That Time Of Year Again

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Final Music video - Lovestruck by Madness

Digipak - Final Front, back and spine

Right panel is Front cover

Left Panel is Back cover

Digipal - Final Inside covers

The right panel is where the CD will be

Final Magazine Advert

Evaluation Task 1 - 'In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'

9 frames from my music video
Frame 1-9 (left to right)

1.  (top left) - This frame shows our lead singer singing and dancing around a lamp post. This is shown in other shots as well. This shot is during the chorus where the lyrics say 'Lovestruck, i've fallen for a lamp post.' This shot is one of the shots that show that our visuals relate to the lyrics of the song. There are other shots that relate the lyrics to the visuals outside of the chorus and lamp post although affection towards a lamp post happens more than once.
2. (top middle) - This image typifies the way a record label might want to present and promote their artist. The shot is a close up which shows the artist and he's looking down at the camera which seems as he is interacting with the audience. It also shows that he is just a regular but random person who doesn't mind doing something comical. 
3. (top right) - This shot shows a saxophonist playing through a green tint. The instrument he's playing, the colour and the type of clothes he is wearing shows a type of jazz/pop/ska genre being emitted from the image. This image is a representation of the type of genre the video is as a saxophone is usually seen as an instrument used in jazz but also in pop and ska. 
4. (middle left) - The idea of this shot came from the official music video of this song where the person was sitting on a chair at the table with many clear bottles. The difference between our shot was that we used a darker lighting scheme instead of the white the official music video used.   
5. (middle middle) - Our video had many close up shots of our artist and some of the props he was using (bottle, picking up grass). The camera style used were often shots of the lead singer doing some action, being part of something and close-ups of him. We cut between each one to make the video seem more lively and to establish a narrative that the audience could understand. 
6. (middle right) - This is one of the shots which established the type of lighting we used. We didn't change a lot in the lighting and thought the best lighting would be that of the natural light. There were a couple of shots where the brightness and contrasts are tweaked a bit although we didn't want to change a lighting a lot in the outdoor scenes as we wanted a more natural look to the video.
7. (bottom left) - Although there were some shots that we wanted to manipulate the lighting, especially during the indoor shots, as we wanted some shots totally in our control and give some ominous feeling of the band to the audience. We also wanted some shots like this so that we could relate to the front cover of the album/digipak. 
8. (bottom middle) - A lot of mise-en-scene was the outdoor and it's natural beauty, although this shot does also show the costumes we wore. The clothes we wore usually consisted of dark colours and usually formal wear clothes such as black shoes, dark trousers and a dark coat. This shot shows an outdoor scene we used for our shots as well as the costumes we wore. 
9. (bottom right) - This image shows a shot where the character moved from one location to another in the scene in a split second, almost like teleporting. I got this idea from a student video i had watched (as well as the television drama 'House') and thought it would be great to use a similar shot to that in my music video but also add some sort of narrative to it. 

1. This image is from the song 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' by Green Day where they sing about a lonely road they walk alone. This shot shows the lead singer of Green Day alone looking at the camera  whilst the background keeps changing to different locations. This shows a relation of the lyrics and the visuals. 
2. This is a shot from Linkin Park's 'What I've Done.' It shows a high angle shot of the whole band with all their equipment and is a shot that portrays Linkin Park as a punk rock band. It shows the type of instruments they are using as well as the costumes they are wearing the colour which is all black.
3. The colour, costumes, instruments and the rest of the mise-en-scene show the type of genre and tone this song is trying to take, which is pop.
4. This screen shot is from Michael Buble's 'Feeling Good' which has many inter textual references to the James Bond movies and that includes this screenshot. The shot of female silhouettes through a screen of some sort is textbook James Bond - the whole song is basically a reference to James Bond like a parody. 
5. This screen shot is good use of camera trying to show the band member in a powerful light as well as trying to show the audience the band member. The way the camera is framed does this well as does the lighting where the band member is standing in front of the sun - this amplifies the desired effect. 
6. A good example of lighting illuminating the whole band and their equipment as well as any other factors of mise-en-scene. The video does exactly what it wants to do with the lighting putting everything on that shot in focus.
7. Shows the complete shot of the environment and demonstrates exactly what kind of mise-en-scene the video is using, which is a rundown or abandoned/3rd world zone of the world. Places in the middle of nowhere. 
8. This is a shot which inspired me. I tried to do a similar shot to this one in my own music video but changed the lighting since i did not want to completely copy the shot. This shot is a mixture of good lighting, narrative and a close-up of the lead singer which makes this an all round type of shot. 
9. Another shot which inspired me for my music video. I liked the use of lighting in this shot and how the lighting worked to illuminate the lead singers face. I also found the position of the camera and the lead singer intriguing and wanted to do something similar in my video to promote the artist in my music video. 

