CD back final

created by Tom Elwes

back cover of CD

amended cd cover

This is the amended cd cover that I (Tom Elwes) created for are promo pack.

The CD cover that I have created is different from a lot of the CD covers that are on artists CD’s today because unlike the standard form for CD covers we have not put any members from are band on it. We also have not put any graphics that symbolise the band instead we have chosen to put the main actor from are music video on the front. The only other example of an artist doing this is the Arctic monkeys (the cover for “whatever people say I am that’s what I’m not). I felt that it would be good for are artist’s not to be on the front cover because we are trying to promote them as an indie rock band and I felt that if their was a pretentious image of are artist on the front cover of the CD they would come across as more of a pop group.

We chose the image of a camera as are starting point. We felt that a camera lens had to be used because it was such a prominent image in the music video. It also helps promote the big brother (being watched) feel of the music video. Once I had the image of the camera I decided to distort the outer ring of the lens. I did this because it helps show the audience buying the CD although the bad are well dressed on the surface if you look deeper their lyrics can be quite dark and distorted.

The centre of the lens has a faded image of a main actor from are video (Max) I inserted him into the lens of the camera because it gives a juxtaposition between the actor who in the video is taking the images and the camera which he is always behind. Are actors facial expression is quite misleading just like the actor is in are video. At first look he seems to have a quite an aggressive look on his face. However if you look a little closer he is actually looking down at something, we tried to make him look like he was looking at the text in the bottom right hand corner of the CD cover.

The text on the cover is varied on the word kettle is supposed to be in spray paint and the word on is meant to be in standard text. This is relevant because it is meant to represent the two sides to the story or is music video. The scary stalker with the spray paint, and the twist at the end with the standard text.

Posted by Tom Elwes

CD cover

Rough website home page

This is only a rough sketch, the spaces and photoshop background should be ignored. It's the general idea thats important. I incorporated the photos from our blog and arranged them to create a possible website format in photoshop. The format follows the narrative. The band and love interest are similarly represented in a casual manner in a natural setting whilst the stalker character is photographed in a professional style with moody lighting in black and white. His expression is serious. This represents the fact the stalker character is percieved as an outsider. However, it doesn't reflect the fact the stalkers in a relationship to the love interest in the narrative. This keeps the mystery alive for the viewing of the video.

This is merely the background and we plan to develop the idea. It may be necessary to take more photos specifically for this.

Posted By Sid Charity

CD cover idea drawn

This drawing reflects our idea for our CD cover. We plan to do it on photoshop and overlay an image that we have doctored to make transparent. This is a starting point and we need to develop it and brainstorm alternatives.

Posted by Sid Charity

Scouting for girl’s style of music is quite similar to are artist. They would come under the same genre of soft indie rock. Scouting for girls break through single was “heart beats”. The cover for the single uses a lot of pictorial space. The pictorial space is used because only half the cover has an image or any colour on. This gap creates a heavy contrast between the two sides of the cover. The female nurse on the cover appears to be slightly faded into the back ground this adds to the contrast between the two sides because the character acts like a mid point. The character looking over her shoulder at what appears to be an empty space helps represent the distance between the male character and the female character in the song. The song heart beats is about a boy losing a girls so presumably the cover is meant to represent the girl looking back and leaving the bleak emptiness of there relationship.

The Hoosiers CD Pack Analysis

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The Hoosiers CD Pack Analysis

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Posted By Edward Lindey

CD cover idea

One of our ideas for our single cover includes a photo similar to the one to the left. We will photoshop a photo of the band and make the illusion that they're sitting in the lens. It would also be a good to include a CU of the love interest behind them seeing as she's the one who was taken pictures of. We would adapt the writing around the lens to say the title of the song and the name of the band.

Posted by Sid Charity

Film Update

These polaroids are from the set for the darkroom scene. We used the corner of a black drama studio. We gathered appropriate props such as:

• a well used table,
• lamp with red gel to imitate a safety light,
• processing trays,
• a bin,
• a line and pegs as well as photos we developed to hang up,
• some negatives and a mirror to give us some artistic leverage. I'm very satisfied with our set and i've reclaimed a sink from a salvage yard to add to the realism of our mise-en-scene. We told max (the man in the photo) to wear a white t-shirt so that the projection of our love interest would show up on him. We also used the lights available in the studio and dimmed them to create a moody atmosphere. Even though this removed continuity, it doesn't seem out of place and it's very likely he would wear something different for the dark room. It's also worth the aesthetic enhancement as well as a strengthening of narrative.

