First Draft

 

•   Here is my first draft for my music video of "This Is The Life" by Amy MacDonald. The black areas at the beginning and near the end of my music video show that I need to edit in the third and final shoot later on, when I've uploaded the analysis of my third shoot.

•   The reasoning for my out-focus into focus at the beginning of the music video, is because Amy MacDonald used this idea at the beginning of her video to 'Poison Prince' (in my list of conventions post). The out-focus in her video is because the music is just starting up, and that's what I was doing just before she starts singing. Although, the focus is a bit long at the beginning so I'd have to make an ending of that specific clip longer and shorten the beginning, so there's no long wait before she sings. I also faded the ending out like the video "Poison Prince" by Amy MacDonald as well but I wanted to out-focus it as well because it give a nice clean end to the music video.

•   As I add in the prologue to the music video, at the beginning, the lip-syncing will adjust and fit into the song playing in the background. This is because I have noticed the lip-sync is a bit fast at the beginning.

•   When I also go back and change clips and adjust the duration of them, I am going to change the one at around two thirds into the video. This is of Sophie dancing on her own in front of me (this shot is explained in the analysis of shoot 2). It was out of focus and when I changed the lighting to make her look brighter, the quality of the shot got worse, so as I do my final draft of my music video, I'll be sure to change it for another shot, or re-film it if I really wanted that shot.

[Shoot 2] Analyzing My Shots

  Here I'll be showing you three shots from my second shoot which I could possibly use for my finished music video and three that I could work with bits of or not use in the finished piece.

(I uploaded four stills for each sequence of continuous shots. There is one video I will try to upload. If I'm not successful in uploading due to errors again I'd have to make do with screenshots again.)

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  In this shot I took of some guests to the party just hanging round in the lounge. I like this shot and I could use this in my music video. I decided to use this shot because it reflects our generation on how we socialize nowadays and at general parties. I wanted this shot in the lounge because at the beginning of the music video I'm planning to have the acting lead singer (Christina) lying down like she collapsed on the sofa and woke up early hungover the next day.

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  In my second shot I have taken is most of the boys from the party, and asked them to bundle on top of one another and jump about. I am considering using this shot for my music video because these sequences of shots can be useful linking the shots with a line from the song I've chosen to use. For example; "and the people they were dancing to the music vibe" and this is exactly what they're doing. 

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  For my third shot I've taken, we have the acting lead singer, Christina, having a joke about with two of her friends in the shot. I think its good that I've incorporated shots with the singer as well as some shots not including her all the time. Although, it is a little bit fuzzy but I think it'll look okay once I put the choppy edits of the shots together with the rest of the music video shots, when I am finished. 

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Although, there are some I don't know whether to use them in my music video at all, due to bad focusing, lighting etc.

  For this shot, I am unsure whether I'd like to use it in my music video. It shows of one of guests dancing and waving her arms about, in the lounge. Fortunately, I didn't film or catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror behind the guest dancing because the shot could look worse. I could use it if I am desperate for extra shots but I guess it depends if it will fit in with the editing. 

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  For this next shot, I've got my friend, Sophie, dancing about in front of the camera. Although, I wanted the guests to focus or look into the camera lense as such (thats if they choose to because it doesn't matter) as well as the lighting and focus isn't done well so that was my fault. I think it would look good though if I put a lighter filter over the shot so it wouldn't look so dark.

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  For my final shot I'm analyzing, I have Sophie and Sam in the focus of this shot, doing what people do after a party/a night out; a kebab. I think this was a good use of symbolic usage because it represents what this generation typically does after a good night, or something along the lines. Unfortunately Sophie looked at the camera again, which I didn't want her to do but when it comes to the editing process, I can cut out the part where shes looking at me/the camera and it'll look as if it didn't happen. 

[Shoot 1] Analyzing My Shots

  Here I'll be showing you three shots which I could possibly use for my finished music video and three that I could work with bits of or not use in the finished piece.

(I had a problem uploading the videos onto the blog and kept getting "errors", so I took four screenshots of each shot I analysed.)

