Album covers

50 CentThere are lasers and strobe lights every where showing that it is a concert or that it is in a clubHuge crowd of people raving/dancing. The huge crowd shows that the artist is very popular.The turn tables show that he is playing dance music this can entice customers that like the dance genre.This is showing the DJ’s name in his own style i.e. the dots above the E. This is his logo it is iconic and instantly recognisable to a passer by.Here the artist is showing him self on the cover of his album but just his back. This effect shows the artist making the crowd dance.

This album cover shows all the members of the band on each side of the cover. This makes it very symmetrical means that it can be look at from all sides. All the members of the band all have strange tongs coming out of their mouths, this makes them look sinister. This can also represent that they are all heavily tattooed, with for example the tribal pattern.The picture is all in black and white except from the Rose in the centre and the flowers in the corners, the rose symbolises love further more the name of the band is in red as well this makes it stand out from the black and white image.The main focus point in this cover is the red rose in the middle of the screen, it shows them all looking and surrounding the flower. I have already said that the rose is the symbol of love this links to sex, further more the only colour red links to Blood in the album name, continuing on this magic could be because the images have been manipulated to make them look un-human etc.

Facial expressions shows anger/ tension, this can show what his lyrics are about e.g. personal etc.Hands on head shows tension, frustration .Tattoo on hand, representing rapping gang.Shows his R-nd-B name. 50 cent50 cent is seen to be looking at you. This could be seen that he is looking at you to get the answer to the problem, or he could be looking at you because you the audience have made him how he is. The name of the album is Curtis, this is the rappers actual name it shows him getting back to his roots.

Video comparison In this section I will be comparing three music videos, of my choice they will all be relative to the video I want to create in my coarse work. The videos I will be evaluating are:Dizzee Rascal; Bonkers .Kanye West; Power.Kasabian; EmpireIn this evaluation of videos I will look in to the points of camera angles, miss en scene, characters and others.

bonkersColours:There is a very bright blue tone to the video, which emphasizes on the genre of music and the whole dancing and tecnotheme. Further more, the colours in the first section of the video includes a very light blue tone, this shows a subtle implications of the dance music and genre. However, this then totally changes on the second section where the artist changes from a blue top and blue cap to a red t-shirt and red sunglasses; this shows the change from the old, boring lifestyle to the new clubbing life., this is also revealed in the scene with people dancing on the pick up truck around the artist.Costumes:The clothing that is used in the music video is of the dance genre. The bright t-shirts, glasses and hoodies emphasize on the fusion of hip-hop, dance and tecnomusic. Moreover, near the end there is a group of dancers in glow-in-the-dark, skeleton costumes; the whole glow in the dark theme originated from the clubs in which dance music is played; to get dancers more into the whole ‘care-free’ sense and ‘electro’ feeling.Props:In the start of the music video we see a van in a fabric look that unusual, dance music usually contains an ‘unusual’ aspect to the music video, i.e. glow in the dark paint shown in “Candy” by Aggros Santos and dancing in a paddling pool in “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga. Unusual and outrageous themes are very common in modern and mainstream music videos they normally do this to get attention; (just look at Lady Gaga), which will result in that particular music video getting more hits and a higher place in the music charts. In my opinion, there is a sense of exaggeration in the music video. I feel this because of many things, but one which stands out is the huge chain that the artist wears in one of the scenes, it is so ridiculously big and OTT you wouldn’t see anybody wearing this in normal day to day life; this is another concept of music videos that is included in most mainstream videos; artists tend to do different things that is a step away from the normal codes and conventions of music video, this will again bring them more publicity and fame.“candy” aggro Santos.“Just dance” Lady Gaga

Music videoIn the first scene of the music video “bonkers” is of a plant in the distance quite quickly zooming in, the planet looks very dreamy; further more this could represent the artists own world with every thing he want in it. In the next shot it shows a very un-real pick up truck, the pick up truck is driving around the city/dream the artist is having. It looks to me that the truck is made out of what I see as bed sheets or cloths, I say this because you can see the stitching's of the sheets on the truck; I think they did this in the video because it made it more obvious to the viewer that he is in a dream. It then shows him waking up in the dream and doing very surreal things. For example he starts to do weights but the bar which he lifts up is really floppy like really soft rubber. Further more when he try's to water his plants with a watering can a paper print of a water droplet comes out the end of the can this makes it very weird; which adds to the dreamy effect of the video. But like I said before dance/tecno videos are normally a bit weird; so nothing to worry about.The next scene shows him raving out by him self on the back of the pick up truck, this symbolises him being alone with no friends, but this scene is the first scene which is relatively normal. There is a birds eye shot above the artist who looks up and raps to the camera, but they also use a wide angle lenses which adds to the dreamy theme, it’s a very cleaver and confusing shot un like in a conventional camera shot which shows the image in a straight line, this camera shot shows a 360* shot, this makes it a very cool and interesting shot.

