Sunday, December 20, 2009

Poster

Our poster promotes both our bands first promotional track along with their tour dates. We have kept the style of the poster the same as the organic, rustic feel that the pop video creates. Both members of 'Faulkes' are looking straight towards the camera, they are giving direct address making the audience empathise with them. Without doubt, we have continued to incorporate this organic, autumnal feel.

CD Cover

Below are images of both our front cover and pack cover of our CD. We felt that the colour pallete and the style very much suit the style of the band and their band image.

In addition, the CD cover also is soemwhat of a continuation of the pop promo - they link together, the image below is a wide shot of the performance aspect of the pop video. It is clearly demonstrated that both images are very similar, both having a autumnal, rustic, organic effect. These are key elements to the bands image.


We also created 2 inside images for our digipak which would act as a 'pull - out' for our album. This included the lyrics of the song 'Bruises' along with the credits for the making of the album.




Saturday, December 19, 2009

My Pop Video - Bruises by Faulkes

Above is a copy of the email we sent to Columbia Records to request Copyright Permission to use the song, however we seem to be still waiting for a reply.





Friday, December 18, 2009

Editing 9

We have now finished all the shots in AfterEffects and today we put it back into Final Cut Pro, once it was in there we decided to change some of the colours by using the enhance key, to make it look as authentic as possible.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Editing 8

We now have sorted out the ‘bike scenes’, this process was slightly different. We uploaded all the pictures we had taken on a digital camera of a country road into AfterEffects, then we created a sequence with each shot lasting approximately one second – this created a montage effect.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Editing 7

Following our initial work, once they were all in AfterEffects, we went through each shot one by one and ‘Chromokeyed’ in the background. All of this was very tedious and time consuming but it was a repetitive process, and luckily myself and Lily just got on with it together, so it somewhat relieved a lot of pressure. Eventually, once our textile background was now in place, we began to put them on the timeline with markers, which enabled each background to move – as this was the effect we wished to create. Although, we noticed that some shots were travelling more than others, so we had to continuously make sure there was this balance. However, we did encounter an even bigger problem, many of our blue screen shots seemed fuzzy, this was inevitable as the blue screen we used was a thick, course material, so it was somewhat expected that it ended up looking slightly ‘fuzzy’, nonetheless there was very little we could do about it as this was a technical fault, that was pretty much impossible to completely overcome.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Editing 6

Today, we started our editing session with an introduction into how to use the programme AfterEffects, undoubtedly this process was very complex and defiantly set us some great challenges. The first thing we did was initially went through all the shots in the video with the blue screen, we then had to export them individually into AfterEffects. This was all we managed in the first lesson, as this process was very time consuming and we had about 50 shots to consider.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Editing 5

We have been spending a lot of our free time editing, just refining all the shots and making sure that the pace of editing is to the correct beat (which we are still continuously struggling with) and making sure it conveys to the audience what we wished to show, reinforcing this autumnal, organic aspect. We were coming up to the last few stages in this initial part of the process, as I think tomorrow we are going to start working in AfterEffects. Our pop video, without any of the blue screen shots are all placed down, so we just need to do this last part now.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Editing 4

Today, we have somewhat encountered a small problem, we seem to have overwritten our filmed and edited storyboards, and now we do not have them nor the original drawn out version. However, because we had very much moved on in our editing process and we actually realised we did not need them, nonetheless it would have been useful when it came to evaluating the product and reflect on what we did differently.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Editing 3

We decided to just battle on and try and work through our problem, even though it was beginning to really get us down. So we continued to just getting the sequences down on the timeline in the correct order, however, we were somewhat just seeing where it took us rather than having an exact plan. We knew the general direction in which we wished to take our video, and how it was to be split up into three sections -it was just getting that perfect balance of these, and getting the pace of the editing in the correct position. Although, another problem that we were beginning to encounter was the lip sync, both our actors did not know their lyrics very well, this made it very difficult during these editing sessions, as shots we wished to use we couldn’t in the end because the singer was obviously singing the wrong lyrics, and this would jeopardise the overall look of the video. Therefore, getting the right shots with the singers singing the correct lyrics was becoming a very lengthy process, as were often having to cut in and out of more shots because of this factor. Nonetheless, it was making the video look all the much better as it was so much more precise.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Editing 2