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  Here is one of the first shots for the music video which I really like to use. It shows the (acting) lead singer, Christina, leaning against a wall in the subway, in town. This shot was taken as a practice still shot, as I was getting to grips with the focus on the lense and I really like how it turned out. I also think that adding a part of the quote on the wall, about life in general, could be a good touch for my music video, because the lyrics talk about how individuals spend their lives.

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  This clip shows the lead singer in the same location as the previous shot, but a close up of her with the quote still in the background, which focuses from the background to the foreground. I really like this shot because close ups important in this video; Amy MacDonald's version of "This Is the Life" shows a lot of close ups in her video of her singing and being in still shots. Although, with editing I could possibly break the 180 degree rule with her facing one way in one shot (before I cut away to the next shot) then her facing the opposite direction. I'd have to be careful.

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  Finally here's one of the clips I quite like in the street lamp-lights of town, the lead singer just walks down the street - no singing. I would like to make this scene choppy just like how Amy MacDonald has done in her music video. I like the change of lighting here. This gives the impact on urban life from the singer's point of view and what her generation usually do nowadays.

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  Although... these shots I can take bits from because either they're not good quality in some places, lighting change from the background (outside) and light near the lead singer, the singer not in complete frame etc.

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  Here I have a shot down the subway showing the lead singer leaning against the wall on her phone. I do like how I've placed the camera (angles) but it's the lighting which is the problem, and if I used this shot, it might let me drop a few marks because of the blue light. If I do want this shot badly I could always try and place a filter over the blue lighted areas of outside.

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  This is one of the many shots of the same location with the lead singer, Christina. This was taken in town in front of the road into town and the car park, where I thought it'll be good with people walking around as well. Although, I do like the look of shots i.e.; the out-focused background, and everything being shown in the background, she is out of frame. I do want to use these shots though, especially for the chorus parts. There is nothing much I can do apart from to re-film them, but it depends if I have enough time to do it again, also taking into consideration of the possible continuity errors I can make, I don't know whether it's worth risking. As well as a few lip-syncing errors and breaks of laughter (shown in the fourth screenshot) after a verse/a chorus, it needed to be taken (the shot of the singer in the location) many times.

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  Finally here is shot at the car park where the lead singer is shown to pace down the alleyway towards the back of town, in the dark. I do like this shaky camera shot (this shot was more of a test to see if it would work) although it cuts to the blue lighting from outside which doesn't look right with the lights inside the car park. I could fix this with filters in the editing process, but it's difficult when I can easily break the 180 degree rule with my movement around the lead singer, because she could be facing one way and when it cuts back to the same shot she can face another way. I could use bits of this but I wouldn't use the second half of the video, due to out-focus of the camera, blue lighting, lip-syncing being out from the song being played, and it just doesn't look right to me.

• These shots are based in an urban setting to represent their ordinary life of the singer's generation. I chose the local town centre for shooting because the song isn't trying to show its set in a glamourous/big city i.e.; London, but it's tryingt o show the grundgy average town where an average person will live near.

Shooting [Completed - 17/01/14]

First Shoot

• Aims

To complete all of the town scenes from the storyboard of my chosen song "This Is The Life". About 10 - 15 shots

• Locations

In Maidenhead town centre.

• Personel

The singer only (Christina)

• Equipment

Camera - Canon SLR
Tripod
SD Card

• Date and Times

09/11/13 - 4:00pm ~ 6:30pm

• Other Considerations

I have a spare SD card just in case all of the memory space has been used up. Plus it could rain the time we're going to film.

• Evaluation

It was raining, just as we thought, so we cancelled filming that day. But 10/11/13 we will try and film again at 3:00pm ~ 5:00pm.

11/11/13 - I've finished all of the town shots and tracking shots for the beginning of the music video. Next shoot would be the prologue.

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Second Shoot

• Aims

To complete the shots taken at the party scenes. About 15 shots.

• Locations

At a house

• Personel

Acting Singer (Christina)

other guests (filming at a birthday party)

• Equipment

Camera - Canon SLR
Tripod
SD Card

• Date and Times

30/11/13 - 5:00pm ~ 10:00pm

• Other Considerations

I have a spare SD card just in case all of the memory space has been used up.

• Evaluation

01/12/13 - I have completed the filming from the party that I will be later taking stills from the film to create a choppy edit.