POWERColours: the colours in the video are all quite bland this might be to highlight the significant props in the video. Further more, this could be representing the fact that it is in a dream or surreal life.Costumes: Kanye is wearing a very simple black tee-shirt and black jeans with some massive jeweller. But ever body around Kanye are all wearing old robes, this makes them all look from the ancient world, I did this through linking the head of Horus with the outfits.Props: there are a huge load of props through out the video, there are the pillars, Egyptian throne , gold bowls holding grapes it is quite a simple set of props but used to great effect.misse-en-scene:There is a load of interesting symbols shown in Kanye west video power from huge over the top chains, to King Tut’s throne, it is rich in ancient symbols, this is what makes it really interesting to me.The first thing which the video shows us is Kanye’s face with an endless row of pullers, I believe that it represents the entrance to a sanctuary, I think that it is the entrance to Heaven. I believe this because there is a guardian angel right in front of kanye almost defending the entrance. But continuing on this idea the two women who have horns coming out of their heads at the end of the rows of pillars, why would they be at the “gate of heaven”? Well I believe that they are Kanye’s personal guards. The huge chain which Kanye is wearing has the head of Horus on it, this is a very bold and significant symbol in this video. Horus was the patron god of ancient Egypt. In the video this shows Kanye wanting to be a Egyptian god, or this video could be him showing every body that he sees him self as a god. The Sword hanging over Kanye’s head is a very eye catching and serious sign. It comes from a Greek legend, it was said that if a sword of Damocles hangs over someone's head , they are in a situation where something bad is likely to happen to them very soon. This phrase comes from a story about Damocles who had to eat his food with a sword hanging over him which was tied up by a single hair.This symbol of the sword hanging over Kanye west’s head shows obviously that he feels under pressure from maybe a rival artist for example 50 cent, there has been a huge rivalry between these two since Kanye West made it in to the lime light. To summarise the video is that Kanyeis presented as a king, like King Tut (who was an Egyptian king),living a luxurious life; this is mainly shown by the various women around him. From guards and a guardian angel, there are women around him eating grapes, the video initially gives us the impression of power and fame . As the video goes on and the camera zooms out, we can begin see the full picture. The other side of power and its drawbacks are revealed, such as assassins and the Sword of Damocles all of which show danger. This video shows what Kanye West is currently going through in his life and is telling parts of it yet to come. After the camera zooms in to show certain characters in the video, it once again fully zooms back out showing that all the women have disappeared, the only people who are left are the assassinsand Kanye.This clearly shows Kanye’s vulnerability because it shows all of his assets and good things which come with power taken away, thus making him powerless. What the video is say is that being powerful and wealthy brings danger along with it and the risk of losing it all makes someone vulnerable such as Kanye him self.

EmpireThis video is a performance video. It shows the band playing soldiers set in the 1800’s, this could possibly be in the Crimean war which is where the charge of the light brigade took place. In the video it shows the band acting as soldiers protesting against the war as they turn their back on the enemy and march away from the enemy and towards the general who is seen eating with other high ranking officers. This video can therefore be seen as an anti-war message. The anti war message can be seen through the contradiction between the condition of the generals and the condition of the soldiers They make war seem terrible for the soldiers as they sit and live in filth, witness death and in the video always look unhappy. The video on the other hand portrays a different lifestyle for the generals which show their life as easy and pampered and a completely different to the soldiers. The generals get maids, nice food, fanned and generally look happy despite a war in progress whereas the soldiers look miserable and depressed. The video does this in less obvious ways as well such as the weather which is nice for the generals and dark and cloudy for the soldiers and the generals get a glass for their alcohol where the soldier is seen drinking from his hip flask. All this could suggest that the video is telling us that the soldiers get exploited and that some people could even benefit from something as horrible as a war. The members of the band then turn their back on the enemy and walk towards their own generals which is the biggest reason I believe the video acts as some sort of anti-war message and to further enhance the notion of death through war the band members start dying off one by one until the last one is killed by his own general. The video uses a complete wide range of shots. They use close up on the faces of the to show emotion such as when the young messenger boy is killed the camera uses close ups of the band members to see their reaction. A long shot is used when the same boy is delivering the message to the soldiers and this creates an eerie feel with the dead bodies and silence of the battle field. Most of the shots when the band are walking back towards their generals are either mid-shots so you can see their faces and them playing their instruments at the same time or close-ups so you can easily see their reactions to the death and explosions around them. The video also gives of a very British feel with it based on a war Britain was involved in and Union Jacks being shown at many intervals throughout the video. Finally at the end of the clip when the last band member dies the music stops just before the trigger is pulled so it is silent which makes the sound of the bullet pierce the silence in a very dramatic way. As the band member falls to the ground to death the camera shot changes to a long shot so the killer and the band member are can be fully seen and the death has a bigger impact on the viewer.

