Photoshop/InDesign Learning

Photoshop/InDesign Learning

CD Packaging Layout

CD Packaging Layout

The CD packing will be laid out like a standard CD. It will have a front and a back and will open and close and surround the CD. It will be similar to a book because of the way it opens. The whole front of the CD will be a picture of the artist and in the bottom left hand corner is the artist's name. The whole back of the CD is another picture but not of the artist and will have a list of songs on.


This is what the front of the CD packaging will look like. It is just a picture of the artist and the artist's name in the bottom left hand corner. 

This is what the back of the CD packaging will look like. It is another picture but not of the artist, it is a picture of a lake and has a list of the songs in the bottom left hand corner.

Here is an example of how the CD packaging will look and how it will open and close etc.

This is an example of what the inside of the CD packaging will look like. This layout is just the same layout as a standard CD.

Research Into CD Packaging

Research Into CD Packaging

Below are three different CD packaging examples. They may be different but in many ways they are similar. They are all square and fit around the actual CD itself. They all seem the size size as well because they fit round a standard sized CD. They all seem to be made out of paper/card. There seems to be a design on every front of the CD packaging examples except the last one. The first one has music notes and the artists name on it with a coloured square around it, the second one has a group of trees that appear to be in a forest in monochrome colours and the third has the lettering cut out and the whole cover is just red. The third one is very plain and simple compared to the others. However having the lettering cut out is really effective and you straight away notice it.

The third one differs quite a lot to the first two. It is just one plain colour and has no text, pictures, patterns etc on. It just has the lettering cut out of the card/paper. The CD itself seems to match the actual packaging. The first CD is purple and it matches the coloured square that surrounds the artists name.The second CD is white and has a red pattern in the middle with a black circle surrounding it. This matches the CD packaging because of the colour scheme. The monochrome colours seems to be the thing that is the same throughout. The third CD is red and matches the whole front cover of the CD packaging. Grey is also a colour in this CD packaging and on the CD. The grey goes quite well with the red and as it is a simple colour, it makes the red stand out.

The first CD packaging folds around the CD. The second CD packaging surrounds the CD but the CD just slips into it. The third CD packaging is quite similar to the second one except it slips in a different way also it has a cover that slips over the CD.

You can't see the back of the CD packaging but I think the first one has the same pattern on the back as it does on the front and I think second one is showing us the front and the back as you can see the same CD but two different pictures. I think the back of the third one will just be red. All of the backs will have a list of the songs that are on the artists album.

Magazine Advert Layout

Magazine Advert Layout

The artist's name will be at the top of the page and will be big and bold. The picture of the artist will take up most of the page therefore it will be really big. The album name will be similar to the artist's name except it will be a little bit smaller. The information about the album will be the release date.

Research Into Magazine Adverts

Research Into Magazine Adverts

Below are three different artists' music magazine adverts. All three artists are female. They are also quite similar to our artist, Louise Champion. They are similar in a few different ways. They are all female solo artists and their music fits into a similar genre.

On each magazine advert, the artists name is big and bold. Their name is big and bold so you straight away notice who the artist is. The artists' new album name is also included on the magazine advert and so is some of their new songs. The songs that are included are the artists' most recent songs that most people would have heard. These songs are included on the magazine advert because if people like them songs, it'll make them want to buy the album to get them songs. However the main text that is noticeable is the artist name and their album name. Also on each magazine advert, a large picture of the artist is included. The picture in fact, takes up most of the advert.

On each of these magazine adverts, only three or four colours are used. The colour scheme is kept plain and simple. On each ot these magazine adverts the text that seems to stand out and be different is the artists name, for example 'JessieJ', 'Rihanna' and 'Lana  Del Ray' all stand out and are all different colours to the rest of the text on the advert.

Each magazine advert seems to be about the same size as they would appear in a standard magazine. They would all be a full page advert.

