Album Cover and Magazine Advert Thumbnails

These are the pictures we have taken to be a part of our album cover and poster. We took all of our pictures in the studio as I needed to be able to crop the subject out easily if necessary.

Storyboard

These are the storyboards I have drawn illustrating our music video and shots we are preparing to use. We felt that it was important that we knew exactly what we would be doing in prearation to filming to make it a quick and easy process.

Location Planning and Location Shots

Now that we have the main idea for our video all coming together in our heads. It's time we started to plan how we are going to go about creating it.

 

Performance Shots

• Our school studio, using the white background
• The lower ground floor in our 6th form block where we will have big open space
• Outside against by the terrace

Narrative Shots

• Our school common room sofas and work tables
• Our media class room
• Outside walking down the street

We will use this location to film narrative shots between the singer and the boy she is singing about. Within this location we can use different shot types and angles.

We want to create a teenage romance feel to our music video so we will also film narrative shots in our school common room.

We will use our studio for all the performance shots as we want a plain background so it focuses on the artist. This is a common factor in most music videos.

Roles and Responsibilities

There are only two of us in the group therefore we have decided to split the tasks that need doing.

I will be the performer in the music video, and be the person featured in our ancillary task and my partner will be incharge of the camera.

For this project, we will need to edit on two different programs. I am much more able on Photoshop thanmy partner so I will be incharge of the ancillary task and my partner, who is very capable on the video editing software will take on the bulk of that. We will be referring back to eachother to keep ourselves up to date and to make sure the other is happy with what we are doing.

Music Video Narrative and Performance Pitch

The video starts with a girl working at a table in her college, in the background you can see a boy on the sofa reading, she then looks round and this frame is held for a few seconds. This then cuts to mid shot of her in a studio beginning to sing the song. There are several cuts back and fourth to close ups and mid shots in different outfits. We then re-visit the school scene however this time the camera is coming from the direction from the boy and we see him look at her to set up the 'teenage dream'. We want it clear from the beginning who it is she is singing about.

There will be a range of different performance shots in different outfits, and in different locations - some outside and some in the studio. Our narrative shots will include mid shots and long shots of the boy and girl hanging out in school together and clearly looking like they enjoy each others company. At certain points in the song when the lyrics could be slightly suggestive, we will have a close up of her so the audience can have a clear understanding from her facial expressions. Half way through the song there is a moment when it will cut back again to the school scene and we will have a close up of each of them smiling at eachother. We have chosen this because we want it to come across that further on into the song, she begins to get more confident and therefore loses her shyness towards him. During this time, the performance shots will become more snappy and lavish and giving more a 'rocky' performance. The end shot will consist of a two faded shots. One being a close up of her smiling, and the other being of the two of them walking away holding hands.

Initial Video Ideas

Initially, we are thinking that we want our video to be very upbeat and happy. We will want to use a range of different shot types as we want the story to be told more through the performance that the narrative. We will film our shots on a white studio background as we couldn't think a set more appropriate. We want our singer to be dressed very modernly and quite feminine - following the conventions of the actual video.

Narrative wise, we want it to be a very simple 'boy meets girls' sort of thing. We want the audience to recognise who it is she is singing about and we will also encorporate some narrative shots of the two of them together.

Teenage Dream - Lyrical Analysis

Here are the lyrics for our song Teenage Dream. As you can see, the general connotations of the song is that she is totally besotted by her boyfriend and he makes her feel like she is in a stereotypic teenage dream. You can tell from the lyrics that the song is meant to be up beat and happy as she speaks very highly of him.

Teenage Dream
You Think I'm Pretty
Without Any Make-up On
You Think I'm Funny
When I Tell The Punch Line Wrong
I Know You Get Me
So I Let My Walls Come Down
Down...

Before You Met Me
I Was Alright
But Things Were Kinda Heavy
You Brought Me To Life
Now Every February
You'll Be My Valentine,
Valentine...

