Progress.

So i made myself an 'Action Plan' for the next couple of weeks.

This Week

• Research and planning for my Digi-Pack
• Photos for my Digi-pack
• Casting shots (done! but need to upload)
• Filming all footage (Half done!)
• Add location shots to blog (Done! but need to upload)
• Add textual analysis of a music video.

Next Week

• Editing (all footage should be shot by then)
• Document process on blog (changes, reshoots etc)

The Following Week

• Finish editing
• Rough cut DEADLINE!
• Continue with Digi-pack

Different Types Of Album Formats

There are a few different album formats. After doing some research this is what i have found:

NME magazine done an album of loads of different artists from the Indie/Rock genre to raise awareness of Racism. They called the album 'Love Music Hate Racism'.

This album was a cardboard album that didnt open up like a normal one but the cd slid out like a vinyl record.

This is a nice idea, however, this being my bands first release the booklet inside the album seems appropriate for the customer/fan to read about the band and understand and connect with them more.

I know you cannot tell through this image but this is a picture of a Vinyl record of 'Florence and the machine - Lungs'.

Being a Vinyl record it is of larger size and is played on a record player.

It gives the record a much more appreciated meaning and is more vintage style.

There isn't a booklet inside of a Vinyl record it just opens up and the pictures are like a page of a book already stuck on.

A vinyl record is the type of album cover i would like to use if it is allowed.

The typical album cover case is the most common one.

I want to be different with this and not use the most typical and expected type of case.

The next type of album type is a 'Digital Booklet'. I can't find an image for this. Basicaly, when you download an album of Itunes for example, you get a digital booklet downloaded aswell which is basically the online version of the album booklet which comes with the download.

Album Art Work - Codes And Conventions

So this is the album art work for 'Oasis -Morning Glory'.
The faces of the artists are not used on the front of the cover as it is not the first album they have done.
However, images of my artists should be shown on the front of the album as the band are not recognised. This is due to the fact that this would be their first release.
As you can see, this picture is of the buildings, which you can tell are not of posh buildings and looks like a normal highstreet, which represent the bands working class background.
The band have been around long enough to have a classic logo, which is the 'Oasis' black and white logo which a customer would immediatley recognise. The name of the album is in plain white font which is very basic which puts more enphasis onto the image. This gives it a very simple but effective feel and fits in well with what the band represent which is thier music is music and their not fame fanatics ect.


This album cover is of 'The kooks- Inside
in Inside out'.
This cover is again very basic with enphasis on the image, it's a mid shot which fits in all the band members and gives the album a very laid back and relaxed feel which gives the impression that their music is very much for themselves and about having fun and enjoying it.
The image looks as though they are practicing their music in a room and significantly not in a recording studio.
The image is in black and white aswell giving more enphasis on the font letting the customer immediatley be drawn to who the artist is.
The font i also very clever again based at the top with the red text being the name of the album and the black being the bands name.
I like the way the font is on this album and this could help influence my ideas of how i am going to have mine.





Moving onto another form of album art which is animation. This image is very bright and colourful giving the feel that the album is going to be very upbeat.
The image is obviouldy inspired by Andy Warhols Maralyn Monroe collage. This also gives the band and album a very artistic vibe.
The writing for the band is down the spine of the album in the a compatable colour scheme.
I don't think i will be suing animation for my album art but to really understand the codes and conventions of my genre i thought i would look at several different formats.



I thought i would look at a single artist instead of a band now. The close up shot is the most common used when selling a solo artist.
The font used is small and basic 'Morrissey- Gratest Hits' the small and basic font is used because Morrissey is an iconic face in the music world and his fans know who he is and not alot of writing is needed.
Also this being a greatest hits album shows the artist has been around a while.
He, like most artist/bands in the indie genre only appeal to a minority.
I thought i would look at a solo artist even though i am looking at a band just to help me understand more the way that album art is used and all the differnet underlying meanings that are conveyed throughout.

Digipack!

So we are starting our 'Digipacks' now. We have the choice to choose whether to produce a magazine advert, advertising the up coming album OR a website, E.G a Myspace page. It is compulsary hat we produce an album cover both front and back and the booklet that goes inside.