Evaluation 2 - 'How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?'

Evaluation Task 2 on Prezi

Evaluation Task 3 - 'What have you learned from your audience feedback?'

Music Video - Rough Cut Feedback


My first target was to finish the whole video so that I could get feedback for the whole video and not just the first half. Apart from that i got many responses from the class, the people who helped me make the video and other people that i had shown that some cuts in the video were too long. The first chorus which began at 1:09 had a shot which was far too long. It had the same shot going for half of the verse and there were other shots earlier and later in the video which were also too long. Considering the pace of the music the video needed quicker cuts between the shots. Our response to this was that we went out and filmed more shots so that i had more i could cut in the video.

Another problem was that there were not many close up shots of the artist. Most of the video consisted of medium shots and some long shots with only a couple of close ups. I needed to add more. Once again this problem was solved by filming more shots and also a close up shot of the lead singer singing the whole song. This way i would have something to fall back on if i wanted to add a cut in the video as well as a close up of the lead artist.

There was also some problem with lighting in a few shots where the light was too dim in some parts of the video whilst too bright in others. I had explained that the darker tone in lights was mainly during the middle of the song and was intentionally darkened to fit the lyrics a bit more. Other shots were brightened by use of effects or replaced with other, brighter shots.

Strengths of Final Music video?


People said that the overall idea of the video was good as it had continuity and a narrative that made sense. They said that there were a few shots that were really good and creative eg; 0:20, 1:05, 1:59.
They enjoyed the running gag about the hat where it switched hands a number of times as it added a comical effect to the narrative and went well with the video as it showed the silliness of two drunk people.
Some people really like the shot of where the bottle was thrown and shown landing (1:46) and how the saxophone shot was shot through the bottle (2:52).

The audience stated that I had done better job in editing the shots and with the quick cuts which fit well with the beat of the music. They also enjoyed the little parts of the video where there was no lyrics due to the short sections of video that i added in them.

Weaknesses


Lighting on some of the shots was the biggest problem as there were a number of shots which was very harsh on the face of the lead singer and the change of lighting between one shot and another can sometimes be seen immediately and does not look pleasant. This is a big problem that i couldn't try and find a way around except for reshooting most of the shots again and unfortunately i did not have the time to do that.

It could also be argued that there was not a lot of camera movement, the camera was kept stationary for most shots and the shots where the camera was moving was rather jagged.

Digipak Rough Feedback

Initial feedback for the rough copy of my front cover was good, the colour scheme fit well and so did the font ant picture used. Although it was said that the white background of the front cover was too plain. I was told to try and add more colour to the background. There was also some black noise from the original picture on the top right of the front cover and only the top right. People said that it would look better if i got rid of it completely or spread it out evenly on the background.

There was one problem with the picture. One of the band members seemed to be fading away from his legs whilst the other two were not. I was told to either add that fading effect on all three members in the photo or add none at all. I chose to add no fade effect.
Lastly the image size was pointed out to me as not one which would fit a digipak. I was told to fix the size of the image to one that looks like a front cover. People said the the original picture looked really good and that it fit well with the video and front cover and so it inspired me to use it for my magazine advert also.

People said the the first design of my back cover fit well with the front in terms of the colour scheme and that it was good that the same font was used as it worked well. Although the image used was too plain and boring.  The original image was that of a hat. The audience said that it was too plain and that i should add something to the image itself or change it.

I made a second design to the back cover and changed the picture. The colour scheme was similar to the front cover apart from adding shades of grey and red.
People said that the colour scheme went well and that the picture used was better than the previous picture of only the hat. They liked the idea that the band members made the letter 'A' to show the band name 'Asylum.' Although the text size of the track list was too big and the dark red colour didn't suit the cover. I was told to make the text size smaller and to move it more to the middle of the picture so that it would not cover the face of the person in the picture. So i made the text smaller and put it completely in front of the white section of the picture and changed the colour of the text to black.

The audience also did not like the idea of the barcode and legal writing on the top corners of the cover. They also said that the text size of the legal writing and websites were too big and that they would look better smaller and in a different location.
I then made the text smaller in accordance to the feedback and moved the image used more towards the top of the cover so that there would be enough space at the bottom to put the legal writing, the record label logo, websites of the band and record label and the barcode.

Evaluation Question 4 - 'How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?'

I have used different media technologies to help with my production and enhance the quality of the ancillary tasks i did. In the practical stages of the production i used a camcorder, the Sony DCR-SR58, and a digital camera, the Samsung ES15, to capture images and pictures for my video.