Let's Go All The Way Tonight
No Regrets, Just Love
We Can Dance Until We Die
You And I
We'll Be Young Forever

You Make Me
Feel Like
I'm Living A Teenage Dream
The Way You Turn Me On
I Can't Sleep
Let's Run Away
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back

My Heart Stops
When You Look At Me
Just One Touch
Now Baby I Believe
This Is Real
So Take A Chance
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back

We Drove To Cali
And Got Drunk On The Beach
Got A Motel And
Built A Fort Out Of Sheets
I Finally Found You
My Missing Puzzle Piece
I'm Complete

Let's Go All The Way Tonight
No Regrets, Just Love
We Can Dance Until We Die
You And I
We'll Be Young Forever

You Make Me
Feel Like
I'm Living A Teenage Dream
The Way You Turn Me On
I Can't Sleep
Let's Run Away
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back

My Heart Stops
When You Look At Me
Just One Touch
Now Baby I Believe
This Is Real
So Take A Chance
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back

I Might Get Your Heart Racing
In My Skin-tights Jeans
Be Your Teenage Dream Tonight
Let You Put Your Hands On Me
In My Skin-tight Jeans
Be Your Teenage Dream Tonight
Toninght,tonight,tonight,
Tonight,tonight,tonight

Yoooouuu...
You Make Me
Feel Like
I'm Livin' A Teenage Dream
The Way You Turn Me On
I Can't Sleep
Let's Run Away
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back
No...

My Heart Stops
When You Look At Me
Just One Touch
Now Baby I Believe
This Is Real
So Take A Chance
And Don't Ever Look Back
Don't Ever Look Back

I Might Get Your Heart Racing
In My Skin Tights Jeans
Be Your Teenage Dream Tonight
Let You Put Your Hands On Me
In My Skin-tight Jeans
Be Your Teenage Dream Tonight
Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight, Tonight

Music Poster Analysis

Part of our ancillary tasks is to create a magazine advert or poster advertising the release of the CD. I have gathered a few existing posters to analyse and draw inspiration from. Each poster is by an artist to similar to the one we will be creating.

This is the poster advertising Jessie J's first album. The poster is very simple and very bold, purposely done by the editor to draw attention. However, there is no information on the poster at all therefore doesn't give the audience much to go by. The poster has a clear picture of the artist and their name which is clearly a typical convention and one that we will need to follow.

This poster is advertising the new release of Katie Perry's album California Gurls. This poster totally contrasts with the previous. The editor has chosen to use lots of bright colours, and swayed away from typical conventions. For example the main image has been put in on an angle for visual affects. This poster is nearer to what we are hoping to create when making our own.

This is the poster advertising Beyonce's live tour. This poster is similar to that of Jessie J's where it is very plain and not a massive use of colour. A pattern that has occured in all of my analysis is that the main subject takes centre stage in the posters, along side their name which both take up most of the poster. I've also noticed that all the subjects look straight into the camera. This is a convention that we will be keen to follow. They all wear similar outfits to the ones they wear in their music video, again, we will follow this tendency.

Music Video Codes and Conventions

After my analysis of the different music videos by Indie/Pop artist I have drawn some conventions of this genre.

All the music videos I analysed followed the generic conventions of all the characters being in love. They all presented female figures being happy. Interestingly, most of the videos didn't involve a man as the other half, it was left to the filming, lyrics and narrative to portray the emotion and characteristics of the song. In our video we will follow the same convention in that the women are telling a story about her love. This is a very traditional representation of women as being the weaker sex. The fact that the videos don't have a male role could contrast this however it could also prove this. Contrastingly, with not having a male character, it is not 100% apparent that the narrative is so obvious, however proving by not having the male character this could show the traditional side of a woman being emotional whatever circumstance.

The majority of shots types throughout the different videos and throughout each song are predominantly close ups and mid shots of the character in performance shots. We were not able to see a conventional narrative shot type as it varied from each music video. This is helpful to us as we know we can be creative when filming to gratify the audience. For example the narrative shots in 'Tears Dry on Their Own' involve the character walking through busy streets whereas shots in ‘Price Tag are mostly of the artist in different costumes that don’t really relate to the narrative - completely contrasting in the stereotypical narrative shots. The lighting in each video has been catered to fit the mood of each song. In some videos the lighting looks very natural and no extreme affects have been used whereas others dim the whole video making it also almost black and white. Out of our analysed videos the only one with special affects was ‘Californian Girls'. This video consists of a lot of edited shots and special effects.

The locations of each music video do not match therefore we cannot see a convention to the videos. This will get rid of the limitations when deciding where to film as we know that there isn't a certain order we will have to follow.

Music Video Analysis

I will now analyse some existing music videos, with a brief idea of what ours will be like we have chosen the music videos which best represent our genre and challenge and explore the codes and conventions. They are all Indie videos, dabbling in Pop.