I have chosen to create the album and an advert for a magazine promoting the up coming album release.

I will do several posts on my research, planning and stages of production throughout the production of my digipack.

Filming

So we shot a few scenes from our music video. However, once all the footage was uploaded onto the mac, the lighting of our footage was not of good quality. We now have to re-shoot and make sure that the lighting is now better.

Filming...

So we have a little issue with the filming!

To Film the outdoor scenes we have to have a clear, dry day and preferably a little bit of sunshine. However, we are having mental weather so filming has been a bit delayed!

This week, we will be filming the indoor shots, such as the band scenes in the bedroom, and the corridor scenes!

Hopefully a nice day will come along soon when everyone is available to shoot.

Casting

So we have decided our cast!!

The only people that will appear in our video will be the 'band' members.

WE HAVE:

• The lead singer - Jack Lowe
• The drummer - Harry Norris
• The Guitarist - DAVE!!
• The female singer - Chelsea Fullbrook

Locations!

So we have been discussing our locations and we have come up with a couple so far to fit our storyboard shots.

We will be filming in Danson Park.

This will be (obviously) for the scenes from the park. The shots of them sitting on the bench singing will also be shot in the park.

We will also be filming in Bexleyheath using the fountain.

Our school will be used for the 'corridor' scenes where they will be chasing each other.

We will also be using Harry's bedroom for the band scenes!

Pictures of the locations soon...

Anamatic

So we are currently working on our anamatic. We had a few problems with the song where we downloaded the wrong type of format or something so we got set back a few lessons.
I think we have found whilst doing our anamatic that we misjudged the length of the song and havn't got enough shots to fit our song with the anamatic.
We have added some more shots in to continue and strengthen the storyboard narrative.
I also found that it takes more work thank you think with the anamatic as it shows how accurate the shots to the music have to be to flow and be precise.

Young Loveeee!

The song we have chosen to use is 'Young Love' by Mystery Jets.

The Lyrics:

If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Searching on the crowded streets for the face I once saw
If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Tell me have you seen the girl I met just once before

One night of love nothing more nothing less
One night of love to put my head in the mess
Is that you on the bus is that you on the train
You wrote your number on my hand and it came off in the rain
One night of love nothing more nothing less
One night of love has left my head in a mess
Is that you on the bus is that you on the train
You wrote your number on my hand and it came off in the rain
If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Searching on the crowded streets for the face I once saw
If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Tell me have you seen the girl I met just once before

(Woah x8)

Young love it never seems to last
Far too young until they have a pass
Playing games people move so fast
You don't need eyes to see if someones got a heart of glass
Young love it never seems to last
Far too young until they have a pass
One night of love nothing more nothing less
One night of love it left my heart in a mess

If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Searching on the crowded streets for the face that I once saw
If I only knew your name I'd go from door to door
Tell me have you seen the boy I met just once before

(Woah x till end)

The Video
Coming soon..

Ideasss

So our ideas...

Our narrative:
So our band consits of 3 boys and 1 girl. The storyline is going to be that the 3 boys are in love with the girl. They want to find her but everywhere she goes they just miss her. For example, we are going to have the girl walking in the park having fun (this being on handheld camera) she will be dancing around ect. and as she leaves the boys will appear (this being on steady hand camera) and they will be looking for her but not finding her.

However, a twist in the story will be that she is secretly in love with them as well and as they boys think they cannot find her, they leave, but she goes back.

Situations like this will occur throughout the video and in the last shot they eventually find her and they will walk into the shot from each side and meet.

As we got our inspiration from 'Factory Girl' we have been looking at the film and how it gets its narrative across with still having its own independent filming techniques. It uses both handheld techniques for the grainy 'old' effects as if it's a memory (in our video the memory/thought could be the boys who are in love with the girl) and the steady hand camera for the narrative or the present.

Also, the video of Young Love - Mystery Jets , in it the video uses some animation where words appear on the screen with the moving image. We have decided that this is a really good idea and goes with the happy upbeat vibe of this song. We do realize that we are using some of the same techniques as the original video but we will be using this in our own way to fit in with the narrative and structure of our video.

Inspiration

For our music video, our inspiration come from the film 'Factory girl'.