Rough Cut

Rough Cut

Here is the link to my Rough Cut on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vI8Okq5euU

Shooting Schedule

Shooting Schedule

The majority of our music video will be filmed in January and February as the weather is cold this time of year and will go well with the ideas we have for the video. Some of the parts of the music video we were planning on shooting in a snowy environment to give a Christmas effect. The beginning of the year is normally the time where snow is likely to fall. Our back up plan for this will be to get fake snow or visit a place where snow is falling.

The parts of the video that need to be shot inside can be shot anytime as the weather will not effect us in any way. The parts that are shot in complete darkness with only the fairy lights should be shot in the evening when light through the windows is not visible. It needs to be in complete darkness with only the fairy lights as the only type of light seen. This part should be shot as near as possible to the shooting of the filming outside due to the idea of consistency, if the main actress changes her appearance in any way during the filming of the music video, it wont be as consistent.

January/February: Film the shots that will take place outside.

February: Shots inside. Shots that will take place in the house in the darkness, the timing will be negotiable as it doesn't necessarily have to be at a specific time.

Date and Time	Frame/ Section	People Involved	Equipment Needed	Location of Shot	Problems and Solutions
January 24th	Verses	Louise Champion (actor), Annabel Hawkins, Shazida Begum & Louise Williams (directors)	Camera, Tripod	Clayfield Copse
January 27th	Choruses	Louise Champion (actor), Annabel Hawkins, Shazida Begum & Louise Williams (directors)	Camera, Tripod, Photo Albums	Louise's House (Various Rooms)
January 31st	Bridge	Louise Champion (actor), Annabel Hawkins, Shazida Begum & Louise Williams (directors)	Camera, Tripod, White Bed Sheets	Louise's House (Conservatory)
February 3rd	Verses	Louise Champion (actor), Annabel Hawkins, Shazida Begum & Louise Williams (directors)	Camera, Car	Driving Around

Storyboard

Storyboard

Location Choices

Location Choices

We have included various locations to use in our video. Clayfield Copse is our main one. We chose to use Clayfield Copse as it is a big forest. We wanted somewhere empty so we could have the main actress walking around on her own. Also there are many trees in Clayfield Copse and we wanted trees to be nearby as we wanted leaves in our video. We wanted leaves because is gives that Autumn/Winter effect which is wanted for our music video as it has connotations of winter in the lyrics. There are also quite a lot of hills at Clayfield Copse. We are planning to shoot off fireworks and being on a field will make that idea more effective. The fireworks and sparklers will be viewed from a distance.

Another location in our video is the main actresses house as it gives the effect of the family side of the story behind the lyrics. We will be adding in old home videos and pictures that were taken before her uncle passed away. Therefore the main actresses house will be in the video.

Another location in our video may be a hospital room. We will be using this location only if we are allowed and if it is possible. We were thinking about using a hopital room to get some specific footage as the lyrics of the song we are doing make some references to being in a hospital "bed bound". If this idea fails we have considered going to the main actresses house and trying to turn one of her rooms into a sort of hospital styled room. We will attempt to do this by using hospital related things such as a white bed, white lamp and just white things in general.

 

Actors And Props

Actors And Props

Actors:

Louise is the main person in our video. She's the main focus in the video and is the main actress. The only other time we see other people on our video is when the flashbacks appear and when Louise is thinking about old memories. The other people are Louise's family members.

Props:

As a group, we have decided to include old footage and pictures which have been previously recorded and taken as most of them include Louise's uncle in them. They will also emphasise the fact that he is gone now and will show how the past was different to now. This therefore means that the props and people included within those scenes will be out of our hands.

In our video at this precise moment we don't really have any props apart from the main actresses guitar. The main actress is actually playing the guitar as well. Apart from the guitar we don't really have any props as we only really recorded the actress outside by herself.

Other props that we will need to consider within the other scenes include:

- Fireworks and Sparklers
- Christmas related props: Christmas tree, decorations etc.
- Hospital related props: White bed, white lamp and just white things in general.
- Microphone: Will be included within the music video in scene where the main actress will be singing in a dark room by herself.

