The document discusses the artist's plans for a photoshoot and album artwork to accompany their remake of Halsey's song "New Americana". They will be taking photos on the beach in Falmouth to capture the natural lighting and ocean setting. Inspired by photos of Cara Delevingne, they plan to depict a serious, powerful expression and have the models wet from the ocean. Costumes and props like fake blood and dystopian costumes will be used to realize the dystopian theme. The photos will promote messages of strength, feminism, and fight through symbolic use of the color black and serious facial expressions.

1. Inspiration for my artwork
My artwork is all going to be photographed on the beach. The
magazine advert and digipak will include the locations of Falmouth
shown in its best light. I have many props brought in order to achieve
what I want to achieve for my digipak. I have a large piece (5metres)
of shiny black fabric material that I am hoping to use with my main
artist Benea. I also will be taking the photos in the later afternoon, so
I can hopefully catch the sunset upon the ocean. Whether I use the
ocean or not will be experimental and this will be reflected after my
first trip down to Falmouth. The ‘New Americana’ song is all about
revolution arising and present a real fight from a group of teenagers.
Going with the dystopian theme and creating an almost fictional
world is something I am thinking of playing on and therefore, I have
brought fake blood, war paint and dystopian styled costumes for my
‘army’ and this is benefit the realism of my photography. The first trip
down to Falmouth (7-9 October) will hopefully result in great things
for me. Whilst black is a colour of darkness and can sometimes connote
evil. The colour of black used in a fighting context symbolises the
realism of strength, power and the ability to survive. In a
dystopian themed narrative, this is something that the cast would
thrive to achieve. Their leader (Benea), the main artist, would
look like an inspiration to them (as part of the narrative) being
drenched in a black cape like object.
Inspiration:

2. These photos of Cara Delevingne are a
huge inspiration for me as they are firstly,
taken on the beach and the beach facilities
are used to an advantage. The facial
expressions are serious and the message
coming forth from ‘New Americana’ is
strong and serious in the artists’ mind. She
may be having fun and having a riot with
fellow believers in change and equality, but
Benea is a serious artist to the industry. The
poses connote serious, power from
feminity and the close ups of Cara here
attract attention from the audience as she
is looking directly at the camera and is
centred. She is also wet, we could guess
from the ocean itself and that look for
myself to achieve would be easily
replicated as these are facilities I have to
offer. The sea in my music video is a
metaphor for a source of escapism.
Therefore it would be true to herself to let
free in the ocean and therefore have the
natural location take over her and allow
her to look like a mermaid almost.
These are inspiration from the
dystopian side of things. In the
first photo, the woman is seen
getting into the ocean and also
has a version of war paint on her
skin. This connotes the power
and position in society I would
like to put my actors in. Again,
the colour scheme is black and
the actors will have this colour
on throughout the music video
and artwork. I have included the
second photo of the dystopian
style arm accessory / costume,
because I am going to
experiment with the costumes
and hopefully have landed in my
artwork, elements of dystopia.
This will hopefully brig my story
and narrative to life more, in
order to make is convincing for
my target audience.

3. A note
• The people within my target audience that will find the music video
and artwork even more attractive, will be people who are into
dystopia and believe inn the same messages being presented through
the song. Films like, The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze
Runner – just to name a few, are films that have inspired this video
and will act as intertextual references.

4. I really want to take advantage of my
location with my photography. I want to
make use of the facilities I have as living in
Leicester, means I can’t just take a quick
trip to the seaside. This has taken a large
amount of planning and preparation and I
am going to be using the ocean and the
natural lighting, to my advantage – to the
best degree.
This nicely edited photo on the beach, coincides with the
colour scheme that I am aiming for also. The pinks and the
powerful stance with serious facial expression from the girl,
screams feminism and fight. I can imagine the logo of ‘Benea’
to appear on a cover photo like this one. The photo to the
right here has something haunting about it and that is what
dystopia is all about. I want to adopt a haunting mood as
well, because these kids feel like the government and society
is the source of the breakdown of humanity.

5. Halsey’s album is named ‘Badlands’ and this is the album that included the
single ‘New Americana’. Therefore, for the remake that I am creating of the
album, I must create a brand new look for the album. This is a remake that has
previously been done by another person. They have opted for the same colour
themes that I have, probably for the same reason, being the promotion of
female strength and the design itself is rather simple. The blurry and trippy
mood creates conventions matched from the indie genre, which is obviously
which genre Halsey is from, so this is something I am hopefully going to apply
to my blog.
All the tracks are taken from Halsey’s
album of ‘Badlands’. The single I am
doing is ‘New Americana’ and I
believe this is the same order that the
track list is for the album by Halsey
herself.
My belief was right. The only difference
from this remake and situation, is when it
comes to making my final digipak – I must
make my own record label to put on the
back cover.

6. As I haven’t got any photographs of
my own to experiment with, I have
used the photograph that I took as
inspiration from the photo of the girl
on the beach. So, I added the name of
my artist on the advert and the name
of the single, as this is what we are
particularizing ADVERTISING from the
album, as it is the music video being
released on the same day (key
deadline date for music video). Due to
photographing purposes – I intend to
make lots of copies of my draft
advertisement and post them on my
blog. This photo is a template and a
practice as to what is to come.

7. More inspiration
Again, this artwork connotes a sense of danger and mystery.
The beach is being used a sense of escapism. A place that is
different and reflects are own opinions as part of the narrative
actors, in their minds. I think all these photos are very
effective as they connote powerful messages and therefore
establishes a music artist’s identity.