I used software  like Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my production on a Mac computer and a HP laptop. I used Premiere Pro CS4 on the Mac and a trial version of Premiere Pro CS5 on the HP laptop.


I used Premiere Pro to edit my video and used it for effects such as some color correction and brightness and contrast.

Adobe Photoshop was also used to create the 4-panel digipak and the rough drafts of it. It was also used to make the magazine advert look as professional as possible. I worked with the pictures taken by the Samsung digital camera on Photoshop to create both the digipak and magazine advert.

  Web 2.0 made a huge difference for y production especially the research stages of it. I used the popular website Youtube to research a number of different music videos and deconstruct them, via use of the Goodwin theory, to help me shape my own music video.
I also used the website Prezi when doing my research on music videos and directors. Prezi was used to display the research i had done. Websites such as youtube can also be used to increase an audience from local to worldwide in an instant which can be extremely useful for feedback. Facebook is another example of a website which this is good for as you can just post up your video and the audience can post feedback on their own time and leisure.

Microsoft Word was used to annotate the lyrics and show the people who were helping me what we were filming that day and what the lyrics were of the verses we were recording. The digital camera was used to take pictures of the props and locations that we were planning to use. This would help in organizing our shoot and help us with the production.

Overall i have used a wide array of media technology which has increased the quality of my production. It has helped in a number of ways during all the stages of production making it easier to organize myself and the people who helped me.

Digipak - Back cover design 03

Third design for my back cover.
Changed some things according to previous back cover feedback - made text smaller, changed position of picture and moved the barcode, legal stuff, websites and record label logo

Digipak - Back cover 02 Feedback

Cons

• The text of the legal stuff and websites is too big
• The text of the track list is too big
• The track list is not in a good position as it hits the person in the photograph. 
• The colour of the track list text doesn't go too well with the rest of the cover. Change the red.
• The position of the record label logo and barcode doesn't look too good on the top corners. Try to put them on the bottom corner. 

Pros

• The colour scheme goes well with the front cover
• he picture isn't plane and fits with the picture on the front cover

Digipak - Front, back and inside covers

Final design of the front cover (right), spine and back cover (left) of the digipak/CD case. I added some noise in the background of the front cover since a feedback point was that the background was too plain. I just blended a little less white and grey with the original picture and brushed some white in the space where the band name and album name occupies so they could be legible. 

The black and white is a simple colour scheme which works very well together. The original idea was to get a picture where only the silhouettes of the band members could be seen with the background covered in light. Using that picture i blended some of the black and white of the original picture and added a white background. This makes the finished project look a little more professional whilst giving an ominous feeling since the faces of the band cannot be seen.

Final designs of the inside covers of the 4-panel digipak/CD case. The right panel is where the actual CD will lay and the left panel will include a booklet where the cover will have a montage of some of the pictures of the band members accompanied by the name of the band and album. 

I wanted to add a little colour to the inside so that the entire CD case does not look to similar or dull but also because i wanted the CD case to support the name of the album and band. I wanted the CD case to seem a little 'weird' by having the outside covers in black, white and grey and add a colourful surprise for the inside covers to make it seem a little 'wonderful' with the additions of colours. 

Magazone Advert - 2nd design

2nd design for magazine advert

added a glow to the band and album name instead of the wind effect in the previous advert. Moved the position of the picture closer to the middle as it separates the text a little and makes it look a little more professional.

Digipak - Front cover design 02

Second design of the front cover of the digipak - done after receiving feedback from the previous front cover.

I added some more noise in the background of the cover and tried to distribute evenly across the background. The noise was taken from the original photograph. I also changed the size to a square since CD covers are square. 

Digipak - Back Cover design 02

After receiving the feedback for my previous back cover i decided to use a different picture, one which i thought would suit the front cover a bit more. Uses a similar colour scheme like that from the front cover but adds  a bit more grey and a darker red on the track names.

digipak - Feedback; front + back cover

Front cover

Pros;

- colour scheme works well

- font used suits cover and colours

Cons;

- not square

- background has black noise in only the top right corner. Makes cover look unpleasant with only one section   

being covered

- background too plain (only white)

- left band member disintegrating, other two are not

First of all i needed to make the size compatible with a CD case, so making it square was essential. I had thought that lone addition of just black background noise in the top right corner would give the cover a little more 'flavour' but it was said either add more to even it out or have none at all. Since it was said that the background was also too plain/ too white i decided it would be best to add more background noise or let more of the original picture show. Also one of the band members (left) was beginning to disintegrate from the legs whilst the other two were not, have to fix that.

Back cover

Pros;

- colour scheme works well

- integrates with front cover

Cons;

- simple and plain picture

- plain background

- didn't include websites 

Although the colour scheme worked well and suited the front cover the picture needed to be changed. Even with the hat being a main part of the actual video the picture of a lone hat in  a white background was too plain and too simple, i needed to add something to the picture, the background or change the picture altogether. I also needed to add the websites of the band as well as the recording company. 