Costume Ideas

Costume Ideas

We have chosen to keep everything plain and simple. The type of clothing will be plain and casual. As it is Winter, the main actress is wearing a Winter coat, also the rest of her clothing will be appropriate for Winter.The colour of the clothing is neutral, for example the colour of the main actresses coat in parts of our video is Khaki. Throughout the video the main actress will only change once or twice. The outfits will always be plain and casual though.

We have decided to make the clothing match to what season it is. As well as this being appropriate we have done this because it fits the scene and makes the shot look better. For example there is a shot where the main actress is singing and leaves start to blow around her, so we thought her in a Winter coat would look good.

As the main actress is mainly the only person in our video, we only really need to worry about her costumes. There are other people in our video but they are the main actresses family members and they're part of a memory so we don't need to worry about their costumes as it is old footage.

The main actress will have her hood up to represent the parts of the song that are about shutting yourself off from the rest of the world and feeling lonely. The dull colour scheme will enable any other colours or effects e.g. the fireworks to really stand out.

 

iMovie 09

iMovie 09

Last year me and my group created a video using iMovie 09. We had never used iMovie 09 before so we didn't know how to do anything. So we taught ourselves and it was just trial and error whilst making our video. Using iMovie 09 we was able to make the video in black and white, add in transitions and cut down the clips to the length we wanted them to be. We was also able to cut out the sounds and put the music in with the video.

Once we understood how to do everything, we got the hang of it and knew how to do what we wanted to do.

Below is our music video. This video was the first video that we used iMovie 09 to create. 

To import clips onto iMovie 09 you will need to import the clips from either a camera which you have used to film or from the computer you are using iMovie 09 on. Once the clips have been uploaded they will appear in the event section at the bottom of the IMove 09 screen. The event section lets you keep your clips organised and if you use a clip, an orange line appears underneath the clip to show that you have used that specific clip. To then add these clips to the actual video you have drag the cursor over the part of the clip you want and then click on the clip and drag it into the top section of the iMovie 09 screen.

Before adding the clips, if you want to cut them down then you do this in the event section. You click on the clip that you want to cut down and an orange line should appear around the whole clip. Then all you have to do is drag the end of the orange line down to cut the clip down to whatever length you want.

Once you have added all of your clips to the top section of the iMovie screen you can then add transaction such as wipes to make the clips flow from one to the other. You can also remove the original sound from the clips such as background noises and voices. After you have muted all of the clips, you can add your music. To edit the original sound, you need to double click on the clip and select audio and then select the audio link, this will take you to the audio section of the clip. Once you have down this you need to turn the volume of the clip down or fully mute it. To change when the music begins to fade into silence you need to add a 'fade to black' transition at the very end of the video, and elongate the timing of the transition to, for example, 10 seconds, this means that the music and the video will start to fade out 10 seconds before the music video finishes.

You import any sound the same was as you imported the clips. As long as the sound is a file you can import it the same way as the clips and again, it appears in the event section at the bottom of the iMovie 09 screen and again, to add it you drag it to the top section of the iMovie 09 screen.

Transitions can be found at the bottom right of the iMovie screen. You can use these wherever in your video. It's best to use them to make clips flow from one to another. A fade is really effective at the end of a video, it is effective as if shows that the video has ended.

Text is useful for introducing your video, subtitles and annotations, identifying speakers, closing credits and more. In iMovie there are a variety of 'titles', many of which can be adjusted and customized. To access the titles, click the T button, which opens the title pane with all of iMovie’s pre-made title templates.

Audience Testing

Audience Testing

Annabel uploaded our Rough Cut to her Facebook and she got feedback from her Facebook friends about our Rough Cut. The feedback she got was mostly positive and constructive criticism was given.

Initial Ideas For Our Music Video

Initial Ideas For Our Music Video

- Black and white flashbacks. The whole of the video is going to be in colour but the flashbacks are in black and white to separate the past from the present.

- A lot of focus on memories. The song is about Kieron's battle with Cancer and his death, therefore the video will include things to do with the past to show how everyone's life was before Kieron found out he had Cancer.

- Direct eye contact when focus is on the main actress. This will be used to show emotion.

- Low saturation. This will be used to keep the video simple.

