Adele 21

 In order to gain as much inspiration as possible for our music video, we looked at a large range of album covers together as well as doing a detailed analysis individually, picking out different features from each one that we liked and could experiment with when it came to designing our album cover.

Below and to the left is the album front and back cover of Adele's 21. The main feature of this album that we liked was its simplicity. It allowed Adele's expressive face to stand out and be the focus of the album.

We then thought that we would try a similar pose with Aisha. We took a couple of photos where her face was the main focus and showed her character. Below were the two that we thought were the best.









The one here shown on the left we thought showed her fun, silly side. The little hints of light colour represented her personality and natural ability to stand out.





















This picture was my personal favourite and though linked better with the song. She looks like she is in deep thought and also has a saddened look about her. The black and white effect to show her as a timeless artist with feelings that are felt by anyone ant anytime, making her a easy person to relate to.

Final CD Front and Back Cover

CD inside

This is our final inside CD cover. We took images from the video within the tea party scene and edited them to be black and white with the purple colour on the lipsticks to create continuty with the rest of the CD covers and the album's poster image.

We also zoomed in on a pictutre we originally had of our artist and changed the colouing to an enhnced black and white image. After a discussion on what to make purple, either the nose piercing, her eyelashes or her eyes we decided that eyes would make a bigger impact being a different colour.

As we were having the CDs over the images, they blocked out the pictures which we felt was a shame so we decided to present the inside covers with the discs being transparent as well as the solid CDs so people can get an idea of the image beneath the CD.

FINAL POSTER

This is our final poster to advertise our albm. This would be likely to appear in music magazines, possibly some gossip magazines as well as a poster on bus stops and in train stations etc.

We created the image to, again, create continuity between the products of the album and used smilar colouring for the text on the poster as we did for the track names on the CD cover.

We included our production company "YouKnowJack"'s logo, as well as the iTunes logo to show that it is available to download as this is the most popular way of purchasing music right now.

Using the artist as the centeral focus of the poster as this is an eye-catching image that is likely to stick in the minds of those who look at it which makes it memorable for them to want to then purchase the album.

The use of the star-ratings shows that various magazines and newspapers enjoy the album, therefore sending the message that if you read this magazine and they like it, youre likely to enjoy it too.

Keeping the background simple as plain black makes viewers only focus on the necessary information.

Audience Feedback

We showed a number of people our almost finalized music video and asked them to truthfully comment on what they liked, didn't like and what we could improve on. Below are some comments.

• Good variation of shots / Creative costume and makeup / Interesting location - GARAGE!!!  
• Change color of font on album 
• Performance was strong
• Make up and lip art worked well and was effective
• Close ups worked well - looked good
• Nice use of lighting and colouring
• Good locations/backdrops
• liked the variety of costume and make up
• Performance worked well
• Shot variety
• Lip syncing looked professional.

From these comments we will be able to make appropriate changes to our video and focus more on the things that worked well for the video.
        

VIDEO

Here is our Final Music video.

Pictures from Final Shot

These are still images from our last filming day. We shots the tea party scene and close up on the singers face, as well as the ballet dancer dancing.

The images below show how we set out the tea party. We used a tea cup set but added lipsticks in random places, this makes the image more interesting and quirky; which matches the theme we were aiming for for our film.

We have used cakes and sandwiches to make it feel like
a real tea party setting. We had a teddy bear sitting on a chair with a butterfly mask on. The reason for this is that is the teddy bear reflects childhood memories whilst the butterfly mask adds depth and a more twisted version of the bear.

Filming Day 6

This day we decided to finalise the narrative and film the teddy bear tea party. We included the main artist and other characters such as the violinist and the ballerina. We placed the table with empty tea pots and cups so the idea of a child's tea party is correctly sohwn. We also had cakes and fancy bits on the table to show that its a tea party. We decided to be different and edgy and we randomly placed lipsticks of variant colours around the table of cakes and tea, we felt that this would give the idea that things are wrong and not as they should be. Aslo, this idea of the edgyness helps portray our genre of modern pop music. We put teddy bears around the table with the characters to further show the idea of child hood and imagination. One shot consists of having the lead girl playing and pouring tea for the friend she has wronged and then she is doing the same thing again but her friend is gone, to symbolise that things arent as they were.
We introduced the character of the imperfect ballerina on this day as well. She was dressed in traditional ballerina clothes (being ballet shoes, a tutu etc.) but her hair was big and messy and her movements were stumbly and she kept falling.
We also re did a shot of the singer singing the song in a big close up from face-on as when we did our audience feedback we were told the angle the other one was shot at wasn't effective enough.

