the magic wand tool to remove the default white background. I then positioned and rotated the letters however I wanted. After doing this I still was not happy with the overall shape of the letters, therefore I used the eraser tool and removed the excess spirals from some of the letters and stretched some of the letters tails. When I was completely satisfied I saved the file as a .jpeg and a .psd so I could adapt this font with the final album artwork later.

By this stage I was happy I had looked and created enough fonts. Therefore I decided to ask my group which font they though was the best and the most suitable for the genre rock. Both Faye and Elliott choose font 6, which is what I also decided on. I am now happy that I have a suitable font for my album artwork which I will be creating soon.  

Meeting

As members of my group were not in today I decided to go back to my star image collage and add some more detail to it, I decided to add quotes about Rihanna to the collage and go into more detail about her as a person. I chose to look more closely at her physicality, talent and race and also look at the message she is giving us through the images on my collage and how she has changed throughout the years. 

Music Video Analysis - Lost Prophets - Rooftops

 
This music video opens with a mid shot of the singer. The camera is still and has a flash/defocusing effect added near the end of the clip. Using video effects and transitions is a convention of music video, the main reason this is added is to remind the audience that they are only watching a music video. The next shot is a close up of another member of the band. The change of shots is synced to the beat of the music (rhythmic editing), this is also a convention used in music video. This same idea is repeated for the other band members, where we see a close up of mid shot of the band member. They are always the main focus of the frame, the camera is focused on them and the background is defocused/blurred. This is used to make them the main focus point and to once again remind those watching that this is only a music video. We then see a close up on the singers face, during this close up we can see that he has long black hair covering parts of his face, his eyes are very dark and it looks as though he is wearing a black shirt. As the genre of this music is rock, this is the type of style we would expect to see from the band members, dark colours is a convention of the genre rock. There is then a close up on the guitar and then the guitarist. Instruments are a very important part of music videos and close up of instruments is also a convention of music video. There is also a very strong back light shining on the guitarist to give us the impression that he is important and to show us that this music video is almost like a performance and we are watching them perform in the spotlights.

The video then switches to the narrative which is also synced to the beat of the music. The narrative begins with a shot of three people sitting at the dining table. There is a woman to the right, a man to the left and a girl sitting directly in front of the camera. This gives us the message that she is going to be a major part in this music video, we first get a mid up on the woman's face who is looking directly across the table at the man, from the expression on her face she looks as though she is worried or anxious about something, she may also be looking at the man in an attempt to say "don't do anything stupid". We then get a shot of the man who looks slightly angry and is looking in the direction of where the girl is sitting. At the moment it seems as though he is mad at her and the woman is anxious/worried about what the outcome is going to be. The video then switches back to the band where we see a mid shot of the singer. When the video changes to the narrative we see the expression of the girls face. She does not look scared or worried about the man and slowly looks away from him. From this shot of the girl we can see that she has a slight gothic look to her. She has long straight black hair, black makeup around her eyes and is wearing a black shirt and a necklace. In front of her, on the table, are some red roses. The symbolism of roses is love, passion and desire, this may represent the girls feelings and how she does not care what others think about her, as she is happy who she is. However we then see a close up of the girls dinner plate which has been untouched. We see her playing with the food but not eating it. This gives us the message that although her body language tells us that she is strong minded and not scared of other people, she is still anxious and worried about something.

We then come back to the singer for a few seconds and then switch back to the narrative, this constant switching between the band and the narrative is a convention used in music videos. In the narrative this time we see the man and woman arguing over the table in front of the girl. Throughout this the girl is sitting in silence and watching, this gives us the impression that this happens often and she is used to seeing these arguments. Parts of the argument itself is in slow motion, this is to emphasis the importance of this part of the music video and also to add to the emotion. Just before the main chorus of the song the video switches to the band where we see quick edits between each member of the band and their instruments.

We then see the narrative again however this time we are shown a man and a boy, most likely his son, driving in a car. The man is arguing with his son who is sitting in the back of the car. The boy has a similar expression to what the girl had, he does not seem bothered or scared of this confrontation. The boys appearance is also the same as the girl, he too looks gothic.

In this music video there are three narratives In the third narrative we see a boy working in the kitchen of a restaurant, preparing food to be taken out to the customers, then a man comes in and complains about the food. This third narrative is the same as the other two where the person involved in the argument looks like a goth and has a 'I don't care' mannerism.