QuestionnaireQuestionnaire1. What genre of music do you like?• Classical• Rock• Alternative• Dance• R nd B• other2. Gender?• Male• Female3. Age?• Under 16• 17-20• 21-30• 31-40• 40+4. How important is music to your life?• Very important• Quite important• Not very important• Of no importance5. How do you listen to your music?• HI/FI/stereo• CD• DVD player• Computer• Ipod• Other6. What makes you watch a music video?7. Where do you watch music videos?• TV• Internet• MP4• Other8. What type of music video interests you?9.If was to say that Michael Jacksons video “Thriller” was the best video of all time what would you say?• I agree• I disagree• I have no say

This pie chart shows me that the most popular genre of music is the Dance genre. About 12 people voted for this genre of music. The next popular was other this was because I forgot to put down a certain genre of music this was “grime” I didn't think there was a large fan base for this type of music; But as it turns out there is. With these results I could now think of what song I could do my music too, I scanned my “Ipod” and “YouTube” to find the suitable song for the video eventually I found “wiley never by your woman” this was a dance song mixed with a grime song.

ageThe average age of all the people I ask to do my questionnaire was 18, this means that my music video would be aimed at that audience. This information allows me to know which audience I need to direct my video to.

Treatmentslocationlocation alterationsfinal locationsInitial treatmentconceptsfinal conceptssongnarrative

Initial Treatment locationsWe have filmed a lot of our video establishing shots in London, Battersea. This will give the impression that it is set and based in London, but actually it is filmed in Henley-on-Thames. We are doing this because it will be a lot easier to film locally, but we want to keep the audience thinking that they are still in London. Most of our main video is filmed in Henley-on-Thames. The first scene is on the high street which we are trying to make as much like a London street as possible. For example we are not going to show any of the iconic stores or land marks in Henley, we are just going to show regular shops such as Sainsbury's and news-agents.Our next scene will be situated in a school, this will most likely be in our school because it is much easier to get to. In this shot we are trying not to show that it is in the country side so there will be no open shots of the county side, this is because we still want the audience to believe that we are filming in London.

Initial Treatment locationsMy partner and I have decided to do the next shot in a park which is situated just out side Henley-on-Thames. This will show the river running in the back ground, this could be a problem because the Thames running through Henley dose not have walls running along the bank, where as in London there are walls all the way along the river until Chiswick where the walls start to get smaller. We will try and make it as much like the “Royal Botanic Gardens Kew” here there are benches right next to the river.Our next scene is in the centre of Henley. Now this shot will be very difficult because Henley’s town hall is at the top of the street this will make It very hard to keep out of the shot. But as I said before we want to keep off the high street and stay on the small streets where there are local stores etc. that is why we are going to a high angle shot to try and keep the town hall out of the shot. Further more we are going to make our actor walk actor the street and down a smaller street so we don’t stay too long on the high street.

Initial Treatment locationsThe next scene will be shown down a back alley which is about 1 meter diameter, this is where we are going to show a mock drug deal, we feel that it is perfect for this because it is dark and some where you would expect to get drugs. Further more you (as the audience) will be able to see a Sainsbury’s as he walks out of the ally way.The next scene will show him (the actor) walking in to a pub with some friends. The pub is the Local Pub in Henley. It will also be the penultimate shot, so as the intensity of the music builds so dose the video.The final scene will show our actor walking back down a back alley where the video started.