Posted by Sid Charity

Single Cover Analysis

This single cover for The Beatles is an excellent example of a certain image trying to be sold to the public. The band itself is trying to sell a hippie image of themselves. The wavy writing is very peaceful and creates a chilled vibe and gives a good description of what the two songs are about. The songs themseleves are very laid back and relaxed with a very hippie vibe. Revoloution especially is about not wanting violence. I think that the image of the band on the front shows the band wearing relaxed, baggy, hippie clothes that convey thier love for peace instead of violence.

This cover is very good at selling the artist as it conveys the message and ideology of the band off the cuff. This is something that would probably be a good idea for us. To be able to convey our artist and the type of music that the single is on the album cover is the best way to make sales. For our album cover we would have to include images our band plus possible stills from our video to be able to further sell our artist. It would also be best if we could include something to try and show what our song is about.

Posted by Edward Lindey

Hoosiers CD cover analysis

This CD cover promotes the artist. The CU of the main artist highlights his preense as the leader of the group. His face is half cast in shadow which represents him as mysterious and powerful. His expression is one of intrigue, and makes us wonder what he's looking at and could imply that we as the audiance is Mr. A, because he's looking at camera. Mr. A is the subject of the song and in the narrative they capture him. This could represent the beggining of the narrative when they first come into contact with him. The other band members are compositionally positioned behind each other to create a sense of depth. The costume of the band is indie in style. However, they're all dressed individually within the style and are all looking in different directions and posing differently. This all equates to a band represented as individuals. They all look like they're in action and the photo captures a narrative. The dark and silhouetted background also adds a sense of mystery. The owls also serve this function and are symbols of wisdom, which could reflect on the band. They're in flight which suggests they're flying away from something. The text is in contrast with the background and is in spooky writing.

Posted by Sid Charity

Actor Issues

On our first day of filming it became apparent that our lead singer was very uncomfortable with the position we had given him, especially with the lip syncing. Unfortunately we did not have another person who was willing to take over the role so in the end we came to the conclusion that one of us would have to do it and Sid decided that he would do it. The next day we came across another issue when our drummer decided to pull out on short notice. This left us in a similar dillema and therefore I (Edward) had to voulenteer to be the drummer. I took a few Polaroids whilst on the set and there are also some images of Sid and I on set but not in costume. Images of us in costume are soon to come.











Posted By Edward Lindey

post-shooting analysis

We have learnt a great deal from shooting over half term. We should've been more empathetic to our talent. We should've treated them with more respect during filming and done everything we could to make them feel comfortable. Even though we bought them food and drinks for the time they were working it was their emotional aspect we didn't properly cater for. This was evident because our first singer was especially awkward in front of camera as well as our first drummer. They both dropped out.
We have also learnt about organisation.

• We need to reherse our shots and refine them before shooting.
• Make sure we have transport (we couldn't use the car we planned to use) which meant our locations were limited.
• Plan when and where we needed specific talent. Some of our actors were present for time they didn't need to be. This made them distressed becasue they have work to do during half term as well. This compromised their willingness to contribute their upmost when it came to their turn.
• We had limited sunlight hours, starting earlier would've solved this.
• plan which shots to do when.
• We couldn't gain access to the dark room at school to film our processing scene and couldn't access school during half term so have to film that scene in the near future.

We made a lot of decisions about what shots to shoot when we were filming and loosely stuck to our storyboards. The concept remained the same except we adapted the twist at the end. We originally planned a CU of the "stalker," in bed, which zoomed out to reveal the love interest in the bed as well. Implying their married. We chose to do the same, except with the rest of the band in the same bed as well. This added a comic factor, as well as playing on the fact the band are portraying the narrative.

Posted By Sid Charity

Lighting

Lighting
The first day of filming we found we had some issues for example; we started a lot later than we wanted to due to a miss communication with the time people were supposed to arrive on set. When we started to film we found that the lighting was not to our original plan due to the overcast skies, we were depending on natural light for our shoot. However, it has worked in our favour because the dim light and overcast sky adds to the almost aggressive and oppressive, stalker feel to our video.
On the second day of shooting we had a much more prompt start and we got some of our best footage on this day. We used Sid’s meadow as our location for our performance scene. We shot this scene at dusk which is a period of soft lighting and long shadows. This gave are actor’s features unique definition. It also created the feeling that time was ebbing away giving the performance as sense of progressing. However, it was not easy to do as at dusk the light was varying which made it difficult to have good continuity.
On the last day of our shoot the light was quite varied. At the beginning of shooting there was very good light however at the end it had become very cloudy and started to rain. Having said that it did work in our favour because we were shooting scenes in which it was meant to be the dawn. In order to create this effect we closed the curtains in the room we were shooting in and because it was very sunny outside it gave the effect of first light coming through the curtains.