Once we had a basic structure down on the timeline, we actually realised that our initial idea of having a more narrative driven pop video was not actually working very well. Therefore, we decided to scrap this idea and start from the beginning, still keeping the same themes in place but now using a more of a montage effect. So we started to place things down on the timeline, however, myself and another member came to great difficulty in finding the actual beat. This was making it very difficult to cut in time – this was a great struggle that we defiantly had not over come quite yet but we are trying to get better. We wanted the pace of editing to be spot on and we wanted the right mode of address to be conveyed to the audience, so our slight technical problem was evidently becoming more and more difficult to over come.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Editing 1

For our first few sessions of editing we began by taking the rushes, cutting them up and putting them into sub-clips. This was to make it easier in collecting the exact shots we wished to use, as they would all be titled and in separate bins which we had created. Once this was done we already had our filmed timeline in place, so we decided to just put the somewhat relevant clips in their correct position on the timeline. However, this proved more difficult than it sounds, as some of the shots we had drawn for our story board we had not actually filmed, so we just placed what we had down to give us a basic structure. Moreover, we found it very difficult to all cooperate at first, as there was a continuous battle to get on the mouse, so eventually we decided on just two people to move on with this, whilst the others got on with completing the background.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Account of Shoot Day

We arrived at the studio about 9 o’clock in the morning. We wanted the day to be as relaxed as possible and for our performers to feel comfortable. However, we soon realised that Jess had left the storyboards at her house, this was potentially a huge problem, but luckily we knew what a lot of the shots were to get going in the morning. Fortunately, her mother brought them into school so we had them for the afternoon. However, we had to get going regardless, so we begun the day by getting both our female and male singer ready, we wanted our look to be fairly of the norm and simple. Both our stars wore jeans and white tops; this look was simple yet really showed who they really were and their organic, natural approach to music etc. However, Melena wore some slightly kooky make-up, this was used to enhance her individuality and show that she is a bit unique in her style. Once the duo were all set and ready to go, we just put the music on repeat and let them both get into the mood and play around with what kind of choreography they felt comfortable doing. We wanted them both to feel relaxed as this would make the final piece look so much better.

Nearing 10 o’clock, we begun filming – we just did a few takes of the whole song, from start to finish in wide, as this would be the basis of our performance element of the video. However, once we got underway we realised that the positioning was not quite right, so we began to rearrange the performers in order to gain the best shot possible, placing William further the centre of the shot. Also, once the cameras began rolling Melena found it quite difficult to move and sing directly towards the camera, because we wanted this sequence to look extremely natural, it was very important that we got this in the end, and she did really up her game, but still at times she was very unaware of where the camera was positioned. As, we only had a day to shoot this we had to move on fast, as we all knew roughly what we wanted to be shot. Once we had filmed the wide shot of the performance section we moved onto close ups of the instruments. Again, this seemed to take a lot longer than it should have, as ‘William’ (Callum) cannot actually play base, in the wide it was not noticeable that he was not actually playing but in a close up it was very. Therefore, we had to spend a little time going through some of the basics, although this put us behind schedule a little; it enabled us to get the shots we needed. With Melena, it was fairly simple – we just wanted to shoot close ups of her singing really at this moment rather than on the keyboard. Although, we again encountered this problem of not looking directly into the camera, but we had to work with what we got.

We realised we were running on a very tight schedule, we still had more shots to film in this setting before we took a break for lunch. We hoped to break at 12.30, but that did not happen – we broke at 1pm, as we had to shoot the more ‘fun’ side to the duo, the shots of them messing around the leaves and Melena wandering up and down the tree trunks. Around this time, my group had a little argument, because one of the members of our group wanted to try out this new shot she had thought of, we were all willing to go along with it, however, it was not going as expected and this person would not give up until she got what she wanted, but this was being proven very difficult. Cutting, the story short we were just all trying to speed up the process, saying how it was necessary to move on as we needed to complete the filming in our time scale. Eventually, she did give in and we did move on – but as we were approaching our lunch break it was a bit of a mad rush to finish all these shot in time, it was impossible. In the end, we broke for lunch without quite finishing what we had anticipated. However, this made us all come together as a team during our break and realised that we had to just get on and not waste any time in the afternoon.