Feedback for Music Video rough

Cons

• First thing to mention was that it was not fully finished. Only about 2 minutes of it had been done. 
• Although it had some original concepts some of the shots were too long, i need to add more cuts to make the shots shorter.
• The lighting in some shots is too harsh whilst too dim/dark in others - need to work on lighting
• More close-up shots of the artist need to be included - also a solution to how to add some cuts into the shots which are too long.
• There are still some gaps in the video which range from 3 frames to 20, especially in places where it goes from 1 verse to the next (no lyrics) - need to find shots which could fill those parts in

Music video - Rough

A sequence of what's been done so far

This is the first attempt of the music video, it is not fully done due to scheduling difficulties and some shots being unusable due to syncing problems and lighting.

All in all, i think for a first draft it isn't too bad - some shots seem a little long so I'm planning on cutting them after i get more shots.
I haven't got a shot of the artist doing the whole song - so no full sequence of the song so I'm planning on doing that and adding parts of that to make some quicker cuts in the video.

Transition from Final Cut to Adobe Premiere Pro

After filming about half of the song i decided to try the non-linear editing software adobe Premiere Pro CS4 as it was available on the Mac computer i was using. I wanted to see the difference between Premiere Pro and Final Cut and find out which of the two softwares were easier to use.

After a while experimenting with the software, I personally found Premiere Pro the easier software to use.

When first opened, Premiere Pro's format is very similar to Final Cut - you could call it Microsoft's Final Cut. The way all the effects, source panels and timelines are laid out are similar to Final Cut.

But i found the source panel much easier to use in Premiere Pro than in Final Cut. This is where you input the video file from the project tab and edit out any part of the video you do not want. This can also be done with audio. Once you cut down the video you can insert the video and audio or just the video or audio alone anywhere on the timeline. I found this process much simpler in Premiere Pro than in Final Cut and for a music video where i needed to work on many video cuts, the simpler the better. On another positive note, Premiere Pro was available for a 30 day free trial which i could get due to me having a Microsoft laptop and this allowed me to also work at home meaning i could be more efficient with my work.

Magazine Advertisement - Rough Copy

Magazine advert rough copy
Both are pretty much the same thing except i made the release date bigger on the right advert and fused the band and album name (after changing the album name). That also required the text to be bigger.

I'll come up with some new (or similar ideas) - do these seem ok? or do they seem rather bland?

Note: have to write band website at bottom

Digipak - Album Front + BackCover

First attempt at making a cover for the album using the pictures taken from the previous post.
This is the rough front cover for the digipak made in Adobe Photoshop.

I used a blend effect on the original photo to make the white parts of the background transparent. I then added a white layer for a background. The blending got rid of the white and left the silhouettes of the members. The addition of the white background is there to compliment the black silhouettes and was somewhere I could write the album and band name.

I'm still a novice at photoshop so couldn't really add any spectacular effects, although i did add a drop shadow on the text.

This is the rough copy of the back cover in a similar style to the front cover using the same blending method. The cover only has a hat since it was supposed to be an integral part of the music vid - however since it is only a picture of a hat the cover looks a little bland. My next step is then to try and get some better pictures of the hat; maybe with some other items, a better picture of only the hat or use a different idea for the back cover.

Can't title this

Just doing some shots with the camera whilst my lead singer is busy - wanted to add some effects to make it look cooler but found out post production that i needed more of some specific footage and that i couldn't do it with people in the background. Quality isn't great but that really isn't important for this.

Pictures for Magazine advert and Album cover

Here are a few of the many photographs taken in an attempt to get a decent photo to use for the front cover of my digipak and my magazine advert. I'll chose a photograph and use Adobe Photoshop to try and make it look like the front and back cover of a digipak as well as use the same or a similar picture for the magazine advert.

The main idea was to get a shadowy effect and thought that getting silhouettes of the members would look best and be easier to catch on camera. We did this by using a white wall as a backdrop (it was bricky but that just adds atmosphere to the scene) and placing lights behind the members. The shoot was done at night to get the silhouette effect. This was actually taken before 6pm (it was around 5:10)...it really is getting dark quicker these days.

 This is the infamous hat; the star of the show, our main character for the video. I was planning on using a picture of this hat for the back cover of the digipak and having the track list around the hat. Although, i think i'll need a better picture for that.

Magazine Advert - Sketch

A simple sketch with some basic annotations of the magazine advert for the album.