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Third Shoot (Final)

• Aims

To complete the final shots for the prologue and the ending, for the narrative to come together in my music video.

• Locations

At the house I shot in from the second shoot.

• Personel

Acting Singer (Christina)

• Equipment

Camera - Canon SLR
Tripod
SD Card

• Date and Times

13/01/14 - 4:00pm ~ 5:00pm

• Other Considerations

I have a spare SD card just in case all of the memory space has been used up. Also I'd have to film in the time where the sun is just going down, so it can simulate the early morning.

• Evaluation

14/01/14 - Couldn't film due to the house I was going to be filming in was not available.

17/01/14 - I completed all the shots needed for the prologue and the ending.

18/01/14 - The filming and editing is now all completed.
 

Lyric Analysis - "This Is The Life"

  Here are the lyrics to the song I have chosen from Amy MacDonald called "This Is The Life".

  The lyrics connote some crazy night and you wake up hungover and don't know where to go or what to do. I got this idea from the lines "Where you gonna go, where you gonna sleep tonight?". Although having a great time, having mates to go out with and drink with, eventually you are on your own, you don't have anything solid to fall back on, that's what I'm thinking of when I hear this line. It could mean that having the realization hit them in the morning that they have nothing and having no idea about where their future's going or heading towards. There is another way you can read the lyrics; it could be a story about how her life before she grew to fame. For example, herself being the struggling musician who is on the road playing gigs, getting better and loves her job of making music, but with that comes not knowing where your going be or where you're going stay, because you haven't got all the luxuries of a famous star just yet. It's a catching upbeat track I think the fact if you listen and analyse the lyrics properly it has quite a dark and 'low' meaning underneath the 'jolly' sounding beat.

Ideas for DigiPak (Magazine Advert)

For example; Kings of Leon

Advert for Kings of Leon of their new album.

•   The top of the poster we have the bands name. This is one of the most important elements in a magazine advertisement due to people who’ve bought the magazine, they would want to know who they are more than anything so they can search them up later and find out about them.

•   The eye-catching album art gets you interested in what the artwork is supposed to say about the genre of music they’re selling you. It’s a creative conceptual piece with a corner of each band member with a morphed owl made with the band member’s faces. To me, with the use of the same colour, just in different shades, gives me the impression they are more of a pop-rock band. Also, the symbolism of an owl in the background connotes the animal being nocturnal, and this links in with the album title of "Only By the Night".

•   At the bottom of the magazine advert, it shows the release date of their album, which is important to the viewer so they know when to possibly buy it.

•   The mentioned ways you can buy it is useful to anyone who’s interested in buying their album. E.g.; Play, Amazon.

•   They show the names of their featured songs on the magazine advert, which is useful if some people only like those songs so far. It gets them interested in the rest of the album.

•   Their official website is a good element to mention in the advert to show if they’re fans want to get in touch with them or want to buy their albums, singles or merchandise etc.

Here is my magazine advert development;

• 26/01/14 ~ I like how this has turned out because it's exactly what the effects I'm trying to achieve in this magazine advert; grunge and urban-like qualities. This is quite a contrast towards the CD Cover because the CD is supposed to be more modern and minimalist like most album art is today. For the magazine cover I wanted to get across how the music video is interpreted - an urban outlook in to her generation.

Ideas for DigiPak (CD Cover)

Ideas for DigiPak (CD Cover)

•   I have an idea for my digipak, which could go either way. Except taking a photograph of the artist and manipulating it in Photoshop,  and that I paint the artist (an illustration CD cover).

Examples of paintings/or illustrations of CD Covers

  I got this idea from this website, to show that it has been done before and been used effectively: http://www.redefinemag.com/2011/year-end-list-album-cover-art-illustration-painting-drawing/

  For example; Bon Iver’s “Self Titled” CD Cover is a mixed-medium piece. The artist, Gregory Euclide, also did a second painting for Bon Iver’s single “Calgary”.  Euclide and Daniel Murphy (design & layout) tried to create themes within the picture to do with “memory loss, birth, death, growth and decay” and was created with a mix of painting, drawing and natural materials e.g.; leaves, dirt etc.