The film is shot in a mixture of handheld and steady cameras. This gives the film a bit of a 'memory' affect as if the handheld shots are a flashback or from the point of veiw of someone where as the steady camera shots represent the narrative.

In our video we are going to use the codes and conventions used in 'Factory Girl' such as both the steady hand camera and the handheld.

For the handheld camera we want the effect of the grainy texture of the film to represent someones memory aswell as the narrative running through this. We also want shots where not the whole person is in the shot.

Eg. if the shot was of someones face, the top of thier head could not be in the shot. I think this gives it a more personal effect as if you are looking through someone elses eyes where you don't see everything.

'Factory Girl' has its own independent filming techniques. It uses both handheld techniques for the grainy 'old' effects as if it's a memory (in our video the memory/thought could be the boys who are in love with the girl) and the steady hand camera for the narrative or the present.

Factory Girl Trailor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dofdqP8CaU0

Creation Of My Music Act

Name:
Fudge- We chose this name as it's ment to represent the grades that they came out with in school. We played on the sterotype that all people from Plymoth are stupid and F.U.D.G.E are the grades they came out with for thier A-level results.

Background Of Band:
From Plymoth. The 3 boys and 1 girl all went to school with eachother and become good friends when they're love for music brought them together. They started a band and have played small gigs around thier area but nothing major has come from it.
They recently got recognised by an indepentent record label and are currently working on thier first single. They also got a good internet following by putting thier music onto social networking site 'Myspace'.

Ideologies:
Music is a way of expressing yourself. They have participated in some charity work in thier spare time. And are dedicated to thier music.

Image:
Fudge are an 'Indie' band.
Thier image is very stereotypical:

• Skinny jeans
• shirts/logo tops
  

Record Label:
Domino Records co.

Record Label

Independent Record Label
I am going to research into Domino Records. I have chosen this record label as i am using a Mystery Jets song for my music video and Domino records caters for this genre of music.

Founded in 1993, Domino Records is an independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in United states.

Success was not immediate, as labels such as Domino, who were releasing more established American rock and unusual British music, were marginalised during the Brit pop era, but a steady stream of new signings gave the label increasing credibility. Recent high profile releases from Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, and The Kills have only acted as a catalyst to this, and Domino is now one of the longest running and most successful independent record labels in the UK.

2003 saw the label's 10th anniversary - there were a number of new releases, as well as a compilation album and a series of gigs in London under the Worlds of Possibility banner, to celebrate the label's first decade in October of that year.

Domino celebrated their first UK #1 album in October 2005 with Franz Ferdinand's You Could Have It So Much Better, and their first UK #1 single with Arctic Monkeys' "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" later that same month.
As well as new music, Domino have released lavishly produced compilations by British post-punk bands such as Orange Juice, Josef K, Fire Engines and Young Marble Giants.

Domino Records UK
Adem
Archie Bronson Outfit
Arctic Monkeys
Lou Barlow
Bonde do Role
The Blueskins
Clearlake
Clinic
Correcto
Eugene McGuinness
The Fall
Farrah
Flying Saucer Attack
Four Tet
Franz Ferdinand

Hood
Jason Loewenstein
The Kills
The Last Shadow Puppets
Lightspeed Champion
The Magnetic Fields
Stephen Malkmus
Max Tundra
Juana Molina
Movietone
Will Oldham
Jim O'Rourke
Orange Juice
David Pajo
The Pastels
Pavement
Psapp
Pram
Quasi
Royal Trux
Sebadoh
Silver Jews
Elliott Smith
Smog
Sons and Daughters
Television Personalities
These New Puritans
The Naked Blossomers
The Third Eye Foundation
Tricky
u.n.p.o.c.
Wild Beasts
Yo Majesty
James Yorkston and The Athletes

Mainstream Record Label

The Mainstream record label i wilfl be looking into will be Sony Records. Sony Records is on of the largest entertainment companies in the world. Sony was founded in 1929 as an American record corporation.

'Major' record labels are critised for not producing music for meaning and are multi million money grabbing corporations.
However, Independent record labels are the opposite. They are seen as producing music that is not mainstream and are seen to not care about the money as long as the music is being listened by true fans.
We have decided to use Domino Records as our record label because we want our bands music to have the same values and messages as Domino holds.