LOGO

Above shows our company logo,when designing this logo we had to think about how we would want to be seen as a record company. We wanted to go against the typical logos seen on the back of CD covers so that it was easily recognisable. We feel we have achieved this by adding a bit of colour in the boy's hair and also by giving him quite a funny facial expression. Our company was named after a friend of ours (Jack) who is a big fan of music and is also very entertaining to be around; we wanted to show how our company has a passion for music and therefore dedicates itself to providing musical entertainment for the public.

Discovering the possible back cover

This is a photograph that we took during our second day of filming with no intention of using it for any ancillary texts. However, when we looked at it more closely we liked the black and white colouring; it was simple and yet gave a classical feel to the image. We also thought that this effect allowed Aisha's (or Jessie J's) eyes to stand out. The image also has a subtle blur giving a dream-like feel to the photograph.

We decided that this photo could be quite effective with experimentation on photoshop.

Filming Day 5

Within this day of filming we did another lip syncing session in a dfferent outfit and location.
We had the singer dressed in a sexier costume, with a bra top and silky skirt. This was filmed on the stairs of the house as the deep red of the carpet made the peachness of the skirt really stand out and framed the artist nicely.

Filming Day 4

This was a quick filming day as we didnt have much time so we decided to do the close up shots of the crying eyes and the lips singing along to the song.
The eyes were all black make up running down like she had been crying to show the idea of sadness within the video as she has lost a friend.
The lips were inspired by Jessie J's use of lip art within her other videos so we dcided to try and make the lips sand out using bright lip colour and try to use some jewels.

Magazine Advertisement

This is an advertisement for Janet Jackson's album in Virgin Magazine. 

The main focus of the advert is the picture of Janet herself, she is centred in the middle so all the attention is drawn towards her. By having this picture so large it is very eye catching and will make a person reading the magazine stop and take a look. The clothing she is wearing is very sexualised at shows that she is focused on the male audience. The colours used are very calming and sexual and complements janet. The background being a waves matches to the colours being calm. This may give a hint of what type of music Janet may have in her album. 

The large font in the background saying 'JANET' makes the viewer know straight away what artist it is, it makes it very clear that she is the main focus and it is her album she is selling. 

On the right hand side it shows the dates of when her album 20Y.O comes on sale, 9.26.06. This is very important as it makes sure that everyone who sees this ad know when her album comes on sale. This may influence her sale rates as it makes people more aware of her sale dates, instead of just true fans who would have known anyway. 

Under neither this it shows her album cover, this is useful as it allows people to know what to look for when they are in the shops. The album cover links into the advert theme of relaxed and calm, she has her hair loose and looks relaxed. It makes her whole theme link into one. 

On the left bottom corner it has the magazines logo, website and Janet's website. This is key information to give to people if they want to research more into it. 

CD Advert Analysis

This advert was chosen as Madonna is a major pop music artist.

The main image focuses on the artist and is also the cover of the album its promoting.

The image is clearly inspired by Andy Worhol’s pop art images but it’s replaced with her image. This helps portray the generic conventions as both aspects of pop – music and art – are combined for the woman who is one of the biggest names within the genre.

Her look is also based on the original image of Marilyn Monroe, hence the beauty mark and hair style. This is because Marilyn is an icon among many women and as women and girls are Madonna’s main audience, they will be drawn to this image as they could feel that the artist could inspire them and become a modern icon.

The artist’s name is clearly stated in black and white capitals along the top of the advert, this is one of the main parts that viewers’ eyes will be drawn to as it states, in an obvious way, who’s album its promoting.

Her expression looks to be sad or tired, this could be taken to show that she is empty and there’s nothing behind the art itself. This is controversial as pop artists seem to show a happy expression alongside their cheerful/light-hearted lyrics.

The writing on the advert almost frames the face, further portraying the idea that the album is a ‘work of art.’

The common colours being bright, yellow, pink, blue and red show the conventions of pop as bright colours are fun to look at, tend to give a happy emotion and are extremely eye-catching.

It advertises the CD to be purchased in a variety of ways. It shows that the hard copy of the CD can be purchased as well as the downloadable version on iTunes as this is the most popular way of buying music recently. It finally says that the album is available on 2 DVDs so that audiences can view and hear the album in a completely different way.

At the bottom, in smaller print, it stated the songs that are included on the CD. These are her most popular songs and ones that will be well known by a majority of people. These are placed on the advert to be a main selling point of the album instead of the artist herself.

Filming Day 3

On this filming day we wanted to introduce the other characters so we decided to film the scene when there is a violinist and the mime that copies her.
for this we decided to dress the violinist in all black, long elegant clothes so she would to fit into a chorus of classical insturments and the black makes the viewers focus on the music rather than the outfit. Her make-up was more extravagant to modernise the look with darker cheeks and highlighted features.
The mime was dressed in black and white top under a black jacket as these are the common colours worn by mimes. The make up on him was white face paint with black tears coming down his face as we wanted to show different emotions in obvious ways in the video to further show the twisted idea of it.
The colours worn by the characters consisting of black and white works well against the background of the bright green of the hedge and really makes the characters stand out so the audeince are only looking at the characters.

