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.