Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Initial ideas
As soon as the group came together we immediatley came up with three songs that we would like to make a music video from. The three songs were: Panic at the disco- Lying is the most Fun, The Used- Earthquake and Taking Back Sunday- Cute without the 'E'. The fisrt song already had an official music video so to avoid copyright issues we decide to not do that one. That left us with The used and Taking back sunday. after listening to both songs several times we decided that Taking Back Sunday was the band we should do our music video on as we could come up with more ideas for that song.After picking the Artist and the song we decided to go off and do some research into the band, finding out who their target audience are and what genre of music they would come under. We found out that the band came under the rock genre and their typical target audience were teenagers at ages 15-20. However the band are very emo so as a group we decided to create a questionnaire asking people withing the target audience ages ten questions about music videos in order to widen our knowledge of what rock fans would expect to see in a music video.We found though the questionnaire that Mise-en-scene and costumes were the most important in a music video. So we decided to concentrate on them things. The boys in the group meaning myself and James will be wearing suits preferably white shirts and black ties. Whereas the girls in the group: Sohpie and Laura will be wearing things like big black eyelashes, dark/black makeup, black tutus, ripped tights and ripped black tops. The reason why we chose these costumes and that style is to give the characters a sence of mystery and to look scary this is so that we will fit the music genre.Our target audience mentioned that it is very important to have performance scenes in the music video. as 32 out of 80 stated we decided to include clips of the band performing during every chorus. The camera will be panned around the room which will show the crowed going crazy for the band. This will make it seem like you are at a real live gig . We decided that most of the music video will be recorded outside as we can achieve natural darkness.Also mentioned in the questionnaire was that the target audience prefere a bit of narrative and concept in the viseo as well as performance. So we listened to the song over and over again coming up with ideas for the narrative part and finally we came up with the story of their being a boyfriend (myself) and a girlfriend (laura) however the girlfriend cheats on the boyfriend with another boy (james), and the narraive shows them 3 coping with the decision which the girlfriend has to make which is which boy to pick, the original boyfriend or the 'misstress'.We came up with the idea to do a melodramatic play of the story. this was for the concept scenes of the play. we decided to do the play as we found that it fits with the song and through some research a play was very popular as a concept idea in a rock music video.
Album artwork
This poster is mainly a visual advert .The main focus of this poster is michael jackson doing one of his famous poses which instantly is recognised by the audience. He is dressed in some of his famous clothes to help with the instant recognition making this advert pretty succesfull. The writing is all in bold and capitals making it plain to see, it can also be seen as showing that micheal jackson is so famous and well known that they do not need fancy gimmiks to help advertise his music. the only colour in the advert is Michael Jackson's skin and the colour of the text for 'KING OF POP' which bring most of the attention to those items the most.
Alive - (Daft Punk)
The name of the artist is the main focus of this advert, alive was one of Daft Punk's first come back tours and they tried to spread their name around to help reap back their fans. The poster is pure black with the artists name wrote in red dots and white text at the bottom, this could mean that they know they are famous and just need to remind people of their comeback. The advert is both for the tour and the live album that was released along side it. I think the advert is succesful because it shows that they are famous and just the sound of their name will get people really excited.
Undiscovered - (James Morrison)
This advert focuses mainly on the picture of the artist and his name/album name. The main picture is a plain picture of the artist looking quite deep and emotional which could be seen as reflecting his musical work, there has also been brightened patches added to the photo to make it seem happy aswell. The text at the side uses a fancy font with a gradient which attracts the veiwers attention at bring attention to the artists name and album name making him more well known. The text at the bottom isnt very eye catching but mention that this is his debut album featuring his most famous song as of yet.
Tzveten Todorov is a music theorist who believes that every music video was balanced. By this he meant that every video started on a balance which is then suddenly disrupted by some sort of an occurence. after the disruption was caused the characters in the video would/should find a way to solve all the problems which would inturn create a new and better balance. Throughout this essay i will go on to disscuss how Todorov's theory applies to a picked music video along with a detailed analysis into the different parts of the narrative which prove this. i will then later on disscuss how my music video complies to Todorov's theory of balances and whether or not i agree with it.