We came back for 2 o’clock, and we had set ourselves a task of getting these shots completed in fifteen minutes, all we wanted was shots of William sitting on the bench singing whilst Melena danced around him – although we wanted to experiment with angles we had to just get on with it and shoot what we could.

Around half past two, it was vital we moved on. The next set was ‘the bikes’. Both the bicycles were already set up on the platforms ready for us to begin shooting. We positioned them into the centre of the studio. We wanted to create a windy day scenario, so we had the fans blowing from a short distance away to make sure it was not over powering as some leaves were blowing across the shot. We decided to just get on with the following footage, for this set we mainly just needed to go through the whole song a few times of them singing, performing and ‘cycling’ and most importantly having fun. After a couple of takes, our female performer had a small accident and fell off the bike, thankfully she was completely fine and just laughed it off, although we were all quite worried it would knock her confidence and then not give us the performance we really needed from her. However, we took a quick break to boost up her energy and then continued with this set. Throughout this set it was easy for our group to take turns being on camera and be creative with the shot types as the set was quite simple etc.
After about an hour of this set, we realised we had to move on and move on quickly. Our final set was ‘the boat’; this meant we had to completely clear everything in the studio. We got everyone involved, ensuring all the leaves were swept up and put back into the black bags. Once everything was clear we were able to bring in the wooden waves and place the material along the studio back wall. All in all, this took about thirty minutes to set up and then we were ready to shoot the final concept part of our pop promo. By this time, everyone was beginning to get tired but we all picked ourselves up and tried to make the last hour as fun as possible. Our wooden waves were very large, so we grabbed a few friends to move them to help create the moving wave effect we wanted. Again, the shots we needed were mainly in wide of the duo just joking around and having a laugh, so again we were all able to take turns filming on the camera and on the playback, all being able to get involved was really good as we were able to get a feel of both being on camera and also just being involved in terms of creativity and getting our opinions and ideas across. The last hour of the shoot day was however very fun as we all knew it was drawing to a close shortly and we wanted to get the best out of the day. Both our performers were very relaxed by this time and were really able to go for it to finish off the day.

About half past five we finished, our time frame was up and we had completed our shoot day. We then had to clear out the studio, to allow the following group to set up.

As a whole, I felt our shoot day went extremely well. There was a very relaxed atmosphere throughout the day and it allowed everyone to feel comfortable and for us to really get all the shots we wanted. However, obviously there were some moments which were fairly tedious, either our group were having a disagreement in the shot types or the performers were lacking energy and we were just pushing on at them to really deliver. But all in all, I defiantly believe we have a wide variety of footage, and hopefully we can now edit the footage successfully in order for our pop promo to be of a high standard that we wish to achieve.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Day before Shoot Day

At 4pm this afternoon, we were able to begin setting up in the studio in preparation for the following days shoot. By doing this it enabled us to go on tomorrow being ready to get going straight away. Also, we established that if we had not gone in tonight we would not be able to shoot very much tomorrow. As we soon realised that we had no where near enough leaves to cover the entire studio floor – as this was part of our set it would have set us greatly behind if we had not sorted out the minor problem this evening. Between two of us we went and collected another 12 black bags of leaves, even though this was a mad rush to get it all set up and ready by 6pm, we did achieve this. We spread the leaves across the floor and placed the tree trunks, amp and keyboard into position so we were able to get on shooting quickly in the morning.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Lighting Plans

Below is a list of the different lighting ideas we hope to have for the different sets of our pop promo. Now we have completed this it is will be easier to discuss with the lighting designer when he comes in in the future.


As a group, we also decided to just draw up a couple of examples, to help show more clearly precisely what we wish the set to look like with the correct lighting etc. Below, is the performance section - this shows clearly the layout of the set and the ideas for the lighting too.



We also just sketched out the 'boat set' as we wanted the lighting for this to be quite specific and felt that drawing it out would make it a lot clearer for everyone to understand, because although the set was made to look theatrical, we needed the lighting to oppose this idea and make it look more realistic etc.




Running Order

8:30AM
Meet C&S-put in costume and make-up.

8:50AM
Meet in studio- begin dressing the set.