When the chorus is played for the second time the camera is only focused on the band and does not switch to the narrative at all, this is too show the importance of the band in this music video and to remind the viewers that all they are watching is a performance, not a film. During this part of the music video I noticed that the lead singer is wearing a white jacket, whereas the rest of the band are wearing black and grey. By making him stand out from the rest of the band this shows how important the singer is in the band. White represents purity, peace and calmness. I believe the producers of this music video purposely did this to make the two worlds, the performance and the narrative, very different to each other. Throughout this part of the music video a lot of different camera angles are used such as a low angle shot to make it feel as though we are looking up at the band while they are performing on stage, and also give the band a feeling of importance. We also see a couple of dolly shots and long shots to add to the feeling they are performing on a large stage. It could also represent how the band are free from the arguments happening in the narrative, the shots show the open space around them and that they, like the title says, are standing on rooftops.

Then we see the three narratives, one after another. In these narratives we see each of the teenagers screaming, and in doing so smashing anything made of glass. Each one of these screams is synced to the songs lyrics, when the lead singer says 'scream', the narrative does exactly that. This is sometimes used in music videos to give a sort of connection between the narrative and the performance and to constantly remind the viewer that they are watching a music video. Also each of these three scenes are in slow motion to add to the tension and emotion. As the narrative starts to build so does the performance. The band look as though they are really getting into the song and are putting everything into this performance as if it was a performance on stage in front of thousands of fans.

As the music video begins to finish we see the three main actors in the narrative on the rooftops with the band. This is a convention of music videos and is used in a lot of them, for example Eminem ft. Rihanna - Love the way you lie. By having the narratives joining the band on the rooftops we feel as though they have gotten away from the arguments in the narrative. Although we have not seen what has happened in the rest of the narrative the audience assume that they have all succeeded in escaping from reality.     

Track Choice

The track we have decided to produce a music video for is Evanescence - Bring Me To Life. This was finally decided after writing down as a group a list of artists and songs we would be happy to produce a video for. On the list we had such artists and songs like Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer. As I have said earlier the genre we have decided to focus on was rock.

I am very happy with our choice of track and believe that we will be able to produce a very successful music video.

The inspiration came from when we were writing down a list of possible song choices. We then decided to look through a list of popular rock songs on the internet and also look through an iPod. This was when we all saw and listened to Evanescence. All of us have heard of Evanescence and felt that this was one artist that we wanted to look at more closely. During our research we discovered the song 'Bring Me To Life', we listened to the song the entire way through and jotted down all the things we thought we could put into the video.

I will upload these initial ideas soon and compare them to our final ideas.

Next we need to start finalising our storyboards and plan our shots for our music videos. We will then need to plan when and where we will shot our music video.

What Genre Have We Chosen?

After doing thorough research into music genres we, as a group, decided to focus more on the genre Rock. We decided to focus on this genre as we found it be the most interesting out of all the different music genres.

Meeting

Today I meet with my media group to discuss how well we thought our lip sync activity went and also to discuss what the next step should be in our journey towards producing a music video. We felt that at this stage we should make a final decision on what genre of music we are going to choose. We decided to look back through the list of music genres I produced earlier and also watch several music videos for each of these genres. The genre we decided to focus on was Rock, as we felt this was the genre we would be able to produce the most successful music video to. Next we will produce a brainstorm about the genre Rock to get a better understanding on the genre and to generate our ideas.

What I Have Learnt From The Lip Syncing Exercise

1) How did you feel about the editing program and learning how to use it? 

When I was creating my film opening sequence in AS Media Studies I used the software, iMovie '09. This year we decided to use Final Cut Express as it is a more advanced and effective piece of software that offers a wider range of effects. Before beginning the editing on our lip sync we decided to watch the tutorials offered on the Apple website. After watching these tutorials and reading through the instruction booklet we were given we felt confident with using the software. At first we imported the film from the camera into the canvas, cut the video into long shot, mid shot and close up shots and imported the music. We then put the music into the timeline and played with the shots to match the music. The finished music video can be seen below.

Overall I like using this new piece of software, I believe I have learnt sufficient skills to make an effective and exciting music video. 

2) What did you learn about making music videos from this exercise? 

The main thing I learnt from this exercise is how to properly lip sync the music track to the video. I have also learnt how to take and edit between effective shots. I have also been reminded of some of the codes and conventions that are involved in music videos and what camera angles can and can not been used. 

3) How will what you have learnt affect how you approach you proper production? 

I believe that if I had not first completed this exercise then I would not be able to create a very effective music video. I would have had to taken time to learn the software at the time of production and editing which would have affected the final outcome of the video. I have also learnt how to use effective camera shots which will help when I come to make and edit the music video.