Foo fighters - Learn to fly
I think that this video strongly backs up todorov's theory of balance in a music video. It shows the foo fighters band getting on an airplane trying to make a regular flight to another destination. Two workers on the plane try to smuggle 'drugs' using the coffee machine as a hiding place which ultimately leads to the disruptionin the balance. The band members are the only ones on the place that do not drink the contaminated coffee thus they are the only ones not under the affect of the 'drug'. The pilots of the plane drink some of the contaminated coffee and therefore are unable to fly the plane so the band members take it upon themselves to land the plane. they succesfully land the plane and the workers trying to smuggle drugs are arrested in the end by the FBI. The starting balance was that the flight was going smoothly but disrupted by the contaminated coffee causing the pilots to be unable to fly but ultimately is restored back to the balance by the band meembers landing the plane.
How my music video applies to the theory
My music video applies to Todorov's theory very strongly. The narrative is about a boy and a girl who are in a relationship (the starting balance), the Boy then discovers that his girlfriend has been cheating on him with another boy (the occurence disupting the balance). The Boy then confronts his girlfriend and decides to give her an ultimatum she either stays faithful to him or goes of with this new boy. The girl goes off to think about it but unfortunatly for her she takes too long and both the boy and the person she is cheating with decide neither of them want her leaving her alone and depressed (The new balance).
Do i agree with Tzeten Todorov's theory?
I agree that Todorov's theory is solid in good music videos, looking through the music channels at home i could see that the most succesful videos follow his theory to some degree and from this i have decided to make sure my music video follows his theory
Foo fighters - Learn to fly
I think that this video strongly backs up todorov's theory of balance in a music video. It shows the foo fighters band getting on an airplane trying to make a regular flight to another destination. Two workers on the plane try to smuggle 'drugs' using the coffee machine as a hiding place which ultimately leads to the disruptionin the balance. The band members are the only ones on the place that do not drink the contaminated coffee thus they are the only ones not under the affect of the 'drug'. The pilots of the plane drink some of the contaminated coffee and therefore are unable to fly the plane so the band members take it upon themselves to land the plane. they succesfully land the plane and the workers trying to smuggle drugs are arrested in the end by the FBI. The starting balance was that the flight was going smoothly but disrupted by the contaminated coffee causing the pilots to be unable to fly but ultimately is restored back to the balance by the band meembers landing the plane.
How my music video applies to the theory
My music video applies to Todorov's theory very strongly. The narrative is about a boy and a girl who are in a relationship (the starting balance), the Boy then discovers that his girlfriend has been cheating on him with another boy (the occurence disupting the balance). The Boy then confronts his girlfriend and decides to give her an ultimatum she either stays faithful to him or goes of with this new boy. The girl goes off to think about it but unfortunatly for her she takes too long and both the boy and the person she is cheating with decide neither of them want her leaving her alone and depressed (The new balance).
Do i agree with Tzeten Todorov's theory?
I agree that Todorov's theory is solid in good music videos, looking through the music channels at home i could see that the most succesful videos follow his theory to some degree and from this i have decided to make sure my music video follows his theory
Video 1 – Ordinary People (John Legend)
The video is mainly a performance based video but is still quite narrative heavy. It consists of the artist sitting down at a piano which is a in blank white room and playing whilst three mini stories unveil at a time. The first mini story is an adult male and female arguing but the audience cannot make out most of the words, some sentences are clear such as ‘we cant have a baby right now’. As the story unfolds, the artist is still in the background performing, the man ends up hitting the woman and that story ends. The second story includes another male and female but this times includes a child, the child is clenching his ears as his parents are seen in the background arguing then the woman takes the child away, there are a few shots of the man pointing and yelling as the woman is holding the child until the man tries to take the child away and ultimately succeeds. The next story involves an older couple arguing with their teenage daughter about college and once again most of the words are unclear and ends up with them all looking teary eyed. Once the stories have ended the artist is joined by a group of violins and the video shows a lot of different angles of the performers. After the violins have finished playing, both in the song and on the video, it flashed back to each story but differently. The first couple look upset and calm, the second couple and hugging the child who is smiling and the teenager from the last story is standing with a bouquet of flowers dressed in a graduation kind of robe. After the camera focuses on the artist which then zooms out to show the violinists and each individual group of people from the stories. The camera zooms out till the whole shot looks like just a dot which then is zoomed in and follows the dot which has turned into a fly that lands on a glass of water on the piano which could symbolise the reason why we just saw the stories, ‘fly on the wall’. Most of the character are in normal clothes, the first couple seemed to have quite lower class clothes which is where , stereotypically, most wife beating occurs. The second group of character’s were dressed as middle class where most of the divorces these days occur and finally the last group were dressed quite upper class so this video is trying to relate to each social class to appeal to a larger audience. Most of the shots used in the video were panning medium shots to make the video seem third person as if we are watching the events as they are unfolding. Due to its dramatic nature I would say that the video is related more to an adult audience, kids would not quite understand the link between video and song and because of this they tried to have adult natured stories in the video. I personally think that the video was a success due to its constant relating to the song and the way it relates to a huge audience.