- Simple clothes, simple makeup, simple setting. Everything will be kept simple so the main focus is on the story that is being told through the video and the lyrics. Also everything will be kept simple to make it look more natural and real.

- Lyrical links. This is to make the video narrative based. We are making the video narrative based so the video can tell the story that the lyrics are telling. However we are making parts of the video performance based because Louise is going to be in the video herself singing.

- Shots moving in slow motion. These types of shots could be used to show time. Shots in slow motion almost look as if time is nearly frozen. The use of slow motion shots in our video could be to show that they want time to go slower as everyone wants more time with Kieron.

- Lots of closeups to show emotion. 

- Lots of long shots to represent the feeling of being lost and alone. 

- Shots of the main actress looking at old photographs. This is to show memory. These shots will be in black and white as she is reminiscing about the past.

Directors' Previous Music Videos

Directors' Previous Music Videos

As the only music videos Louise has done are mostly just live performances, we have all decided as a group to analyse some more directors who have directed music videos for artists that are similar to Louise e.g. JoJo.

Erik White

Erik White is an American director, his main focus is directing music videos.

Erik White directed 'Leave (Get Out)' by JoJo, who was an artist we considered using a song by. The music video takes place in a high school. JoJo is seen with friends and dancing with cheerleading girls. The camera mainly focuses on JoJo. There are cuts used going from JoJo to someone playing the guitar throughout the video. JoJo's outfit changes five times in the video. She is made to look like a normal teenage girl. There are quite a few different scenes shown in this music video. There's a scene when JoJo is in the toilets. where she is stood by the lockers. where she is sat in front of the lockers, where she is dancing with her friends and there's a couple more. The video ends how it begins, with JoJo sat on the floor, in front of the lockers. Right at the end of the video JoJo gets up and walks away. 

Roman White

Roman White is a music video director who has directed most of Carrie Underwood's videos. He has also directed music videos for Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and more. He directed 'Because Of You' by Kelly Clarkson.

Narrative Based And Performance Based Video Analysis

Narrative Based And Performance Based Video Analysis

Narrative Based

Often there are stories to accompany music videos. These can either link to the song or contrast to the song (either buying into the audience expectations or subverting them). Think of Don't Mug Yourself by The Streets OR Step Into My World by Kylie.

Don't Mug Yourself has a simple narrative told through different snapshots of the young boy's relationship breakdown. This narrative conforms to the lyrics of the song and buys into audience expectation of both the artist and the 'idea' of the song. Other examples are Michael Jackson's Thriller and Weezer's Buddy Holly.

Step Into My World had a more complex surreal narrative. This narrative shows Kylie walking through 'a day in the life of', but every time she starts the day again, elements are repeated with different consequences. The song does conform to some of the lyrics i.e. the idea of stepping into Kylie's surreal world, bit it subverts the idea creatively looking at repetition and consequence. Other examples are The Chemical Brother's The Boxer (this follows a boy trying to get his ball back) and Robbie Williams' Rock DJ (where the models are not satisfied until they literally get a piece of Robbie!). 

Performance Based

This is literally a performance of an artist to their music. It does not mean that they have to be playing their instruments or singing to the camera. It does not even have to be the artist singing.

Here are some examples of creative performance based music videos:

- Daft Punk's Around The World the performance here is by dancers dressed as skeletons, spacemen, jocks and many more doing a repetitive routine that is addictive to watch.

- Notorious BIG Sky's The Limit the performance here is by children performing as Biggie, Puff Daddy and their many, many women. It's interesting to watch the confident performances.

- White Stripe's Hardest Button To Button the performance here is by Jack and Meg White. But the director digitally repeats their performance to move them through some interesting urban scenes.