It includes a picture of the band members in a setting on the bottom of the advert with much of the text above the picture. The name of the band will be on top in bold black text on a white background. It will be followed by the album name with the release date underneath it in smaller font size and a different colour - maybe yellow.

I will also include singles/track names which will be available on the album; one of the tracks will be the lip sync of the music video chosen. The track names will also not be black font; most likely yellow to. Formats the album will be available in will also be on the advertisement.

At the bottom of the advertisement the band website and a website which distributes the album will be shown.

Album Magazine advertisement

Not too many colours used, mainly blacks and whites and blues which works well together and does not make the advert too complicated. The use of glow on some of the white text allow for easier reading and makes the name of the band and album stand out. The biggest text on the advertisement is the name of the band as well as the album name and the release date. The advert is trying to promote the album and band by letting the audience know their names in big, bold and glow text. They are also trying to make the release date as legible as possible so the audience knows when to get the album. The name of the band is on the top of the Ad so that it catches the attention of the audience first.

 Websites and a logo on the bottom corner of the advert say where the album can be bought as well as the site to the band's webpage if anyone wants to know more information about the band. Simple head shots of each band member are shown, helping viewers to recognise the band in other situations, such as if they appear on television. Use of shadows on the faces of the members and serious poses gives an ominous and powerful image which allows it to hit the viewers stronger and grab their attention quicker.

Below the release date it states the names of two singles from the album. It is another promotion technique to sell the album; the advert states the name of two well known singles from the album in an attempt to sell the album better.

A brighter counterpart of the above advertisement using greens and white. They integrate the album cover with the advertisement which will make it easier for the viewers to recognise the album cover.

-Includes release date (states that it is already out) - crucial for the audience so they know when they can buy the album. Also states how viewers can get the album; says it is available on CD and download.
-Includes singles that will be on the album - to promote the album more; if a track liked by viewers is on the album it will make it more likely for the audience members to buy the album.
-Fonts of text compliment the image and colours used in the advertisement to give the advert an underlying/signature theme or genre
-Bold and capital text on name of the band to make it more eye-catching and signifying its importance

Contents of digipak

I've decided to do a standard 4-panel CD case instead of a 6-panel digipak.
The CD case will include;

- Front cover
- Back cover
- Spine
- Inside cover (left)
- Inside cover (right; this is where the CD is)

The idea is to have the album name and band name on the front cover and inside cover (left).
The back cover will have all the standard conventions;
- Picture which relates to front cover in some way
- Track list; the songs available on the album
- Copyright
- Record label logo
- Barcode

Initial Digipak designs/sketches

This is the initial sketch of the front cover of the CD case/digipak. I was planning on getting the band members take a picture around a lamp post since a lamp post is an integral part of the song and comes up in the chorus' of the song. I haven't decided on a colour scheme for the cover, whether I'm going to stick with the original colours of the photo, go black and white or just tint the picture using effects.

The idea was to make a recurring theme/running gag in the video with the use of a hat. I was planning on putting in a story where the hat is repeatedly stolen from the lead singer by another band member and he tries to get it back, the hat switches hands on a number of occasions. With this I wanted the back cover to feature a close-up shot of the hat with the track list on the rim of the hat. The barcode and legal copyright business with the record label logo would be on the bottom left and right corners of the case.

I was planning on making a logo, or getting one from online, to put on the inside cover of the CD case. What i drew is the Madness band logo since i have not come up with any ideas of logos yet. But i wanted to have a logo on the inside cover and then have the album name and track list written under the logo.

Record Label - Distribution of artist

Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group
-A British record label formed in 1972 by Richard Branson, Simon Draper and Nik Powell.
-Virgin Records distributed in the United States in 1973 and was distributed for 2 years, from 1973 -1975, by Atlantic. They used the name 'Caroline Records' for their distribution in the USA until 1977 and was used for some American editions of Virgin Records in the 1980's and 90's.
- In 1986 Virgin Records released an independent company called Virgin Records America to distribute music in America. They also released an independent Virgin Records Canada inc. in Canada three years before Virgin Records America.

Virgin Records was bought by Thorn EMI in 1992 for $1 billion.
Virgin Records was then merged with Capitol Records in 2007 to make Capitol Music Group due to a massive reconstructing of EMI Group Ltd.

Virgin Records have distributed a variety of genres of music especially punk-rock artists such as Human League and Sex Pistols. Ever since Thorn EMI bought Virgin the list has expanded to such genres and artists as The Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz, Paula Abdul and the Spice Girls. They have a mixture well-known genres such as pop, RnB and rock but they also have artists who sing less known genres such as ska.

Distribution of Band
The record label has distributed a selection of popular genres as well as some not as well-known. They have also distributed bands/artists from a similar type of genre of the band I am using.