Video 2 – Save Tonight (Eagle Eye Cherry)
This video is a narrative/concept based music video which features the bands singer in most roles. The video basically contains the artist playing every main role in the video to emphasise the moral of the story which is that when you miss/love someone you see them everywhere hence the singer playing the main roles. The video is shot in what looks like one take but due to the little time for the singer to change clothes it has to be done in more than one take. Most of the character are linked to help string the music video along, there is a man purchasing tights in a shop at the start of the video who robs the singer/shop clerk who just served the singer then the robber turns out to be the singer who was hit by the singer. The singer playing multiple characters can also be seen as some kind of manifestations of someone’s personalities i.e. the robber as the bad side, the shop keeper as a shy side and so forth. The video is shot very well with smooth cuts between shots to make it all look like its one shot, it is mainly panning which gives it a kind of first person feel to it as if the audience is watching the events occurring right before them. A lot of the actors are wearing the fashion that was around in the 90’s or the decade before due to the video being made then. The video is aimed at all audiences but if any in particular it would be aimed at the older audience because of the hidden details and the concept behind the video. I think this video was a success because if its use of small details which keeps viewers entertained each time and the way it constantly refers to its original concept.
Video 3 – Aerodynamic (Daft Punk)
This video is entirely narrative based and is part of a mini-series of music videos. This music video is about 3rd in the mini series which spans across a whole album, the mini series is called interstellar 5555 which was dedicated to daft punk and can be purchased as a feature length film. This part of the mini series is a major turning point for the characters and the plot of the series as the main characters are abducted and taken away. The whole video is animated so there are no actors used in the video, it has a Japanese anime kind of art style which will be an artists own style. In the video the band are aliens and are performing a gig on their home planet when a group of masked strangers gas the gig sending most people to sleep. One of the four band members, the guitarist, runs away from the gas and escapes the abductors in the gig only to be chased down outside of the gig by an elite abductor who catches him with a special gas dart. Once each and member has been caught they are raised into a spaceship belonging to the abductors and taken away, an alien that wakes up from the gas presses some kind of alarm calling for help. This video is aimed towards mainly teenagers but is suited for both adult and child audiences, it is mainly aimed at teenagers because of the Japanese anime art style is mainly read/enjoyed by a teen audience due to its unrealism. I think this video was successful due to its participation in a series of videos, the audience watch one video and wants to know the story so watch the next music video so it’s a self advertising video.
Video 4 – Better (Tom Baxter)
This video is mainly concept but also features a lot of performance shots. It is a video shot against a white background in a town centre with recordings of couples spending time together on the white background and as the video progress their actions seems more intimate and loving like there relationship. The target audience for this video is probably stereotypical adult females because of the topic of the song and the romantic lyrics/video. The main shot used is a mid shot with some use of long shots to show that the video is filmed in a public location which could be seen as the video saying that it is okay to act in love in public, it also uses plain cuts between shots as a straight forward way of changing shots without ruining its atmosphere. I think that the video was quite successful because it reflects the seriousness of the song and message it has but it also is aimed at the target market well.
Video 5 – Leave right now (will young )
This video is mainly narrative and performance. It is a video shot all in one take and one scene, looks like an art gallery or some launch party. The video consists of will young talking to the camera as if it was a person, he seems to be having a conversation which then turns into a heated argument and he continues to keep talking towards the camera as extras interact with him and ultimately try and get him to leave but he remains stubborn and continues till he finishes what he has to say. The single take works really well with this kind of video showing the seriousness of the story and emotion in the lyrics. The video uses the same shot, until the end when the camera ‘walks away’ from will, which is a mid shot but due to the will walking around whilst he’s talking its sometimes a close up or a long shot. I would say the target audience is probably teenager/adult females because of the song itself and the fact that the video is meant to be like a breaking up or confrontation after a relationship has been ended.. I think the video is a success because it works really well with the kind of song and for a video done all in one take and scene, it isn’t boring.
