Thursday 30 December 2010

Star Image Collage

McFly Image Collage


Above is a collage of how the band McFly have changed their image drastically and how they show this.

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Steps To Designing A Cover

The Commission 
You give the job to the artist and give details about it. 


The Brief 
- Collaboration between the album artist 
- Talks with the music artist/band 
- Name of the album
- Lyrics/Song names
- Concept album
- Manager
- How best to promote the album/band


The Roughs 
Initial ideas based on the brief and the artists reaction to the music itself. There will usually be several 'roughs' to show the artist/manager who will often make the decision.


The Presentation
Where the artist presents the ideas either on large viewing boards or an actual CD case.


The Shoot
- Takes images for album artwork
- Make two different ideas
- Creating the concept


The Artwork
- Editing
- Cropping
- Create cover from this concept
- Combining everything to make finished article


The Printing 
- Separation
- Printing
- Production
- Distribution
- Images work as proofs


The Aftermath
Finished printed copy

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Response To Storyboard

We have uploaded the storyboard on to the group blog now. The story board will prove to be useful as now we know what shots we need so we won't be wasting time by just filming the whole song with a medium shot, then a close up, then a wide shot etc.

I found it difficult because I wasn't sure what shots to do as we didn't always agree. However, we were able to compromise and we were both happy with the result.
I know the story board is subject to change, but it will help with the filming and make the process a lot faster.


We have split the video up into the narrative, the bridge and the chorus. Our video will follow typical conventions of pop music videos such as:
- artist performing on a stage (chorus)
- artist singing to the camera (bridge)
- a narrative storyline
- cuts to the beat

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Changes In The Music Industry

The music industry is constantly changing because of new technologies coming around and allowing easier/cheaper ways to listen and download music such as file sharing (eg. lime-wire), Spotify, We7 and even YouTube.


YouTube, Spotify and We7 are not illegal however, they have caused a lot of arguments in the media as they allow people to listen to music for free, this has been reducing artist's revenue. By using YouTube to watch/listen to music, the audience may send the link to peers using social networking sites (eg. MySpace, Facebook, Bebo) causing more fans and therefore more consumers of the product however, this may only cause popularity and not actually revenue. Spotify has so many songs available to listen to on a computer for free, just like iTunes but without having to pay a price, therefore it's no wonder consumers chose to use this technology instead of buying album/singles off of iTunes which will become 'old' after a few months.


Lime-Wire and Bearshare are only a few of many illegal file sharing examples. This works by people sharing their music online and others downloading this, which is basically stealing from the artist. The government are trying to find people doing this and charging them to try and prevent this.


Some artists have chosen to 'go with the flow' with these changes by:
1. giving their albums out for free in newspapers (eg. McFly, Prince)
2.  giving fans their music for free and allowing them to pay how much they think it's worth.


This has caused major viral advertisement which means it is cheap to advertise so maximum profit is made. Personally, I feel this is a good way to go about it as it would be too difficult to find people that are downloading music illegally, as well as very time consuming. I feel that technology is changing so speedily that the music industry must follow it if it is to be successful.

Monday 6 December 2010

Prelim - Lip Sync Activity

The software used for this activity was Final Cut.
Personally, doing the prelim activity was very challenging. I got quite wound up not being able to use it, and at first it looked very daunting to me. To fix this, I went home and recorded my own clips and did my own practice movie on my macbook. I watched tutorials on YouTube on how to put effects in and how to use Final Cut. It was only a rough video, but it helped me understand the program a lot more, which helped with doing my prelim at school. Although it was hard at first, it became a lot easier, and proved to be a very useful program.


From doing this exercise, I learnt about the development of a music videos. I learnt how to cut clips and to add effects, transitions and how to render all. The most important thing I learnt was to save all clips on to the computer asap incase anything happens to the camera or the tape, which we unfortunately experienced, however, the tape came out of the video camera after a while. I was also told about scratch disks, which proved to be very helpful when wanting to swap files from the school mac to my macbook.


From this experience, I have been made much more confident in doing my final product. I now know the effects and possibilities I have now when using Final Cut whereas before, I didn't know what was possible with this program. I now know that during filming, we must film from many different angles, to make the most of the editing.


Over all, I found this experience enjoyable and by doing this, I am able to make a better video than before. Below is our final prelim video.


Saturday 4 December 2010

Lyrics for Kiss N' Tell

These are the lyrics for our song choice;
Ke$ha - Kiss N' Tell


Listen to yourself, you're a hot mess
St-st-stutter through your words, breaking a sweat
What's it gonna take to confess?
We both know

Yeah, I was outta town last weekend
You were feeling like a pimp 'round your lame friends
Now your little party's gonna end
So here we go

Whoa, you got a secret
Whoa, you couldn't keep it
Whoa, somebody leaked it
And now some shit's about to go down

I never thought that you would be the one
Acting like a slut when I was gone
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

You really should've kept it in your pants
I'm hearing dirty stories from your friends
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

You're looking like a tool not a baller
You're acting like a chick, why bother?
I can find someone way hotter
With a bigger, wow, well

'Cause I'm talkin' 'bout all the ways that you've messed up
You weren't smart enough to keep your stupid mouth shut
I'm so sick of it, I've had enough
I hope you cry

Whoa, you got a secret
Whoa, you couldn't keep it
Whoa, somebody leaked it
And now some shit's about to go down

I never thought that you would be the one
Acting like a slut when I was gone
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

You really should've kept it in your pants
I'm hearing dirty stories from your friends
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

Kiss 'n' tell, kiss 'n' tell
Kiss 'n' tell, kiss 'n' tell
Kiss 'n' tell, kiss 'n' tell
Kiss 'n' tell, kiss 'n' tell

Oh, I hope you know you gotta go
Yo, get up and go, I don't wanna know
How or why you're gross, you gotta go
Yo, get up and go 'cause I don't wanna know

I never thought that you would be the one
Acting like a slut when I was gone
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

You really should've kept it in your pants
I'm hearing dirty stories from your friends
Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

Maybe you shouldn't, oh
Kiss 'n' tell

Friday 3 December 2010

Song Decision

We have made a final decision as to what song we want to use for our music video. This is...

KE$HA
Kiss N' Tell


We thought that Kiss n Tell would have the potential for a better story line than the others. So that's how we came to the decision for this song choice.

Thursday 2 December 2010

Initial Ideas for Music Video

We knew we needed a song which was a fast pace for quick short cuts. I listed artists that have fast jumpy songs:
- Lady GaGa
- Ke$ha
- Calvin Harris
- Girls Can't Catch

We decided Ke$has album had the best song choices as her old album had fast paced music and not many of the songs were made into singles. The potential songs we listed were:
- Kiss n Tell
- Backstabber
- Party at a Rich Dudes House.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Good Charlotte; The Young And The Hopeless

- This album cover shows the conventional album name and artist name.
- The artist name is the same colour as the album name which is a dark green 'grungy' colour to go with the genre of the music.
- The font of the artist name is medieval like however, the album name's font is more neat, showing a juxtaposition within the fonts.
- However, the album is unconventional as it doesn't have an image of the artist, it is purely showing a message that they want to portray to their audience.
- The album has a black circle around it, as if it is from a persons point of view, like someone is spying on the family. Good Charlotte show here that they feel that someone is always watching.
- The colours used are dark, as if to push the 'Hopelessness'.
- Shows children looking at the screen, to prove that they are young, and showing what our world is becoming on the screen.
- The cartoon like image shows the average family.