10:00AM
Start shooting wide performance shot. (all leaf scenes)

12:45AM
LUNCH BREAK

1:15PM
Resume shoot.
Close-ups of Leaf scene.
Storm dancing in leaves+ flowers + logs

3:00PM
Set up and then shoot Bike Shots.

4:00PM
Shoot Boat

5:00PM
Run over time (extra shots)

The Set

Today, we begun creating the set. We had all discussed exactly what we had to create it just was now getting on with it.

We had to make the waves, as the rest of the set were things we were able to bring in or buy. We bought some large pieces of chipboard, and spent the afternoon, with the help of some of our friends, cutting out the shape of the waves with an electric saw. With paints used from the schools art department we got on with painting them. The waves were quite large, they were around ten metres in length and about one metre high, and we made three of them, as they had to fit the studio. We wanted the set look theatrical, but also have an artistic creative spin on it to reinforce the bands creative flare. Between about six of us in all, we painted all three of the waves and got them looking exactly how we liked.


Also, we had to re-paint the platforms for the bicycles. Luckily, our school had things of the sort that we were able to adapt and use for our music video. So, we ended up finishing off the day by re-painting the existing platforms and getting them prepared for our shoot day.


Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Storyboarding 5

Now we had our storyboards filmed, we began editing it. We have spent about two lessons on it, today and yesterday and we made a rough cut of the order and the shot lengths. As this, we felt would give us a clear vision to work with when it came to filming our finalised video. We used Final Cut Pro to edit our storyboard – we put all the clips down onto the timeline and then broke it up and made sure we put the right clip to the right piece of music. We used our timeline, which we had previously made to help us with this as we were then aware of when the three different sections were. As this was only a rough cut we did not do this too accurately as we were aware that after our filming day our shots were going to be very different so it was just an initial outline as to what we wanted our pop promo to look like.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Storyboarding 4

Today, we filmed our storyboard – as this showed us a rough cut of all the footage we wished and in the right order. This will then be really useful when it comes to editing our final piece as it will help with getting the right shots in the right place as well as for the right amount of time. Although, it is likely many of the shots will change on the shoot day. Jess and I set up the camera JVC 1500E, we pinned each shot up and filmed each one for approximately 20 seconds.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Storyboarding 3

In the lesson today, we just began to make the finishing touches to our storyboards, going very them with a fine-liner and adding some colour to help give more of an idea as to what we want the shots to actually look like. Then we began to organise them into an order, the order in which at the moment we want our pop promo to look like. As this way we can immediately begin filming our storyboard in the correct order in tomorrow’s lesson.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Storyboarding 2

We set off straight away today with a discussion of all our own ideas, as this helped with letting the whole group have a general direction as to where we all wanted to go. As one of our members of our group was away we split up again – each choosing one of the three different sections to our pop promo. I concentrated on the middle section, which was ‘the bikes’. In this, I just drew out a number of different shot types, ranging from mid to close ups of both the male and female singer. Also I drew close up shots, of different things to make the shots varied, e.g. a close up of the handle of the bicycle. Again, we set ourselves a goal of completing a certain amount of different shots; we each did between fifteen and twenty so we then had a good amount of shots to work with for our shoot day.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Storyboarding 1

Today, we began the process of getting our ideas down onto paper to help us with our shoot day as it will give us more of an idea on the day as to exactly what we wish to shoot. Since this is our first lesson, we each sat down alone and just started drawing out the different shots we felt we wanted, this was just to help get us into the right frame of mind and put us onto the right track. This way by doing this individually we could do whatever we wanted, as this was just our initial ideas. We each set ourselves the target to complete between ten and fifteen shots each so that next lesson we could begin with coming back and discussing our own ideas, and that way it will trigger and generate more innovative ideas and be more progressive next lesson.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Costume Plan


Above is the costumer list we made, which was pinned up on our wall (where we kept everything). As you can see we have used costumes that are very on trend and therefore should be easy to get hold of.