The video is mainly a performance based video but is still quite narrative heavy. It consists of the artist sitting down at a piano which is a in blank white room and playing whilst three mini stories unveil at a time. The first mini story is an adult male and female arguing but the audience cannot make out most of the words, some sentences are clear such as ‘we cant have a baby right now’. As the story unfolds, the artist is still in the background performing, the man ends up hitting the woman and that story ends. The second story includes another male and female but this times includes a child, the child is clenching his ears as his parents are seen in the background arguing then the woman takes the child away, there are a few shots of the man pointing and yelling as the woman is holding the child until the man tries to take the child away and ultimately succeeds. The next story involves an older couple arguing with their teenage daughter about college and once again most of the words are unclear and ends up with them all looking teary eyed. Once the stories have ended the artist is joined by a group of violins and the video shows a lot of different angles of the performers. After the violins have finished playing, both in the song and on the video, it flashed back to each story but differently. The first couple look upset and calm, the second couple and hugging the child who is smiling and the teenager from the last story is standing with a bouquet of flowers dressed in a graduation kind of robe. After the camera focuses on the artist which then zooms out to show the violinists and each individual group of people from the stories. The camera zooms out till the whole shot looks like just a dot which then is zoomed in and follows the dot which has turned into a fly that lands on a glass of water on the piano which could symbolise the reason why we just saw the stories, ‘fly on the wall’. Most of the character are in normal clothes, the first couple seemed to have quite lower class clothes which is where , stereotypically, most wife beating occurs. The second group of character’s were dressed as middle class where most of the divorces these days occur and finally the last group were dressed quite upper class so this video is trying to relate to each social class to appeal to a larger audience. Most of the shots used in the video were panning medium shots to make the video seem third person as if we are watching the events as they are unfolding. Due to its dramatic nature I would say that the video is related more to an adult audience, kids would not quite understand the link between video and song and because of this they tried to have adult natured stories in the video. I personally think that the video was a success due to its constant relating to the song and the way it relates to a huge audience.
Video 2 – Save Tonight (Eagle Eye Cherry)
This video is a narrative/concept based music video which features the bands singer in most roles. The video basically contains the artist playing every main role in the video to emphasise the moral of the story which is that when you miss/love someone you see them everywhere hence the singer playing the main roles. The video is shot in what looks like one take but due to the little time for the singer to change clothes it has to be done in more than one take. Most of the character are linked to help string the music video along, there is a man purchasing tights in a shop at the start of the video who robs the singer/shop clerk who just served the singer then the robber turns out to be the singer who was hit by the singer. The singer playing multiple characters can also be seen as some kind of manifestations of someone’s personalities i.e. the robber as the bad side, the shop keeper as a shy side and so forth. The video is shot very well with smooth cuts between shots to make it all look like its one shot, it is mainly panning which gives it a kind of first person feel to it as if the audience is watching the events occurring right before them. A lot of the actors are wearing the fashion that was around in the 90’s or the decade before due to the video being made then. The video is aimed at all audiences but if any in particular it would be aimed at the older audience because of the hidden details and the concept behind the video. I think this video was a success because if its use of small details which keeps viewers entertained each time and the way it constantly refers to its original concept.
Video 3 – Aerodynamic (Daft Punk)
This video is entirely narrative based and is part of a mini-series of music videos. This music video is about 3rd in the mini series which spans across a whole album, the mini series is called interstellar 5555 which was dedicated to daft punk and can be purchased as a feature length film. This part of the mini series is a major turning point for the characters and the plot of the series as the main characters are abducted and taken away. The whole video is animated so there are no actors used in the video, it has a Japanese anime kind of art style which will be an artists own style. In the video the band are aliens and are performing a gig on their home planet when a group of masked strangers gas the gig sending most people to sleep. One of the four band members, the guitarist, runs away from the gas and escapes the abductors in the gig only to be chased down outside of the gig by an elite abductor who catches him with a special gas dart. Once each and member has been caught they are raised into a spaceship belonging to the abductors and taken away, an alien that wakes up from the gas presses some kind of alarm calling for help. This video is aimed towards mainly teenagers but is suited for both adult and child audiences, it is mainly aimed at teenagers because of the Japanese anime art style is mainly read/enjoyed by a teen audience due to its unrealism. I think this video was successful due to its participation in a series of videos, the audience watch one video and wants to know the story so watch the next music video so it’s a self advertising video.