  Also, a conceptual piece for an illustration artwork Gillian Welch used for her album cover called “The Harrow & the Harvest”, by John Dyer Baizley (artist & illustrator). The artist uses “symbolism, ornamentation, and thoughtful compositions” to tell stories within a confined working area (the cover).

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•   Or the alternative idea is to create a photograph with meaning and how genre comes across in the album artwork.

  Here’s one website when I researched on iconic album covers; http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2013/08/24/londons-top-ten-iconic-album-covers/

  For example; The Beatles’ cover art (“Abbey Road”) of them walking across a road one-by-one is known by nearly everyone. The photographer, Iain Macmillan, had 10 minutes to get the shot while a policeman held up the traffic.

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(Researching CD cover ideas and I could take inspiration from it and create an image, not exactly like it because my music video and her music videos are form different genres).

• 19-11-13 ~ I tried to take inspiration from the album cover of Madonna's "Celebration". This was just an idea of mine, and I don't know if I will use it for my actual CD cover but it doesn't matter, this was an experiment with stills. As you can see below.
• Madonna's art pop/pop culture album artwork gets inspiration from Andy Warhols pop art era. I have only used the black and white saturation or threshold for the lines of the face and the shadow detail. Unfortunately, after changing the photograph (still) the facial features didn't show up so I had to paint it on a separate layer with a pixellated brush to get the same hard edges as the rest of the threshold effect I've created by the filter.

Here is the original image I worked from.

My experiments with threshold image looks for an example still I took from filming for my music video.

•   01/12/13 ~ For this tester I've taken inspiration from Amy MacDonald's album covers. For example; "A Curious Thing" by Amy MacDonald shows the singer towards the top right hand corner of the album cover, looking at you but as well she seems to face the opposite way. This is what I've done in my interpretation of hers. I've brought out all of the auburn-ish/red colours in the photo and blurred out the background with black, to make her the central figure. I do like this one a lot because it shows what genre of music she creates like Amy MacDonald has done in her album cover i.e.; indie rock, alternative rock, folk.

• 18/01/14 - Here is my final threshold image. All I've done is overlap the second image (above) with the original image I used and lessened the opacity of the layer above (the middle image in the timeline above). I like this and I will use it because it gives a personal feel to the image like i.e.; this is where she was brought up. The pose of her looking away also gives a personal feel to the image due to the shot taken during filming.

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Amy MacDonald's "A Curious Thing" album cover I took inspiration from.

My experiments with a shot I took to try and make it similar to Amy MacDonald's album covers (not just the one shown above). On Gimp (a free photo editing software and custom downloadable brushes), I brightened her face up and made her eye makeup darker. I also multiplied and overlayed the shot with filters to make the red-ish brown colour be the dominant colour. 

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•   14/01/14 ~ I have two album cover drafts. The first one is shown to be a shot taken whilst filming Shoot #1. I chose the handwriting-style font to create a more realistic feel to the album cover, like Amy MacDonald has done with hers, without copying her style of album art exactly. In the second one, is shown an image I've already considered using for my album artwork but changed the colours to create a more reddish look and more of a modern indie look to the album. I will decide soon whether I'll go for no.1 or 2.

•   22/01/14 ~ I have decided to choose the reddish album cover for my CD Cover DigiPak. This is because of the same look that Amy MacDonald's "A Curious Thing" album and which sells herself. I also wanted to get across a personal effect to the album with the use of a handwriting font. I made the font not straight and going off up and getting smaller to give a realistic feel to the album; almost like an autograph.

I found her old album cover, like my reddish filtered album cover that I've chosen for my project.

• 26/01/14 ~ I have found another Amy MacDonald album cover which is like what I've decided to do for my album cover. I preferred my cherry-red colour to her orange tinted album art because my lead singer has reddish auburn hair so it'll bring out the red tones more.

 Back of the CD Cover;

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This was what it looked like before the rough white borders

This is what I changed it into

• 27/01/14 ~ I have changed the original final CD Cover look for one that has white rough edges over it. I decided this because it looked less neat and create a more indie pop/rock genre to the cover.

• 31/01/14 ~ Inside cover of CD