Friday, November 6, 2009

Initial Props and Locations

Props:

  • Casio White Keyboard
  • Bass Guitar
  • Amp
  • Logs - tree stumps
  • Leaves - enough to cover studio floor
  • Roses
  • Front of wooden rowing boat
  • 2 bikes
  • Wooden waves
  • Fabric - blues and whites to make waves
  • Pasasol
  • Gold refelectors
  • Face paints

Location - Studio

  • Set 1 - Performance element. We want leaves to cover the studio floor and logs diagonally across. We want a naturalistic setting.
  • Set 2 - Bikes. Again we want to keep the leaves covering studio floor with 2 bikes on a platform infront of a blue screen.
  • Set 3 - Boat. We want to create this fake but real setting, using fake waves and a boat to make it look as if out on a sunny day. The waves being the width of the studio and the boat slightly bobbing up and down.

Perfomance Section

Now our timeline is in place, we are now discussing the performance aspect of the video. Seeing as the band are relatively new we feel that we are going to keep their perfomarnce quite simple and keep it very clearly focused on the two of them. However, we want their style image to be clearly portrayed, for example, the pair are quite natural, therefore choosing their performance to be set in a studio but transforming it to look like a more natural setting, even though it is inside. We have decided to do this as we feel it is likely to captivate their target audience and show the duo off as themselves, keeping it authentic.

Timeline

Below is our timeline.
Firstly we split our timeline up into 30 second sections. We then went through the song and picked out the key lines of lyrics. Once we had done this we went through the song again and picked out the different instruments which are used, and slot them into the timeline, stating when they were used and when they were not. We did this so we can make clear choices so we could decide where to place key images. Secondly where best to highlight the performance and thirdly where best to emphasise the concept and the star image.

We then disscussed what imagery we should or could use for our pop video and which would be most effective and fit in with the style of our track and the star image we are trying to create.








Track Choice

My group have decided to use the track 'Bruises' by Chairlift as our bands debut promo video. This song we feel will show off them as a band and appeal to their target audience. The duo are quite down to earth and want to keep true to their roots, therefore this song really fits into the genre they wish to be in and also it is a song that directly targets their target audience. Chairlift are signed to Kanine Records, however, in the lesson today, we have decided that Faulkes would be under Polydor records which is a subsidiary of the Universal Music group. Polydor was originally set up as an independent record label before become part of Universal, so it has to ability to handle more of an independent style band but to make them a huge success allowing them to have bigger budget for music videos, performances etc. Also, the track is very catchy as it is quite repititive, so thereofore, for a debut promo video this song is a perfect choice.

However, we did have some other track ideas that were brought up and discussed in the lesson. Another track was 'Not Nineteen Forever' by The Courteeners. This track would have meant though that our band would have had to have changed as they will be more of a rock bannd. Although, this track has been put into consideration.

Although, because we liked this idea of having a band made up of just a boy and a girl, we considered covering a song by 'Everything but the girl' - 'Missing'. As this song fits the genre aswell as they style we wished to achieve, and also because it was in the nineties it is quite likely that it could be covered again in the present day. They were signed to Virgin Records, this would be useful for us as Virgin Records is part of Polydors franchises and therefore would be easy to cover the song. Also, Absolute Radio which was once Virgin Radio would play this song, so it will help promote the new band.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Institutional and Audience Context - Idea 2