Video 4 – Better (Tom Baxter)
This video is mainly concept but also features a lot of performance shots. It is a video shot against a white background in a town centre with recordings of couples spending time together on the white background and as the video progress their actions seems more intimate and loving like there relationship. The target audience for this video is probably stereotypical adult females because of the topic of the song and the romantic lyrics/video. The main shot used is a mid shot with some use of long shots to show that the video is filmed in a public location which could be seen as the video saying that it is okay to act in love in public, it also uses plain cuts between shots as a straight forward way of changing shots without ruining its atmosphere. I think that the video was quite successful because it reflects the seriousness of the song and message it has but it also is aimed at the target market well.
Video 5 – Leave right now (will young )
This video is mainly narrative and performance. It is a video shot all in one take and one scene, looks like an art gallery or some launch party. The video consists of will young talking to the camera as if it was a person, he seems to be having a conversation which then turns into a heated argument and he continues to keep talking towards the camera as extras interact with him and ultimately try and get him to leave but he remains stubborn and continues till he finishes what he has to say. The single take works really well with this kind of video showing the seriousness of the story and emotion in the lyrics. The video uses the same shot, until the end when the camera ‘walks away’ from will, which is a mid shot but due to the will walking around whilst he’s talking its sometimes a close up or a long shot. I would say the target audience is probably teenager/adult females because of the song itself and the fact that the video is meant to be like a breaking up or confrontation after a relationship has been ended.. I think the video is a success because it works really well with the kind of song and for a video done all in one take and scene, it isn’t boring.
Flyer and competition
For a part of our coursework we were asked to come up with some merchandise. After gathering together and researching other band's merchandise we decide to create a Fools Arcadia flyer which would advertise a competition on the back. Above you will see the front of the official Fools Arcadia flyer. On the front you will see the bands name and the name of the album we are releasing underneath.
Above you will see the second part of our flyer. This would be the competition. After researching how other bands advertise their competition we noticed a trend which was that they advertise all their competitions on the back of the flyer. So to stick with the trend we placed our competition and details of the competition on the back. As you may also see we have placed a fine print at the bottom of the flyer. The fine print outlines some of the rules and regulations of the competition for example the end date for all entries.
DVD Covers including: Inside, Outside and CD cover
This is the inside of our DVD cover. We decided to keep the same colour scheme on the inside of the cover to the outside cover; this is because it means that all the designs will flow together. We used the same skull on the inside of the DVD cover this is because the disc that we made has part of the skull image on it, therefore we had the idea of having the skull image behind the DVD so when the DVD is removed the image of the skull is still there however when the DVD is in the case it still makes the image. This looks impressive and professional as the image is always there whether the DVD is in the case or not. On the other side of the cover we put the band name ‘Fools Arcadia’ again in the same font as on the front covers. I then wrote a small paragraph about tour dates in January 2010. I also put a link to where you can book tickets to any of the gigs listed above. This is helpful to the reader as they will see this information and if they like the DVD they will be enticed to go and see the band live. This adds publicity to the band. To make sure that the inside doesn’t look too boring I put another image of the band members together. This is a bigger image of the band so that the viewers can see what they look like. The photo is in sepia also to match the colour scheme of the merchandise.
This is our finished DVD cover. All the images on this cover are original. We drew the skull in order to remain original and the image in the skulls eye is taken from our video footage from our music video. We made this image in the eye more ‘ghost like’ by editing the opacity levels to 41 instead of 100 using Photoshop. This made the image look more professional as throughout our music video we have people disappearing; this makes a strong link with our music video however the link is very subtle. Another reason for making the band members look more ‘ghost like’ is to make sure that the main focus within the DVD cover is the skull. I feel we achieved this as after asking 10 people in our media class, they all agreed that the main focus within the cover is the skull. The band members are a nice touch in the eye as this makes the cover look exciting and interesting. Having the colour scheme sepia with white text throughout this DVD cover was important to us as it looks professional and we did not want it to