Analysis Of Track Lyrics

Analysis Of Track Lyrics

Kieron:

December nineteen, nearly Christmas day, A
The demon inside you, decided to come out and play, A
And as you'd expect, we feared the worst, B
But the doctors managed, to ease all the hurt, C
The chemo would come, and the steroids too, D
But for now, we had Christmas, E
Our family, and we had you. D

And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same B

I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B

The next year came, so did the pain and the blues, A
Still tinged with this hope, that it would all be over so soon, B
But then they said 'it's terminal', and cancer got so personal, C
No way this could be worse at all, I can't stand, I only fall, C
Scream so loud, and strike a wall... C

But I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever be the same D

I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could stay B 

And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round... A
And I think I'm being selfish, because I can't bring myself, to visit you now, B
I just want to remember you as the uncle I always knew, C
So I'm sorry. D

But I swear, I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B 
We might be 'fine' C
But we won't ever, ever, be the same D

And I don't mind A
What anyone else has to say B
We might be 'fine' C
But we'd be better if you could have stayed. D

Because, February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day, A
That demon inside you, decided, to take you away. A

Louise wrote this song herself. Kieron is a song that Louise wrote over a period of 14 months, documenting her uncle's battle with Cancer from December 2011 to February 2013.

She chose Kieron for the title as it is her uncle's name. I think having his name as the title is really simple but also effective. Having his name as the title automatically tells us who the song is about, but it doesn't tell us what the song is about. It doesn't tell us that he was battling Cancer and that he died. Louise doesn't mention the name Kieron once in her lyrics.

We find out that he was battling Cancer and that he died through the lyrics. The lyrics tell us the whole story about his battle and his death. The first line 'The demon inside you, decided to come out and play.', explains to us how Kieron's Cancer started to attack. The last line 'That demon inside you, decided, to take you away.', tells that he has died because of the cancer.

The fact that she refers to Cancer as 'The demon' explains to us how horrible Cancer is and how badly it affected Kieron. Louise doesn't actually mention the word 'Cancer' a lot in this song. She doesn't need to as we straight away realise her uncle is ill with Cancer as she mentions the word 'Chemo'. Louise makes quite a few references to Cancer. This could be an example of a semantic field. Louise is also very specific when it comes to time. 'December nineteen, nearly Christmas day', she is very specific here because she tells us when it all started. She also tells us when everything ended as well, 'February seventeenth, just after Valentine's day'.

Louise has made the lyrics rhyme. The letters in pink at the end of each line indicate the rhyming pattern. This pattern is just to do with the last word from each line. Louise makes words rhyme within the line e.g. 'And now you're bed bound, often with friends and family round...', 'Bound' and 'Round' rhyme but they are included in the same line.

Louise used quite a lot of repetition in her lyrics. She repeats 'I don't mind' quite a lot. She also repeats 'We might be 'fine''. The fact that the word 'fine' is in quotation marks gives the impression that they wont be fine, also that they might not now what being fine actually is. She also uses the word 'might', this indicates that she is uncertain whether they will be fine or not. She seems to repeat this verse quite a few times but she usually changes the last line: 
And I don't mind
What anyone else has to say
We might be 'fine'

The last line of this verse changes, it's been 'But we'd be better if you could have stayed.' and it has also been 'But we'd be better if you could stay.'. It's been a few different things actually. I think Louise does this just to emphasise what she says in the verse, but she changes the last line to follow on with the story. The first line that she uses is 'But we won't ever be the same' and the last line that she uses is 'But we'd be better if you could have stayed.'.

Artist's Target Audience

Artist's Target Audience

I think the target audience would most likely be young females than young males as young females would be able to relate to her songs more than males would, especially 'Our Song' which is about a couple who broke up. Most of Louise's songs are emotional and get to you. Kieron is a very emotional song. It actually made me cry, so I feel that other young females would feel the same way about this song. Louise is a young female herself, so she writes and sings songs about what girls like and feel. She writes and sings songs about her life as well.

When I say young females I mean females from the age of 12 to the age of 18. Females of this age like loads of different things. They are into, fashion, hair, makeup, shoes etc. Females of this age usually worry about their image. Also girls of this age are interested in boys and some get into relationships, so they're interested in love. Some have been in relationships and have been hurt. Some have been through breakups too. A lot of Louise's songs are to do with love and breakups therefore girls of this age could relate to her songs and most likely, like her songs.