Jessie J - Price Tag


Katy Perry - California Gurls

Audience Theory

When looking at audience within the research stage of our production it is important to recognise and remember audience theories. Below are some key audience theories which could be a possible help influence on our final products.

The Hypodermic Syringe
The media is like a syringe which injects ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass, have little choice but to accept. For example a person might watch something violent and then may do something violent.

Two Step Flow
Another argument suggests that the masses will experience the media individuality but then they will discuss what they have watched with others and it is the discussion which can then influence people's opinions and behaviour.

Uses and Gratification Theory
We make the choices about what we watch, we also have certain expectations, we expect to be gratified by what we have watched. The types are as followed...

Information
Entertainment
Personal identity
Social empathy/social personal interest
Escapism

This may be more relevant to a short film project, however in our music video there will still be a strong element of narrative and despite the fact we are using song, we have chosen a song which tells a very clear story from start to finish.

Record Company Logo Research

As part of this project we are also given the opportunity to be creative. As well as creating the video, and promotional package we can also come up with our own music company. This name will feature on our promotional packages and any advertising we chose to do.

As you can see, they are all quite plain and basic generally using no more than two or three colours. We have decided to create our own using photoshop which you can see below. When desining our own logo, we will take in to consideration that the colours are basic and we will probably only use black and white. I will create the logo on photoshop getting font ideas from www.dafont.com. I want our logo to be very feminine yet strong, and very artistic.

Moodboard of Existing Album Covers

To gain an understanding of the type of different artists who are similar to Justin Timberlake and singers who have incorporated blends of Indie and Pop into their music, we have put together a moodboard of existing album covers. By this we can see themes and continuing trends that will be beneficial when putting together our promotional package.

 One aspect of our project is to create a album cover to go alongside our music video. In preperation for this, we decided to look at a number of other album covers within the 'indie pop genre', of which we had chosen. This allowed us to consider some ideas of what we wanted our own music video to look like, through studying the typical codes and conventions of real existing products. We focused alot on Katy Perry's Album Covers, as she was the artist's song in which we had chosen to do and is a key role model with in the indie pop genre. We learned a lot through analysing the album covers : Many of the album covers tended to use 'Mid Shots' to display the artist on the front. We really liked this as it was quite a simple shot, and also meant that we could focus more on the costume, makeup and pose of the model, to really enhance the look of the album. Artists within the Indie Pop genre, especially Katy Perry. Are really well known for really encouraging individuality and originality. They are also known for being quite bold and not 'following the crowd'

We learned a lot through analysing the album covers :
Many of the album covers tended to use 'Mid Shots' to display the artist on the front. We really liked this as it was quite a simple shot, and also meant that we could focus more on the costume, makeup and pose of the model, to really enhance the look of the album.

Artists within the Indie Pop genre, especially Katy Perry. Are really well known for really encouraging individuality and originality. They are also known for being quite bold and not 'following the crowd' The image above does not fully reflect this, but was a common factor in a high majority of the other album covers we looked at.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

Initial Song Ideas

My partner and I spent some time discussing what genre and song we were going to do. We agreed that we wanted to do something from the Indie/Pop genre and it was something we were both familiar with and something close to our ages. We wanted a popular song that everyone has heard of and one where it would be easy to choreograph and come up with narrative to go along side it.

We ended up chosing Katy Perry's - Teenage Dream. Prior to this, we asked a number of peoples opinions on what they thought of the song and all the feedback was very positive. A positive attribute to the song we have chosen is that the lyrics are very obvious, meaning that when deciding on narrative it won't be too difficult.

Targets

Last year for AS Media Studies I created a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. For this project I worked alone and I chose the genre 'Indie/Rock'. I chose this as it was a genre I was particularly interested in and thought I could excel in. Last years product was very successful in pre/post production and my final product. Creating the magazine last year wasn't too difficult for me as I was using the program 'Photoshop' which I am very familiar with. This year however I will be creating a music video and will need to use the film editing software which I have never used before. This year I will take time carefully researching into the different conventions of music videos to create my video.

Welcome!

For our A2 Media Studies practical project, we have chosen to create a music promotional package. In this package we will include a music video accompanied with a CD album cover by the artist and a poster advertising the album release. As this blog grows throughout the course of the year, you will see everything from our initial research, audience research to our post-production to our final work.