look too busy and cluttered. That is also the reason why we kept two fonts throughout the merchandise. The script font was used for the title of the band and the basic font was used for the album name, track listings and copyright information etc. I feel the normal font and the script font work well together as they compliment each other well together. We chose white as the font colour because it stands out well on the sepia background. We tried it firstly with black font but some of the font was lost and difficult to see in some places of the DVD cover, for example the album name was difficult to read as it is very close to the black eye of the skull. At the bottom of the DVD cover I decided to include a ‘featuring: Cute without the E’ this shows the reader that if they knew the song but was not aware of the band who sang it, the song name catches their eye making them want to pick the DVD cover up to look at the song listings on the back. We took photographs of our own DVD’s at home so we could make the ‘DVD’ logo, ‘WB’ logo and the ‘parental advisory’ logo original. We then edited these photographs on Photoshop and then pasted them onto our cover. This stops any kind of copyright within the logos. We also did this with the barcode on the back just to ensure that all our images were original. The stars on the back of the DVD cover next to the quote from MTV Base were also hand drawn using paint then pasted onto Photoshop. We decided to have 20 listings as out style model that we used had 21; we wanted to make the listings more even as we decided to have them in two short columns of 10. By having these in neat columns makes the DVD cover look tidy and professional. I decided to include a quote from MTV Base about the DVD itself. This is a nice touch to the DVD cover as it was a blank space and also entices the potential viewer to purchase the DVD by having a well known music channels opinion featured on the DVD. We wanted another picture within the DVD cover so I decided to use the photo of the band once again on the back of the cover. This photo shows that Connor (the middle person) is the dominant singer; it also shows that the band is fun as they are all adopting different stances. I decided to leave the fence in the photo when I was editing it on Photoshop as it shows they are important, using a fence to separate themselves from the audience. This replicates a safety barrier at a gig making them look popular with the general public. I edited the photo on Photoshop to delete any unwanted features and make the photograph sepia. This was important to us as the theme of the DVD is sepia. At the bottom of our DVD cover I included Copyright information. This makes the DVD look professional as all the other DVD’s that we looked at included this information. I made this information personal to us and made it a small font as this information is not a key element to attract a target audience but it is essential to have on a DVD therefore it was important we included it. Underneath this I also included some websites; although these websites are not real they add a nice touch to the DVD cover and make it look unique to all the other ones shown in class.
For a part of our coursework we were asked to come up with some merchandise. After gathering together and researching other band's merchandise we decide to create a Fools Arcadia flyer which would advertise a competition on the back. Above you will see the front of the official Fools Arcadia flyer. On the front you will see the bands name and the name of the album we are releasing underneath.
Above you will see the second part of our flyer. This would be the competition. After researching how other bands advertise their competition we noticed a trend which was that they advertise all their competitions on the back of the flyer. So to stick with the trend we placed our competition and details of the competition on the back. As you may also see we have placed a fine print at the bottom of the flyer. The fine print outlines some of the rules and regulations of the competition for example the end date for all entries.
DVD Covers including: Inside, Outside and CD cover
This is the inside of our DVD cover. We decided to keep the same colour scheme on the inside of the cover to the outside cover; this is because it means that all the designs will flow together. We used the same skull on the inside of the DVD cover this is because the disc that we made has part of the skull image on it, therefore we had the idea of having the skull image behind the DVD so when the DVD is removed the image of the skull is still there however when the DVD is in the case it still makes the image. This looks impressive and professional as the image is always there whether the DVD is in the case or not. On the other side of the cover we put the band name ‘Fools Arcadia’ again in the same font as on the front covers. I then wrote a small paragraph about tour dates in January 2010. I also put a link to where you can book tickets to any of the gigs listed above. This is helpful to the reader as they will see this information and if they like the DVD they will be enticed to go and see the band live. This adds publicity to the band. To make sure that the inside doesn’t look too boring I put another image of the band members together. This is a bigger image of the band so that the viewers can see what they look like. The photo is in sepia also to match the colour scheme of the merchandise.