Props and Costumes

Aside from the equipment there were some props that we needed, although it wasn't very much.

The infamous hat which is going
to be used as a running gag
so infamous it is both a prop and
part of the costume

Needed the bottle to do a few
shots with

All we needed was a bottle for a few of the shots and the infamous hat - although that could be affiliated as part of the costume.








As for costumes, we didn't need to do too much them either. Normal jackets which i and the band members already owned were going to be used - i had preferred if they were a darker colour; dark blue or black.
Aside from that a dark jumper could do as well as normal dark trousers and black shoes (not trainers).

Necessary Equipment

This is the equipment I will be using for pre and post production of the music video;

Mac Desktop Computer (at school)
HP G62 Laptop (at home)
Sony DCR-SR58 Camcorder (for filming)
Samsung ES15 digital camera (taking still photographs)
Tripod (to make it easier to film with camcorder)

I will also be using software on the computer such as;

Final Cut Express (for editing video and audio)
Photoshop (creating digipak and magazine advert)
Adobe After Effects (for use if i want to add complicated effects in the video)
Microsoft Word (to get ahold of the lyrics)

Initial Storyboard Ideas

 This is the initial storyboard of the music video. Unfortunately i drew it on smaller pieces of paper (a5 sketchpad) so it is difficult to read. Hopefully the shot list will clear it up.

Initial Shot List

Verse 1

1. Medium shot - car headlights flashing
2. Long shot - car headlights illuminating the band members
3. Medium Close-up (CU) - We see the lead singer staggering; begins syncing 
4. Close-up - of lead; singing; finish 1st line
5. Medium CU - lead; singing through glassy texture; windows;2nd line
6. Close-up - lead; singing; 3rd line

Verse 2

1. Medium shot - lead; singing;1st line
2. Close-up - lead; singing; 2nd line; - table with glasses
3. close-up - lead; singing; 3rd line
4. medium CU - lead; singing; 4th line
5. close-up - lead; singing; 4th line; comes towards camera

Verse 3

1. Long shot - lead; singing; 1st line - road/street
2. Medium CU - band member (BM); 2nd line - shivering
3. Medium CU - BM; 2nd line - contorting
4. Long Shot - Both BM; quick shot - camera moves back
5. Low Angle - lead; singing; 3rd line
6. Medium CU - lead; singing; 3rd line
7. Close-up - lead;singing; 4th
8. Low angle CU - lead - camera on ground; lead walking towards bottle on ground

Verse 4

1. Long shot - lead; singing; BM1;BM2; lines 1-3 - Bench; step on foot; steal hat No.1
2. Medium shot; lead; singing; BM; lines 4-5 - arresting lead
3. Medium shot - lead; - bench; bottle; shot is below waist

Verse 5 - chorus

1. 
   

Gender Representation

The initial idea at the moment for my track, Lovestruck by Madness, was to have two main male performers, the lead singer/lip sync and another band member helping with the performance. I was also planning to get special guest stars to appear during the video to help with narrative and play an instrument or so. The band i chose is a rather old band which was formed over 30 years ago (around 1976) and the song's genre is towards ska/pop. The original band is an all male band so my video will also prominently be featuring males although there could be a female or two as special guests.

The pop genre also has the stereotypical notion of showing the male figures as 'masculine' in one way or another. They are usually shown as adventurous characters, unemotional and most of the time as the dominant gender. On the other hand females are shown as 'eye candy,' for the male gaze. This is not only in hip-hop videos but in pop, rock and RnB as well.

The video i want to create will most likely have some stereotype in our male lead as the track chosen is about a person getting drunk. Males socializing in a pub with friends is usually seen in a positive light. Although other stereotypical factors will not be present, our character will be shown to have been affected by the alcohol in a 'not so good' light as he proceeds to make a fool out of himself by confessing his feelings to a lamp post. Our main lead will be shown as an emotional character. Even though the main focus of the video will be on male performers, the idea for female characters was not to make them look like the inferior gender but be on equal terms or even more superior to the male gender. The initial idea was to get a female character to drop a rock on the foot of the male lead (whilst someone else steals his hat).
Another idea was to get a random female passing by watching the male lead making a fool out himself as he confesses his feelings to a lamp post....the female would just ignore the male and walk on.

My plan was to stray off the path of male and female stereotype in music videos, even if it was only a little. I wanted to show that males are emotional creatures that can be affected by the world around them, not powerful and dominant. As well as trying to show that females can take care of themselves and can cause some serious damage to a man's foot.

Progress Report

I'm working on a story board and have a number
of ideas for the shots. Which shot i want to do and when,
what's going to happen in each shot etc. I will upload them
when i get the pictures.