In our group we have a created a band consisting of a boy and a girl – they are a two piece band with the girl, Malena on vocals and the boy, Thor on guitar. They are under the working title of Faulkes. The pair have been friends since a very young age, as they went to school together. They are from Sweden and went to Art School over there. They have always shared a love for music, they decided one summer to try and make it in the music industry. They wanted to be recognizable and show the world their talent; however the felt staying in their small town in Sweden was not going to make their dream come true. The duo decided to hit the road and travel through Europe promoting their music in the hope for when they arrive in the UK they will have built up a fan base and have a strong star image which will give them the opportunity of being signed. Thor is 22, and Malena is 21 and they had been on the road about 8 months before reaching the UK, however they have been performing together for about 6 years in local venues around their hometown and then performed all across Europe in the hope of becoming a success. They have a strong star image in the sense that it is quite unlikely to change as they pair have been together a while, Malena is mainly vocals and she is more the front man in the band. Also, there is this whole mystery on whether the duo or an actual couple or not, this concept keeps them current.
The genre of music they play is Alternative Indie, this helps shape their star image as they are both quite individual characters with a real Art School feel about the two of them, they both seem quite dark characters yet their music represents something more vibrant and happy – yet this contrast works well and helps gives them a concrete star image. The style of Faulkes is something similar to Everything but the Girl from the 80s, using this whole image of the woman being the main icon somewhat in the pair. However their music ability is something far different, something more like the Ting Tings or the White Stripes. When looking at the pair for the first time they will be portrayed as unique individuals with a sense of mystery however their music abilities are far different making them appeal to a wider audience. However, this could be seen as a risk as it could be seen as having commercial implications, although the genre is popular there is a lot of competition in the market at the moment. Nevertheless their strong brand image and the uniqueness of being a male and female duo act is somewhat different to the norm and therefore the commercial implications should be minimized.
Faulkes would be under Polydor records which is a subsidiary of the Universal Music group. Polydor was originally set up as an independent record label before become part of Universal, so it has to ability to handle more of an independent style band but to make them a huge success allowing them to have bigger budget for music videos, performances etc. Other acts signed to Polydor are a huge success in the UK, with acts under their belt like Girls Aloud, The Kaiser Chiefs, Sophie Ellis Bextor and many more. And it also is the UK label for American acts such as Gwen Stefani and Lady GaGa. This choice of label I think would be beneficial to Faulkes as there more relaxed approach will be taken upon and they would become more celeb like making them fit more into the industry but still allowing them to keep their unique approach. Also being a subsidiary of Universal Music Group will allow them to become more a synthetic act but still keep their organic principles.
Faulkes would appeal to both a male and female audience between the ages of 15-25. The target audience I think will be quite a middle class, Caucasian audience all with a higher education, being a band that originates in Europe the target audience have to be able to understand and empathize that they are from a different culture etc. I think, typically fans would listen to chart music but also really enjoy unique acts they have found themselves from browsing on MySpace for example, I think there fans have a real mix in taste of music – seeing as the band have an Art School influence, many of their fans will also come from this background and are able to appreciate them more. Even though they are mainstream they have a real individual context to them.
The visual image for the band is quite different, both Malena and Thor are quite individual in their style and quite dark and mysterious yet their songs and the imagery used for posters and magazines etc. is quite vibrant. The contrast is effective and captures the eye of the target audience. Also the image of Malena being more the front man in the duo – with the careful placement and structure of the images makes their style very unique but work really effectively. Faulkes have not actually made a music video yet – although they have been performing for a while and have wrote more and more songs a video has not yet been created. So this video is the bands promotion, it will be somewhat of a similar quality to its competitors in the same genre. The video would be exhibited on popular music channels such as MTV2, BoxHits and NME TV. We want the music video to be a real representation of the band – really showing their unique quality of this contrast between dark and mysterious and vibrant.

Pop Promo Idea 2



















This group is very different to our other idea. This is a band made up of a boy and a girl. The video is very much based on this idea of being this real scenario but in a fake setting. I very much feel that this juxtaposition of two idea will work very well together and help give the music video this real art school feel about it, which the band want, as they are themselves ex art school pupils. Although, this is their debut music video it is not primarily based on their performance as a group. There is a narrative behind the video focusing on their relationship and their journey - as this is personal to them. However, there is still a strong performance element allowing them to promote themselves as a band.

















Pop Promo Idea 1








We decided to use a 4 piece boy band with this real London-centric feel about them. I feel they very much would fit into the genre of music which is becoming extremely popular today. Their target audience would be 16 to 25 year olds, allowing for both a male and a female target audience. However, they are a group that have a lot of competition in the current market, although I feel they will shine as they have a real British feel and identity about them, something more like Oasis. The video concept is very much based on the performance element of the band - the video is being created to promote them. Therefore, keeping the set very minimal and focusing more on them as a group and on their instruments.