This is our finished DVD cover. All the images on this cover are original. We drew the skull in order to remain original and the image in the skulls eye is taken from our video footage from our music video. We made this image in the eye more ‘ghost like’ by editing the opacity levels to 41 instead of 100 using Photoshop. This made the image look more professional as throughout our music video we have people disappearing; this makes a strong link with our music video however the link is very subtle. Another reason for making the band members look more ‘ghost like’ is to make sure that the main focus within the DVD cover is the skull. I feel we achieved this as after asking 10 people in our media class, they all agreed that the main focus within the cover is the skull. The band members are a nice touch in the eye as this makes the cover look exciting and interesting. Having the colour scheme sepia with white text throughout this DVD cover was important to us as it looks professional and we did not want it to look too busy and cluttered. That is also the reason why we kept two fonts throughout the merchandise. The script font was used for the title of the band and the basic font was used for the album name, track listings and copyright information etc. I feel the normal font and the script font work well together as they compliment each other well together. We chose white as the font colour because it stands out well on the sepia background. We tried it firstly with black font but some of the font was lost and difficult to see in some places of the DVD cover, for example the album name was difficult to read as it is very close to the black eye of the skull. At the bottom of the DVD cover I decided to include a ‘featuring: Cute without the E’ this shows the reader that if they knew the song but was not aware of the band who sang it, the song name catches their eye making them want to pick the DVD cover up to look at the song listings on the back. We took photographs of our own DVD’s at home so we could make the ‘DVD’ logo, ‘WB’ logo and the ‘parental advisory’ logo original. We then edited these photographs on Photoshop and then pasted them onto our cover. This stops any kind of copyright within the logos. We also did this with the barcode on the back just to ensure that all our images were original. The stars on the back of the DVD cover next to the quote from MTV Base were also hand drawn using paint then pasted onto Photoshop. We decided to have 20 listings as out style model that we used had 21; we wanted to make the listings more even as we decided to have them in two short columns of 10. By having these in neat columns makes the DVD cover look tidy and professional. I decided to include a quote from MTV Base about the DVD itself. This is a nice touch to the DVD cover as it was a blank space and also entices the potential viewer to purchase the DVD by having a well known music channels opinion featured on the DVD. We wanted another picture within the DVD cover so I decided to use the photo of the band once again on the back of the cover. This photo shows that Connor (the middle person) is the dominant singer; it also shows that the band is fun as they are all adopting different stances. I decided to leave the fence in the photo when I was editing it on Photoshop as it shows they are important, using a fence to separate themselves from the audience. This replicates a safety barrier at a gig making them look popular with the general public. I edited the photo on Photoshop to delete any unwanted features and make the photograph sepia. This was important to us as the theme of the DVD is sepia. At the bottom of our DVD cover I included Copyright information. This makes the DVD look professional as all the other DVD’s that we looked at included this information. I made this information personal to us and made it a small font as this information is not a key element to attract a target audience but it is essential to have on a DVD therefore it was important we included it. Underneath this I also included some websites; although these websites are not real they add a nice touch to the DVD cover and make it look unique to all the other ones shown in class.
For the poster I followed some typical conventions from the style model advert such as the large dominant band image, the check board line across, lack of colour and the black text background at the bottom. With the image I airbrushed it removing an impurities that the band members weren’t pleased with such as fly away hairs, spots and patchy skin tones this was all smoothed out to give flawless appearances. I also removed and blended out the thumb up from one of the band members as it gives a more professional look as it didn’t seem to fit the image of the band. I edited the image to black and white then added a sepia tone over the top to match the tone of the DVD cover to keep the theme constant. The bands name is across the top with the name of the album underneath using the same fonts also used for the other merchandise. We decided to go for a sort of action shot of the band ‘laughing’ with the wind blowing, this suggests the every day approach of the band, it also shows there strong connection that they have between one another. I copied the pattern of the checked black and white using Photoshop elements and put it across the poster which I took from the style model I think it looks really good isolating the information from the picture. I haven’t overloaded the poster with text but I have but the key information on, including songs which the DVD is featuring and a website linked to where you can buy the DVD online. On most DVD adverts they only have an image of the front of the DVD but we felt it was important that the audience was seeing everything that they were going to be buying therefore I included the front, back and spine. This is favour also filled up more black space as well and worked really well alongside the text.DVD Insert
we chose to do some extra work for our DVD promotion. Therefore, as well as having a flyer hand out to be handed out in stores such as HMV and slotted inside the DVD cover, we decided to also have the lyrics to our chosen song for another insert in the DVD box. These lyrics are the lyrics to 'Cute without the E' this is our chosen song for our video. Instead of having a band shot for the background of the poster, we decided to have a picture of a couple from behind. Having their arms around each other; this reflects the lyrics of the song therefore we felt this image would be appropriate. We also made this image black and white with a green tinge to it, this is so that the white writing will stand out against the image, we tried having the image sepia but some lettering were lost among the white parts of the picture such as the girl's top. We decided to have the image tilted to one side, as the song explains that the girl and the boy are stuck in a love triangle. This is meant to symbolize their relationship going down hill rapidly.The text is written in white but is embossed in black as this makes the text stand out more to the audience, making it easier to read. The title of the song is written in the same text as the band name has been written in throughout the merchandise. This makes all the merchandise flow together nicely.
Kissology vol 2 1978 – 1991 – (Kiss)
This DVD cover is trying to give a visual effect. The structure of the cover can be seen as concept and performance due to the band members faces along the bottom but it is a recurring theme in their DVD covers which is the concept bit. There are spotlights in the name showing that they are big and in demand. The special effects used on the cover would be the spotlight in the name and the grey scale on the faces. They would have included the face on the DVD cover because it is one of the most memorable things about the band because they always perform with the paint on their faces. Due to the date on the DVD I would say it was aimed for people who listened to Kiss at that date but it can be viewed by younger audiences.