Pictures

Born This Way Album Analysis

CD Cover Analysis: Pixie Lott – Turn It Up

The artist is clearly the central focus of the cover as she is placed in the most eye-catching place – centred, close up of her face. This is because the star is the main selling point of the album to fans.

The name of the artist is written in bold lettering and in white to make it stand out against the image. This font also gives an idea about the pop genre of the music as it shows to be fun and looks almost handwritten to show that the album is personal to the artist and to those buying it.

The album follows basic generic conventions of the pop genre. This is because the cover holds the main image of the artist in a glamorous head shot alongside the name in large font.

The name of the album is not featured on the front cover but on the left of the case.

The note in the corner lists the singles that the artist has already brought out and that have possibly done well in the charts.

The pose of the artist herself is almost dazed and looking off to the corner. This is a typical feminine pose as it highlights her eyes making them a main focus point. Her make-up and hair look quite natural, this is because the artist is a role model to many young girls and she is trying to be her real self.

The left inside image is another shot of the artist.  The image is filled with her head and hair.

This is a more glamorous picture of the artist, her hair and make-up are done perfectly and in a more modern way.

It also follows the conventions of the front cover as she is placed in a neutral way, not sexually or threatening.

The splash of blue on her nails add colour to the image as well as it being a modern nail colour worn by young girls of this generation that her music speaks to.

The inside cover that holds the CD holds another image of the star.

The white background draws the eye directly to the image of her.

This picture differs from the others as you can firstly see her whole body.

The position she is placed in on the chair seems to be slightly more provocative and sexual to show variety in her style.

This is the same outfit as she wears in the other inside cover.

The spine of the CD contains the artist’s name and album title. This is because on a shelf the CD can be identified.

The back cover also contains the general conventions of the back of a CD such as; the track names in their running order, an image/logo and production details.

The image is again of the artist as the central focus. Her positioning is, again, slightly provocative and her elbow almost creates an arrow pointing towards the tracks to move the eye along to the track names.

Both the front cover and back are from the same shoot as she is in the same costume. They seem to show different sides of her and her personality, one side being girly and pretty and the other being more sensual and suggestive with her hand placement and seductive emotion on her face.

The font is in block capitals and consistent, this makes them readable and neat which follow the generic conventions of a pop CD case as the font is easy to read for variant ages.

The silvery background compliments Pixie’s outfit nicely and the faint fading to white in the middle draws the eye to the middle of the image where the most important information is held.

The artist’s name and album name are placed again on the back.

At the bottom is the artist’s web address where fans can go for further information about her and the album.

There are also instructions on how to get bonus content from the album if the CD is placed in a PC.

In small print at the bottom is legal information about production details.

Analysing CD Covers

Second Filming Day

On Monday 28th November we continued our filming process.
We decided to film the balcony scene which consisted of the main singer performing on the balcony in different positions.
We dressed her in the snake-skin leggings paired with a lace top and Dr Martin black boots to show a modern look that is still edgy as well as being feminine.
The lighting for this look was dark sky but we had artificial lighting to highlight her and the house and greenery around her.
We filmed her in different positions on the balcony and from diffrent angles and close ups and long shots to get a variety of shots and as many as we can in a short space of time.

Pictures

First filming session

Our first filming session we decided to shoot on Saturday 26th November was at our chosen location of the Victorian house. We chose the bedroom with the smallest chair as we thought this would reflect the idea of childhood as she is sitting in a chair that is too small and seems more fit for a child or dolls.

We also chose this one first as its a comfortable setting for the main singer of the video to get used to lip syncing and performing the song.

The outfit we chose was a bright red, edgy/military style dress that we thought would be a good contrast of colour against the pale colours of the bedroom and chair.

The make up we chose was very harsh with dark eyes, lips and defined cheekbones.

We were able to get hold of artificial lighting which we found made a big difference on the quality of the picture on the camera.
We also filmed the start of the song when the artist is revealed and comes up from the floor using the underground garage the house has. For this the lighting was dark night with artificial lighting behind the girl creating a silhouette of her.

Planned outfit for filming in first location 

Make up and prep for filming

 

FILMINGLighting and camera set up in first location

Overall, we found that the actual preparation for the scene took the most time; getting Aisha in costume and make up took longer than the actual filming itself because we had to think a great deal into how we wanted Aisha's/ Jessie J's image and persona to be seen in this music video. I think as a group, we were successful in showing the performer as an outspoken, confident person who likes to stand out in a crowd