Case Study Of Music Act

I will be doing a small case study on how Lily Allen's Image has been created and sustained. I will also be looking at how she has been marketed and promoted across a range of media.

Lily Allen’s image is created by her record company and management. However, her image gives a sense of personality and femininity and that although it has been created for her; she also has some sort of control of how she is presented.

For example, a typical boy band would have to wear the same color and same type of denim and would be ‘cloned’, though Lilly as such an aspiring idol and artist, she has some control in her representation across the media.
Lily's image started out as a 'tomboy' look with her classic prom dress and trainers style. However, her image has transformed and is in a state of flux along with her albums and the forever changing face of the music industry.

Lily's started out her career by uploading songs onto her myspace page in November 2005. Her aim from doing this was to build up a fairly large internet following as a boost for the record labels to sign her.

Music Director - Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a photographer and director from the Netherlands. He is well known for directing music videos, including Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" (1989) and Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" (1993), as well as directing the Ian Curtis biopic Control.He is widely acknowledged by the music industry, mainly for being the creative director of the visual output of prominent bands like Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade.

Anton Corbijn started his career as a photographer in the 70's with portraits of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel and Joy Division and the more recently The Killers , Green Day and many more.

Corbijn creates very unique and slightly rebellious music videos by subverting the typical codes and conventions that are expected by the mainstream. He tells very iconic stories, such as the Atmosphere - Joy Division music video as shown below on the other post.

Anton Corbijn's most significant work is that of U2. He is the one who created thier public image in the 80's and to this day continues to shape it. He has worked with them for many years directing several of thier music videos and even had a book published called U2 & i.

U2 - The joshua tree (1986)
He has also photographed many of thier album covers for the past two decades.
Joy Division would also be considered as very siginificant work of his but he is more widely recognised for working with U2 as he has done for so many years.

Favourite Music Video & Why?

I can't choose any specific music video of mine that is a favourite, so i am going to post a few and tell you why i like them.

Joy Divison - Atmosphere (1988)

I have chosen this video as one of my favourites as Joy Division are one of my favourite bands so it seems appropriate. This video was directed by Anton corbijn who also directed the film Control (which is also one of my favourite films) which was based upon Ian Curtis and his death. The first impression that this video gives is that it is a tribute to Ian Curtis who was the lead singer of Joy divison. However, Corbijn lets the music flow with the gritty, decayed black and white cinematography, and he displays the band and Curtis in still photographs, as if Joy Division are just a fading memory. I think the video captures and represents the moment when you lose a loved one but every thing around is not gritty and decayed but in absoloute detail.

I think this video is absoloutly beautiful however so simple. It also represents and displays something so meaningful in it's basic form. I would love to produce a music video with similar values and also using still images seems very appealing.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

I can't get the video so i posted the link below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go

The reason i think this music video is so amazing is not just because it is a classic, but it rebels and represents everything a music video is not supposed to be. Music videos are ment to create a sense of escapism and captivate the viewer into an illusion and this one represents reality.

Romanek, who has directed videos for Madonna, Beck and Audioslave said he made the clip with no commercial expectations or calculations, fully expecting that it would not be shown on major video outlets. Romanek also said that the video intends to represent Cash's achievments but also be very candid about what Johnny's life is like right now.

Laura Marling - New Romantic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNxar07_9YA

Laura Marling is also one of my favourite artists and i love the music video to 'New Romantic'. I like this because it is so simple as it just shows her singing and playing the guitar which is promoting her as an artist and the narrative is represented by shadows on the walls behind her.

I love the simplicity of this as i think this video shows that less is more. I would love for my music video to create a simple effect like this taking into consideration we have no budget ect.

ORE TO COME...

Brief

For this coursework we have been given a brief of what we will be expected to achieve throughout the year.
We have to create a Band/Artist in which we will have to produce a music video for using an existing piece of music.
We will also have to produce a magazine/CD cover to promote and 'market' the band or artist.
I want to make a music video that tells a story, obviously, so i will be looking closely at many music videos that do this and will hopefully inspire me.
I will be using this blog as part of my planning and research for this whole coursework, I will post ideas etc.
Keep a look out for my next posts!