Three Initial Ideas

IDEA 1
Name of Artist: Marla
Avril Lavigne – He Wasn’t
Star Image: Hailey is young and kooky, her style is rather punk like however her favourite colour is pink and she often incorporates this into every outfit. She likes to believe she is quite different and unique as a person and will do/wear whatever she wishes even if she may look a bit weird and wacky but that’s her style. Being a young female artist her target audience is young teenage girls, because of her style and her love for the colour pink her target audience is broader in terms of it reaches out to a number of different teenage girls, as Hailey’s music is more punk rock but she has a real pop twist to it making it more accessible to reach out to a wider target audience. Hailey would definitely be a Synthetic act, as she will be constructed to be able to sell lots of music based on her appearance and personality.
Treatment: 4 piece band in a white studio, all wearing black except really subtle parts of bright pink, for example, pink drum or a pink headband etc. The idea I had in mind, was trying to piece together a puzzle. It begins with the band all playing as if playing a gig but in a studio, ‘parts’ start to break away – it’s as if someone has drawn the puzzle pieces on and sections begin to break away. It then continually cuts between close ups of the individual puzzle pieces with the outline of the puzzle, I think that giving the pieces puzzle like shapes will really look effective. The video cuts between the puzzle pieces and close ups of Hailey and her band performing and just ‘goofing’ around as the puzzle is trying to be completed. I want the video to have a slight pop-art effect, using a colour palette of really only three colours; black, white and pink I feel should work really well together and give it this slightly futuristic feel, yet it will still feel young and be able to appeal to its target audience.

IDEA 2
Name of Artist: Liquid
The Prodigy – Warriors Dance
Star Image: Liquid would probably be more of a Synthetic star as the act would probably have been created to fit into the charts however her star image is based more on the music rather than the actual artist. Seeing as the music is more dance base the act is not solely based around the singing its more the act itself. This type of music will appeal more to an older teenage audience to a young adult audience, as this music would be commonly played in more club scenes making it only really available to this age group.
Treatment: All black to begin with flashes of white light flickering on and off, as the music begins you see the back of a girl only her hair but like swaying to the slow music. As she begins to sing close up of her face only, the flashes of light are still flickering – it will look as if she has just woke up and she is not really too sure as to where she is. She sings directly into the camera, as the dance break in the music occurs the lights come up and it’s her dancing, there are about 5 images of her doing this set routine to the music, it keeps cutting back to her looking in a daze but it’s all like inside her head e.g using swirls and her head spinning around to make it look like she is in a state of confusion. As the music progresses the girl begins to join in with the dancers that are too her but are ‘fake’ it’s as if she has become under a spell. However when singing solo it cuts back to her on her own in this state of confusion and in a trance. I would like to keep the cuts fast throughout the majority of the video to give it this state of confusion, however at the beginning and at the end keep the cuts very long and slow and keeping her very still as I want there to be a clear difference in her state of mind. The finishing shot will be the same as the beginning the flashes of white light flickering on and off seeing the back of her hair swaying to the music. At the end an alarm clock will ring – proving that this was all just a dream.

IDEA 3
Name of Artist: Layla Little
Star Image: Layla would fit into the more organic acts, as she is quite raw. She is a young female who sings and creates what she wants, she has performed in small pubs around her village for a few years and has now eventually broke out. However she writes all her own tracks and wants to keep this way making the most of her unique sounds.
Treatment: A white studio with a girl (Layla) sitting on the floor – with all Polaroid camera pictures on the floor surrounding her. The pictures match some of the lyrics, when she refers to ‘the guy I could never get ‘coz his girlfriend was pretty fit and everyone who knew her loved her so’ the picture that represents this comes to life a reenact of the scenario as if she was there, it’s her memory. However over the top of the actions some of the words are in a typed font just rolling over the top – as if it’s a dream and she is trapped, she wants to escape but can’t get out. This is there to reiterate her pain. As she becomes happier in the lyrics and realizes she is over this ‘man’ she begins to tear up the pictures as she realizes she can be just as happy.

A2 PRODUCTION COURSEWORK

Brief:
A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options;
  • Website homepage for band
  • A cover for its release on CD
  • A magazine advertisement for the DVD/CD.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Advanced Portfolio Preliminary Task



















Above is a PowerPoint Presentation of the Advance Preliminary Task - we had to create a new artist either synthetic or organic and make an album cover with a series of publicity shots to go along side it. The artist our group created was a synthetic artist named Marla - she is created to fit into the pop genre and is set out to appeal to a young teenage female audience. Her star image is fun, quirky and punky. She can be seen as the 'nouveu pop princess'. My group felt there is a gap in the market for a new pop act. We were very happy with the finished result of our publicity shots and the album cover - however, now looking back on them I wish we did not use the black and white shots as they dont seem to fit the publicity campaign - the more pop art theme we found was more suitable and would definately reach out to the target audience.