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.