Posted by Tom Elwes

This is the actor we have chosen to be our stalker character in are music video. We chose to use him because we felt that his Characteristics and style fited well with the vision of the character we came up with.

posted by Tom Elwes

A2 Music Video Pitch

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A2 Music Video Pitch Goooojooooood

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This is the powerpoint presentation that i created for are pitch for the teachers
Posted by Tom Elwes

"Kettle's On"

I turn on the tap and run some water
Flick a little switch on the wall
I'm hoping you remember what I taught ya
Hoping you remember me at all

I'm strong but I feel like a mouse when you're gone
I'm weak but I'll take on the world when you're here
With me, with me

Can't you see you're in the wrong place
Will you please face it and come home
When I think about you're sweet face
I can't wait for you to come home
I can see you got a real taste but that champaigne but its all gone
Come home, the kettles on

I've got a little something on my mind
To keep it to myself isn't really very kind
Pouring out my heart isn't usually my style
But you gave me an inch so I'm gonna take a mile
You see

I'm strong but I feel like a mouse when you're gone
I'm weak but I'll take on the world when you're here
With me, with me

Can't you see you're in the wrong place
Will you please face it and come home
When I think about you're sweet face
I can't wait for you to come home
I can see you got a real taste but that champaigne but its all gone
So come home, the kettles on

Yea yea yea

Can't you see you're in the wrong place
Will you please face it and come home
When I think about you're sweet face
I can't wait for you to come home

Can't you see you're in the wrong place
Will you please face it and come home
When I think about you're sweet face
I cant wait for you to comeeeeeeeeeeeeee home

These are the lyrics to are A2 media song Kettles On. We tried to upload them with annotations but unfortunately the website would not allow it. Seperate annotations to follow.

Posted by Tom Elwes and Edward Lindey

This video seems to correlate well with ours because the song has quite a slow build up in the verse with an intense chorus afterwards. The video itself is quite surreal and the song is quite vague and therefore gives the film makers room to create a video of thier liking. Our leaves less room for creativity but still enough for us to be able to defy usual stereotypes seen in music videos as this video does.

Posted By Edward Lindey

More Location Shots

These pictures were taken to show one of our possible locations for the stalker to be stalking the girl he is obsessed with. We were thinking of doing several shots from down under the bridge and some POV shots from on the bridge as the stalker watches the girl walk under the bridge. The dark atmosphere and dirty graffiti are perfect to fit in with our slow building verse before the chorus.

Posted by Edward Lindey

This video by The Arctic Monkeys could be considered to be an extreme of what we are trying to. The band are obviously not included and there are no performance scenes but the narrative is strong and conveys a story very easily to the audience. Close up shots showing the female character looking battered and bruised is a very good way of portraying the character to the audience.

Posted By Edward Lindey

This video has good ties to what we are trying to do with ours. Although the narrative in ours is considerably different to The Hoosiers the fact that they keep reverting back to a performance scenes which focuses on the artist and then back to the narrative.

Posted By Edward Lindey

Similar artists- Scouting for Girls

This video by Scouting For Girls called She's So Lovely. The artist within the video is similar to ours in the fact that his style is relatively similar; his hair is parted to the side but still quite messy, his clothes are quite tight and edgy. There are many close ups of the artist in this video which helps present the artist to the audience in his first video. Our concept is similar to this video in the fact that we also have a narrative that runs through the video accompanied with cut backs to performance scenes.

Posted By Edward Lindey

Amendment of concept 2

After the main character passes our artist busking on the street we keep cutting back to him in increasinly unusual locations. Such as the dark room and places the main character has or will visit. We have made this amendment to promote our artist by selling him to our target audience. This will be done by the association between indie culture which originated as unsigned bands. The indie culture appeals to our target audience, which is predominantly between the ages of between 13 and 25.
posted by Tom Elwes

This is a photo of the first shot we've recorded on our storyboard

Posted By Sid Charity

The 1st, 2nd, 4th and last photo on this post all have something in common. They all use perspective to create appeal. The 4th and last use a contrast of subtle colours to make the image stronger. All the images above are possoble locations for when the main actor's cycling and stalking the love interest. As well as this, they could be used for when the main character's walking around the street with the band following.

Posted By Sid Charity

These are more possible locations for the street scenes. The fact they're in black and white is beneficial because we plan to shoot the street scenes like this. Therefore, we will gain a better sense of the aesthetics of our video.

Posted by Sid Charity

This shot has a powerful perspective and uses the compositional rule of thirds. The main subject (the tower block) is 1/3 from the left, which the eye is more naturaly drawn to. The lampost adds a contrast of form, it being thin and tall as opposed to the rest of the forms that are short and bulky. It's highlighted becasue it's offset by the light sky which contrasts to it. This could be used for most parts of the narrative. It could be used for the beggining section or when the main character's following the love interest.



















Posted By Sid Charity

This shot was chosen to add variety and invest interest with an experimental technique. This location will be used when the main character is alone cycling or taking pictures.