I have also done some analysis of music videos and started focusing
on digipaks and CD cases of bands to get an idea of what i want to
do with my CD case. I have looked at bands similar to Madness
as well as Madness themselves. Although i still have a lot more research
to do for the video and i have to begin research for my magazine advert.

Madness-Lovestruck: Target Audience

The target audience for this song would most likely be 15-25 year olds. The lyrics of the song are rather amusing and at some points quite random. It makes for a comical song which could amuse people of the target population.

'Oh, involve me in libation, stick a rock in my foundation,

I pick all my relations, put me on probation - oh I'll take you down,

For one last round.'

This verse of the song is a mixture of both amusing and a little random as it goes from one aspect to another in a matter of a few lines. Although it does have some reference to the meaning of the song. 
The chorus is also very random albeit having a meaning to the context of the song. The first lines are;

'Oh, Lovestruck, I've fallen for a lamppost, 

Giving her my utmost, spilling out my deepest feelings.'

A secondary audience could quite possibly be an older audience, ages 30+. This is due to the fact that the band 'Madness' has been around for some time - they were formed in 1976. Fans of 'Madness' from the early years would most likely be attracted to them. Older audiences could also enjoy the song since it explains a drunken night and the hangover the morning after. The lyrics might not directly state the fact but the visuals represent a person and his friends being drunk and acting not like their usual selves under the influence of alcohol.

Crying, topless man in rain....pretty self-explanatory
if not....then use your imagination

Image shows a staggering man holding what looks like
an empty bottle of something that most likely contained
alcohol - i like this shot

Ideas for Questionnaire

Basics - Age and Gender - the target age is between 15 and 25, the video will most likely target males.

Talk about visual style of music video - if they prefer a story (narrative) with the video, if they prefer seeing the artist in the video, if they prefer a performance based video, favourite style of video, if they watch videos, if they watch the music video more than just listen,

Genre - If they enjoy the type of genre of our music (ska/pop), if they prefer any other genres (hip-hop/rock/classical/RnB) - if they listen to more than one type of genre, favourite genre

Other artists/bands - if they listen to other artists with a similar genre to ours, if they prefer listening to other artists, what other artists (for comparison)

Where and how - Where do they hear about music, social networking/word of mouth/TV/Youtube, how they buy their music, CD/digital download/, where they buy their music from, iTunes/Amazon/HMV/Other,
what device or how they listen to their music, iPod/TV/Youtube/MP3 player/Other

Wordle

Similar artists - 'Madness'

The three album covers are from bands similar to 'Madness' due to they doing a similar genre to 'Madness.'
'Bad Manners' were formed in North London in 1976, the same year as 'Madness', they are also from England like 'Madness.'
'The Specials' are also a British band from Coventry and were formed around the same time as 'Madness,' in 1977.
'The Toasters' were formed a little later, whilst 'Madness' and the other two bands were formed in the 70's 'The Toasters' were formed in 1981. They are also not from England but from Manhattan, New York. Although the type of music they play is similar to that of 'Madness.'

Digipak Designs

The CD front and back cover of Madness' 'One Step Beyond' album. They showcase the band by having them all appear on the front cover. The name of the band and album are also on the front cover.

Along with the obvious barcode the back cover also includes the 4 tracks in the CD, all numbered, and underneath them the record label, Virgin Records, and copyright as well as the year it was released.

The inside of the CD case. The booklet inside shows the logo of Madness and the name of the album. I can't tell what's inside the booklet (or even if it is a booklet) from the picture.

This was Madness' first album released in 1979. The CD itself has the names of all the tracks on the album, all numbered. The colour scheme the CD case uses is black and white and only two colours. A simple scheme for their debut album.

Front and back cover of Michael Jackson's 'This Is It.' This album was released after the death of Michael Jackson and was originally a documentary concert-film about Michael Jackson.

Both the front and back cover have most of the standard conventions on an album cover;

- It states the name of the artist and includes the name of the album although most album covers have the name of the artist/band bigger than the album name this cover's album name is larger tham the name of the artist. This could be becuase ......oh no it's a cliffhanger

Songs I would like to do a video for

Although it was decided what song was finally chosen for my music video, i still had a list of songs that i wanted to or would have liked to have done a video for but would have been impossible for a number of reasons;

Bon Jovi - It's my life
Spandau Ballet - Gold
Justin Timberlake - What goes around comes around
Sting - Desert Rose
Sting and the Police - Every breathe you take
U2 - Beautiful Day

These songs are very well known, and all but two were produced in the last ten years. Thinking about it realistically it would have been very difficult to do these songs due to their reputation.

Why 'Madness???'