Treatment alterations As we came to thoughts with the initial videos, we started to see some flaws in our plan. So we went back to the drawing board and worked out where we went wrong. These are some of the points we came up with: the location was local but we were finding it hard to get ever one to the area we wanted to shoot. We were far too ambitious with our time scale, we thought we could get all the filming done over one day until we realised how many shots there were.Some of the shots we planed to do were impossible without the appropriate equipment, for example we wanted to have a slow motion shot but our camera was not of high enough resolution so we could not do this.As we talked about the video more we came to a joint decision that we should redesign our video from scratch. We did a lot of research in to the possibility of doing the video in school and at first we were dead agenised it. But as we started to think through the possibilities of doing the video in school it seemed like a good plan.This is what we saw as a benefit: we had all our resources with in 5 min walk. For example cameras, computers etc.We had ever one we needed in our video in school, so available nearly all the time.This also meant that we could film over weeks if needed.

Final Treatment locationsThe location of our video is going to be at a underground “gig”, this will be filmed at our school, in one of the boarding houses which has a large basement. The building is an old Tudor style building. Although the outside aesthetics of the building will not fit with the music or video, the inside has some run down areas which will be perfect for the video. We will pick very specifically where we are going to film the certain parts of the video; making sure that we do not let the audience see too much of the building.We have also decided that we are going to film most of the video inside this will mean that it will not mater what the weather is doing out side because we can film it at any time day or night.

Final Treatment locationsThe first scene is going to be filmed in one of the boarding houses rooms. We are going to take ever thing out of the room which can relate it to a boarding room. For example bed, desk etc. with every thing out of the room we are going to put a row of chairs with a large mirror, this will make it look like the dressing room for the star/singer.We will then have him walking down corridor singing with camera following , this will give the impression that he is going to the gig. We have also found the perfect set of stares which will be like his decent in to the “rave” in the basement.

Final Treatment locationsIn the basement there are a lot of corridors and one large room which is 20 meters in length and 10 meters in width. This is perfect for the main room for the rave it is quite low in height and very simple. The only problem is that there are two large yellow lockers which are attached to the wall which will ruin the feeli9ng and the sense that they are in a rave. The final scene will show the artist run out of the rave through the crowd who will be giving him some resistance, he will then break through the crowd and run to the fire door which is down a corridor bursts through and shows him fall down on to either the pavement or in to a field.

Treatments initial conceptsThis video is a narrative. It will be showing a day in the life of a boy of around 18, in London. This boy is homeless and living on the street, the audience will not know why the boy is homeless but there will be some indications. For example a picture just showing the mother and the fathers side ripped out of it. This will show they was some problems in the family, focusing on the father. Our video shows the boy going in to school. On the way there people will treat him differently to other people. For example a man will let another middle aged man passed but he will shoulder barge the boy for being different. This is one the things we are trying to get across. Further more when the boy gets in to school people start to avoid him, it will also show him seeing other boys getting out of their parents cars and kissing them good bye.

Treatments initial conceptsAfter that scene the boy will go back in to London where he will sit on a bench looking in to the Thames. (We wanted this scene to be as much like the “Royal Botanic Gardens Kew” as possible) he would then be approached by two boys who obviously know him, at this point the music dies down for a second or two to hear the to boys say “Can you get us some gear?” then the music will start up again.We will then show the boy going to a dealer down a back ally and buying some drugs, he will then go to the pub with the two boys, where we will show the home less boy and his friends doing some drugs on the toilet seat. The next couple of scenes will show him getting more drunk and more out of control.The final scene will show him collapsing in the same place where the video started, this will be shown in the video in slow motion.

Treatments final conceptsIn this video will be a performance video which shows the artist singing nearly all the time. The video is going to be about an artist who is also the person getting bullied, the song is about some who is dead thinking if any one will remember him. This is what we tried to incorporate in to our video, with the actor getting beaten up by a group of thugs, we are also planning to show the artist singing with a depress face this will give the video a deep emotion meaning. The video will start with the music building up showing the artist sitting by him-self, as the music builds the artist will get up and start to sing. The video will continue like this with different camera angles showing the artist singing. By 1.00 minute in to the song the shot will change to him walking down a set of stairs where he will be assaulted by a group of boys. The shot will change and as the music builds he will start to stand up with the music this will show his defiance to the bullies. It will then show the artist walking in to the room where he was at the start of the video and will sing the last verse and walk away in to the darkness.