This location was chosen becasue it can be shot from a high angle, this will add shot variety and will portray the main characters sadness.





We're planning to use this location when the main character is taking photos. For aesthetical appeal, he will sit on the rock and echo the form of the sculpture.

Posted by Sid Charity

This photo contrasts to the rest of the location shots so far. It's full of foliage instead of mostly concrete streets. However, it will stil be shot in black and whote and will have dull undertones, similar to the rest. This shot will be used in the begining section of the video as one of the locations for the singer following the main actor.





This location has bland subject matter but is aesthetically interesting nevertheless. It incorporates several elements. Including, the brick wall with the white strip at the bottom, the meatal gates and foliage with wooden board behind. This bland variety contrasts witht the foliage, trees and sky, making a balanced framing.



This location is aesthetically graphic because of the perspective and contrast between the caged bridge and the sky (in this case blue.) It also lends itself to cityscapes in the background becasue of the high vantage point, this also allows us to incorporate a moving train and the people on the platform as a point of interest. It's suitable as a place for the main character to be walking or cycling and/or taking pictures. The fact it's narrow could make an edgy shot of him cycling on it.

Posted by Sid Charity

New concept for music video

We changed our original idea because we felt the relationship between the lyrics and visuals was too literal and unoriginal and therefore uninteresting and non-captivating.

Our new idea is based around photography. It opens with the main subject (not the artist) travelling around on a bicycle and public transport to buy film, load it into his camera and travel to locations to take pictures. What he’s taking pictures of won‘t be in frame to add an air of mystery. During this the artist will be walking past as a random pedestrian, the person at the counter of the processing shop and other onlookers singing the song.

The main subject will then process the photos in a dark room. It will continuously crosscut between the photo taking and the dark room. Inside the dark room we will use a projector to project some of the pictures he has taken onto the back of his white t-shirt for extra aesthetic strength and interest. We will also print some pictures onto white t-shirts for him to wear. The t-shirt he’s wearing could relate and adapt to his surroundings from shot to shot while he’s taking the photos. We will print a photo of a room with an abundance of pictorial space onto a t-shirt and then project a photo of him onto it.

As he processes them, colourful and trippy images emerge contrasting to the dull places he takes the pictures, this will be shot in black and white to exaggerate this.

We get the sense that he’s going crazy and we will build this up throughout the piece. The uplifting chorus will synchronise with the vibrant colours despite the negative undertones of a depiction of a bad trip.

The end will reveal a twist, the last shot will be of all the photos on the wall – completely blank.

Posted by Sid Charity

Open Questions For Focus Group

- What do you like and dislike about this song?

- What kind of video would you see this song having?

- What kind of artist other then The Feeling would you see in this song?

- (After our video pitch) What kind of character would you see in the main role of this video?

- What kind of artist would you see lip-syncing behind the main character in our pitch?

- What are you opinions on our concept and what could be changed or improved?

Posted By Edward Lindey

First Concept For Music Video

- Our concept is both a narrative and a performance one.

- It will open with shots of a depressed and heartbroken male wearing only dirty boxers and a t-shirt who hasn’t shaved.

- His hair will be messy and so will the mise-en-scene in his flat.

- We can have a direct relationship between the lyrics and visuals by including a shot of a kettle.

- This scene will be crosscut with performance scenes.

- At the start of the performance, he will be in the same state as he is in his flat but the rest of the band will be suitably dressed with an “indie,” style and will be appropriately groomed.

- He gets ready for the show in the flat: shaves, styles his hair, gets washed and dressed. The two scenes will be crosscut and as these changes happen in the flat to make it nicer and more well kept, they are applied when it cuts to the performance.

- We will use techniques such as reducing the size of a shot of the performance and overlaying it onto the TV in the flat, to give the illusion he’s watching himself. We could show a change in the flat applying to the performance using this method.

- We also plan to use a variety of performance scenes. They will be wearing a variety of costume from scene to scene, some will be in smart “indie,” style ex. skinny black jeans, loafers and a suit jacket/waistcoat, maybe a trilby.

- Other scenes will be in casual indie style ex. plain white canvas shoes, skinny jeans and a v-neck jumper over a t-shirt.

- There will also be cutaways of band members excluding the main actor.

- As well as this, some scenes will be shot against a background of bright sky and in dark theatre (if we can gain access.) Basically a variety of mise-en-scene will be used that will cut well with different parts of the flat with similar lighting/composition.

- At the final part of the song he’s properly groomed. Throughout the performances the crowd are seen but not heard, at the end of the song it cuts to the crowd and there’s only a girl clapping enthusiastically, it will be implied it’s the one written about in the lyrics.

- It will end with him turning the TV off, and with that flash the credits will appear on the TV screen.

Posted by Sid Charity