After finding a couple of people to help me with my music video i asked them for a couple of choices of music videos they would like to do or thought would not be too difficult to produce.
We had made a pros and cons list with the other choices we had;

The Nites - Imagine;
I had this pegged as my first choice as it was done by a relatively unknown band and did not have an official video. It was also a rather slow song so it might not have been too difficult to do although it was a rather long song spanning 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
We decided not to do this song in the end since one person i asked for help said that he wanted to be the lead singer and wanted to do a song he thought he would suit more and one he knew well.

Spandau Ballet - Gold 
This was a favourite of mine as it was a song i knew and enjoyed very well. I really wanted to do this and the lead singer also knew this song very well. The only problem was so did a great number of other people. 'Gold' is a renowned song and out of the many people i asked almost every person had heard if this song. This would put pressure on us on doing a very well known song.
Also, after listening to the song and going over the lyrics, we thought that it would be difficult to get a good narrative for this song without copying the official song. It would be difficult to get props and a good setting for this song and it was decided that this song would not be our choice.....sad face.
I had opted for another Gold song a moment after this one was rejected, 'True', but had similar problems to 'Gold.' So it was rejected.

Raffi - Banana Phone
A fun easy-going song which could have been fun to do due to the random lyrics and story told by the song. We thought that this might have been a good song to do as a different number of ideas kept popping up as soon as we heard the song. But all those ideas were difficult to produce a continuos narrative. It would also require a stellar performance due to that fact. Although we had different ideas we couldn't stabalise them to make a good story due to the pace of the song we thought it would be difficult to do.

Madness - Lovestruck
This song was suggested by the lead singer. He said that he knew the song well and thought it would suit him. I hadn't heard the song before but when i did i thought it cold work. It was a choice between Lovestruck and Banana Phone. After going over the lyrics we decided that this song would require a very good performance even if we decided to focus on a narrative. Although the settings of the song and props would be easy to acquire. It would also not be difficult to get continuity in the song and we could combine narrative and performance in this song. We could also try a number of different things with this song and the idea of a recurring hat theme also came. When the number of ideas came to my mind i knew that this was the song to chose. A fun, fast paced song.

Pitch

Lovestruck

The track that was chosen is 'Lovestruck' by Madness from their album 'Wonderful. It was released in 1999.
They are a British band from Camden Town and were formed in 1976. Their band usually plays styles similar to rock, ska, jazz and pop although the track 'Lovestruck' is more of a ska/pop style.

                                                   Target audience

It's a rather upbeat song with a mild-fast paced music. Mixing in the lyrics, the target audience would most likely be younger teenagers to mid-twenties, so 13-25 year olds. But since the band has been active for some time older audiences could also be enticed.

Type of style
We are looking for a performance based video with a narrative - so the video will be 50% performance and 50% narrative although we want to integrate the performance with the narrative to give a more story feeling. The lyrics can be a little confusing and not make much sense sometime and so we want our visuals to make it easier to understand and show that some sort of story/narrative is going on.

Cover
I was planning on taking pictures during the shoot to get an idea for a cover for the single, although there were a few ideas that we could take a picture with the cast around a lamp post since the song includes a lamp post and is one of the main features in our video.

Mise-en-scene
For the lighting it was proposed that a more brighter look would seem better for the song although we are also planning to do some night/evening shots as well as maybe a shot at dawn time to match some lyrics.
We were planning to use torches and car headlights to illuminate the night scene since that would also match the rhythm of the song as well as the lyrics, and if we are up to it add a hose to make a raining effect.

Our setting would be a couple of secluded streets, not big streets. We were also planning to use a park or a field to take a couple of scenes . There might also be some indoor shots where we will most likely need a house but we are still trying to conclude if indoor shots are needed. We are also discussing where we can find a place to shoot scenes outside of the performance where all the cast will be.

We were planning to wear suit blazers and trousers for most of our shots as well add a fedora hat (i think that's what it's called) as a running gag throughout the video. Our other props include torches, some probable instruments, a ladder/step ladder might be necessary (if we use the hose). There are also other smaller detailed props that need to be discussed about.

Cast
So far we are certain of;
- Lead vocalist (lip sync)
- Cameraman
- Extra band member (performer)
Hopeful;
- Saxophonist (for the short saxophone solo)
- Another band member/performer (the more the merrier....or so they say)

Extra - Effects and whatnot 
There may be some added effects like a love heart effect over the performer - it will go well with the song title. There was also the running gag with the hat mentioned earlier, although it doesn't have much to do with the lyrics it thought it would go well with the tone of the music.

Editing the lighting would have to be done and added some lens flares post-production might also add some flair to the video. There could be some addition of slowing and speeding up the visuals in certain areas of the video.

The addition of these effects are only ideas at the moment, the final decision of adding effects and what effects to add will be made during production and post-production.