Treatment songWhen the blood dries in my veinsAnd my, heart feels no more painI know, I'll be on my wayTo heaven's doorI know when I knockI'll be hoping I don't dropTo a place where I will rise, like before(2x)I can feel, something happeningThat I've never felt beforeHopeless dreaming will startDragging me away from heavens door(2x)When my mind stops thinkingAnd my eyes stop blinkingI hope...Somebody's thereWhen my heart stops beatingAnd my lungs stop breathingIn air... I hope somebody caresWhen the blood dries in my veinsAnd my, heart feels no more painI know, I'll be on my wayTo heaven's doorI know when I knockI'll be hoping I don't dropTo a place where I will rise, like before(2x)I can feel, something happeningThat I've never felt beforeHopeless dreaming will startDragging me away from heavens doorWhen my mind stops thinkingAnd my eyes stop blinkingI hope... Somebody's thereWhen my heart stops beating And my lungs stop breathing In air...I hope somebody caresWhen my mind stops thinking And my eyes stop blinking I know... At the endWe will not tamper with the song too much. At most if we need to slow or speed it up very slightly so that our actor who is lip singing will fit in with the music. Half way through the song we are planning to dim down the music not completely, at this scene we are either going to have some one talking to our main character or have some one kicking a door in. once the people have stopped talking or door been kicked in the music will then come back in and the video will continue. We have also plan to bring the bass out in the music a bit more, we will do this by increasing the bass and decreasing the Treble. Again we are not going to change the music too much, but if there is some thing that we need to change we can do it at the time while editing the video.

Treatment narrativeIts about a person who finds life hard. He gets picked on by a group of boys who assault him in the video. But towards the end of the video it shows the artist starting to get up and waking confidently. In the video the artist will be shown dancing and singing to get his anger out.When the artist gets hit it shows him getting back up this gives out a positive image that he gets back up when he gets knocked down.

Location shotsThis is a picture of the basins which are in the basement of one of the boarding houses, this is where one of our shots will be based.This is the corridor where we are potentially going to have our artist beaten by a group of boys. But there are other options for where we do this scene.

Location shotsThis is the stair case we are planning to use to produce the opening scene, we are either going to take the shot from the bottom or from the top of the stairs but other than that we are quite sure that this is going to be out opening shot.This is one of the corridors where we are planning to have the stage fight, the artist will walk out the door on the right and get beaten by the group of boys.

posterI drew out some pre designs of my poster/ magazine advert. I did this to make sure that people liked my design before I put it up on to the blog.As it goes my designs were good I have a lot of positive feed back which really helped with my design.“The design is very simple with makes it easy to look at, it also means that a person walking by could glance and know what it was.” Charlie Moffat“I like the initial design, will be interesting to see what the final product will look like.” Charlie KellyPlan B – End CreditsBlenderQ magazine“Amazing song”The TelegraphMojo“loads of style great contrast”“best single album of the year” The SunOUT NOWNME“award winning album”So from the feed back from my class mates I found out that the best advert to do is a simple advert with loads of ratings on it, this will bring more attention to the advert an example of this is the highly rated “The Fighter” advert as seen in the screen grab.The song is hugely inspirational and will defiantly top the charts. The TimesNMEEmpireEnd credits now out in all major record stores, also available on line at I-tunes or Microsoft music. This music is all copy righted. Double dip productions Mike and Chris CEO’s.

Digipak lay outI have been looking through what designs I should use for my digipak. This is what I looked in to: How many pictures/slides.What style.ThemeOnce I decided this I got to work on designing the digipak, I made sure that all my pictures where in the same style, this made the digipak like a picture book.Now to continue with my digipak my partner and I made sure that our front cover would be the best picture, this is to grab the audiences attention. As the covers open it will reveal the “picture book” which will show various pictures from the video and of the artist.

Digipack research Digipaks typically consist of a gate fold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Since Digipaks were among the first alternatives to jewel cases to be used by major record companies, and because there is no other common name for Digipak-style packaging made by other companies, the term digipak or Digi-Packisoften used generically, even when the media holder is a hub or "Soft Spot" rather than a full plastic tray. Quote from WikipediaDigipak’s are used by an array of genres of music, from trance to Heavy Rock. They are designed to fold out like a book to show pictures of the band and hold how ever many CD’s you want.

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