Stiff upper lip – (ACDC)
This cover is mainly a visual effect. The statue is of the lead guitarist doing one of his famous poses which has also been seen to symbolise the band. The structure of the cover is they have the name of the band at the top of the DVD and then the name of the DVD carved into the statue on the bottom with the main image in the middle. The reason they have the name carved into the statue is because the band is seen as a really iconic and famous band so it can be seen as a memorial to them. The skyscrapers in the background can show that they are still well known during modern times. Because of the faded look on the statue I would say that the target audience would be adult or older generations.
Live at the Apollo – (arctic monkeys)
This cover is mainly performance based but also visual. There are individual pictures of the band members and a picture of a crowd from one of their gigs which shows that this band is in popular demand lately due to their massive turnouts the structure of the DVD is that there are five pictures based around the centre of the cover with the name slightly amongst them. The pictures are all different colours showing that each member had their own specific role amongst the group.
Flight 666 – (Iron Maiden)
The cover is mainly concept and narrative based. The cover relates to the name of the DVD with the plane in the background. The main structure of the DVD is the name of the band at the top with the name of the DVD below it and under that is the plane and band looking straight into the camera. Also in the background is a picture of one of their crowds showing the popularity of the band. The number at the end of the DVD name is related to Satan and known as ‘the number of the beast’ which give a heavy feel to their music. There is no mention about the specific target audience but with a heavy feel it would be mainly aimed towards older teenagers and adults or anyone interested in heavy rock.
Live from Wembley arena – (Pink)
The DVD cover is mainly performance based. It shows pink performing at one of her shows in a few of her costumes but the main image is of her with the band faded in the background. They have faded the band so that pink is the main figure in the cover. In the middle of the DVD is the name and under is a very bold art design with the name of the artist in the middle. The art design is to make the DVD look more fun and different from other DVD covers. Along the bottom of the cover is pink in two other outfits showing the variety of her performances and how entertaining they can be.
This DVD cover is trying to give a visual effect. The structure of the cover can be seen as concept and performance due to the band members faces along the bottom but it is a recurring theme in their DVD covers which is the concept bit. There are spotlights in the name showing that they are big and in demand. The special effects used on the cover would be the spotlight in the name and the grey scale on the faces. They would have included the face on the DVD cover because it is one of the most memorable things about the band because they always perform with the paint on their faces. Due to the date on the DVD I would say it was aimed for people who listened to Kiss at that date but it can be viewed by younger audiences.
Stiff upper lip – (ACDC)This cover is mainly a visual effect. The statue is of the lead guitarist doing one of his famous poses which has also been seen to symbolise the band. The structure of the cover is they have the name of the band at the top of the DVD and then the name of the DVD carved into the statue on the bottom with the main image in the middle. The reason they have the name carved into the statue is because the band is seen as a really iconic and famous band so it can be seen as a memorial to them. The skyscrapers in the background can show that they are still well known during modern times. Because of the faded look on the statue I would say that the target audience would be adult or older generations.
Live at the Apollo – (arctic monkeys)This cover is mainly performance based but also visual. There are individual pictures of the band members and a picture of a crowd from one of their gigs which shows that this band is in popular demand lately due to their massive turnouts the structure of the DVD is that there are five pictures based around the centre of the cover with the name slightly amongst them. The pictures are all different colours showing that each member had their own specific role amongst the group.
Flight 666 – (Iron Maiden)The cover is mainly concept and narrative based. The cover relates to the name of the DVD with the plane in the background. The main structure of the DVD is the name of the band at the top with the name of the DVD below it and under that is the plane and band looking straight into the camera. Also in the background is a picture of one of their crowds showing the popularity of the band. The number at the end of the DVD name is related to Satan and known as ‘the number of the beast’ which give a heavy feel to their music. There is no mention about the specific target audience but with a heavy feel it would be mainly aimed towards older teenagers and adults or anyone interested in heavy rock.
Live from Wembley arena – (Pink)The DVD cover is mainly performance based. It shows pink performing at one of her shows in a few of her costumes but the main image is of her with the band faded in the background. They have faded the band so that pink is the main figure in the cover. In the middle of the DVD is the name and under is a very bold art design with the name of the artist in the middle. The art design is to make the DVD look more fun and different from other DVD covers. Along the bottom of the cover is pink in two other outfits showing the variety of her performances and how entertaining they can be.
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