TASK 11 Finished Print Artefacts

Magazine  Advert

Album Cover

Inside Panels of  Album Cover

CD

Editing The Album Cover Print Artefact

Original Image

To begin with, I used a brightening tool on the editing software to lighten the bones of the skeleton, I also airbrushed the artists face to remove any shadows and blemishes.

Whitened Skeleton

I then began to experiment with the design of the album cover by layering different filters over the top to give them an indie/alternative design to match the genre of the music. A few examples of the designs I experimented with can be seen below.

Experiment With Filters

Applying Text and PAEC Logo

Next, I began to add the artists name and the album name to the front of the CD cover in order to brand the artist. I kept the same font that I used in the magazine advert in order to introduce a level of consistency which helps to brand the artist in the target audiences minds and make their 'logo' recognisable and more memorable. We also added a Parental Advisory Explicit Content logo in order to warn those planning on buying the CD that some of the songs contain explicit language that might not be suitable for young children or others who may not enjoy hearing expletives whilst listening to music.

Experimenting with different colours

Experimenting with different colours

I experimented with different coloured text and different filters on the central image in order to produce a few different front cover images which I could then show to my target audience and ask for their opinions. The majority of those asked said that they liked the first image, with the triangular design and turquoise font, as it looked bright and interesting and matched the genre of the music well, so we decided to proceed with that as our front cover of the album.

Adding Barcode

Next, I chose an image of the skeleton from our music video for the back of the album cover and edited it with the same design as the front cover. I then added a barcode and began to add text to it to make it look more professional by adding a barcode number and category number like you would see on real album covers produced by real record labels. 

Track-list and copyright information

I looked for the album cover of the real 'Made of Bricks' album by Kate Nash on the internet and after I located it, I was able to include the real copyright information above my barcode. In addition to this, I added the tracklist to the back of the album cover as this is a typical convention. 

Adding a QR Code and PAEC Logo

I decided to add a QR code to the album cover to make it more modern, as many companies do this now in order to make their product easily accessible. By doing this, people would be able to see my CD in stores and simply scan the QR code on their smart phone or any other smart device in order to be directed to a website that would allow them to purchase it online or download it straight to their device. I also added another Parental Advisory Explicit Content logo in order to clarify the explicit language once more.

Research into record labels

I then went onto google and decided to find out what record label has signed Kate Nash in order to be accurate whilst applying the company logos to my album cover. I found that both Fiction Records and Island Records had signed Kate Nash and therefore found their logos on the internet, edited them slightly to remove their backgrounds and then applied them to the bottom left corner of the album cover as seen below.

Applying record label logo

Editing the CD cover together

Finally, I created a spine for the CD cover and included the album name, artists name, category number and main record label on there as this is the information that was located on the original spine of the original Kate Nash album. I then edited the front and back cover together in order to create the full, completed album cover. 

First Draft And Audience Feedback

What have you learned from audience feedback?

Our Initial Critique:

• Our music video is still missing a lot of footage as we have not finished filming certain scenes and part of the lip syncing. 
• The footage has not been rendered so it is not very good quality at the moment
• The birthday party scene was filmed in low quality and to fix this, we aim to make it look like a home movie by applying a record and time effect, but this has not been completed yet.
• The narrative has not been made clear as we are missing the footage that explains what the skeleton is a metaphor for.

Questions for our audience:

• Do you think our video matches the genre of the music well?
• Do you understand the narrative?
• What type of audience do you think would like this video?
• Which channels do you think this video would be aired on?
• Can you tell that there are issues with white balancing in the video?
• Do you think we have incorporated our props effectively? i.e the skeleton
• Do you think we have used humour well in our video?
• What would you do to improve our video?
• Do you think the lip syncing looks natural in the video?
• What do you like about the video? What have we done well?

November feedback

I like the pots showing how you achieved effects on the print production.  THis is what we want to see in terms of documenting the creative process.

 A basic risk assessment, a basic production schedeule,

An attempt to contact the artist shows a willingness to avoid copyright issues.

Storyboards are thorough, if lacking in artistic skill and will aid the direction of the production.

The plot synopsis is thorough.

 You have begun to add some research which is more focused and personalised.  You also offer some discussion of a target audience which can be developed.

You are working at level 2/3 and are capable of the higher grades suggesting that if you apply yourself now you will reap the rewards with a high coursework mark.

Document the creative process and make your input clear.

Ensure all research and planning is now complete.

Gather audience feedback.

Publish a first cut of our edit.

Editing The Magazine Article Print Artefact

Our Original Image

After airbrushing the actresses face and brightening the body of the skeleton using photo shop, I then began to use filters to brighten the image and make it look more attractive. After experimenting with a range of filters I chose to use 'Sun' as it created a nice bright effect that particularly highlighted the leaves in the background.

'Sun' Filter

'Janine' Filter

Adding rating stars.

I tried to begin editing the rating stars onto the photo but soon discovered that due to the colour of the leaves in the background of the image, the text I was layering over the top looked unclear and unprofessional. I ideally wanted to use golden stars, but as they would not show up I experimented with black stars but did not like the way it looked. In order to find a way to overcome it, I looked up other magazine adverts on the internet and found that in many of them, part of the image was blacked out in order to write text that was clear to read.

Example 1

Example 2

Applying to my work

After doing this, I was able to put text over the blacked out area that stood out and looked much better. In order to choose the font I wanted to use in the magazine advert I looked at the logo Kate Nash uses on her website and album covers and discovered that she generally likes her fonts to look childish and handwritten. On the editing software I used, they had a collection of handwritten fonts so I played around with these until I found one that I thought looked good.

Kate Nash's Font

Adding the font to my work

After this, I went back to the internet to find out what else needed to be included in the magazine advert and found out that a price, quotes from magazines and informing the audience of how the CD can be purchased was important. 

Almost finished product

We were happy with how this turned out and therefore showed our teacher and asked for feedback in order to improve. We were told that we needed to leave a natural border around the outside of the image in order to leave room for it to be edited into a magazine without any of the text around the outside being cut out. As we had already saved the image, we were unable to move the text around without having to start from scratch, so in order to overcome this we added a border around the outside to create the same effect.

Finished Magazine Article

The only thing we need to do to complete the magazine article is to add a picture of the finished album cover into the top right corner. We have done the magazine article before we have started the album cover and therefore we can not add this in yet.

Our Creative Journey - Filming

We set up and filmed the lip syncing scenes in order to brand our artist and include performance in our music video. In the photos you can see Katie the director and Oli the camera man setting up to film our actress Lydia. We took photos and printed them off before sticking them up on the white wall behind her. We did this to add narrative to our music video and make the surroundings behind the artist more interesting to look at.

Risk Assessment

Production Schedule

 Production Schedule

When?	The dates that we will be filming on are... - 21st and 22nd of October (during half term) - 1st of November
Who?	The people involved in the making of the film are... Katie - Director Oli - Camera man Kirst - Producer Lydia - Actor
What?	The scenes that we will be filming are... 21st: House 1 Street 1 Field Wall Bedroom Scenes: 1-8 11-15 23-26 27-32 34-37 50 22nd: House 2 Street 2 Scenes: 17-19 44-47 1st Nov White room Lip Syncing Scenes: 9-10 16 20-22 38-43 48-49 33
How?	The type of shots that we will film... - Establishing shot - Tracking shots - POV - High angles - Low angles - Pans - Close ups - Extreme close ups - Mid shots
Which?	The equipment that we will need is... - A HD Camera - A Tripod - A Dolly - A Steady Frame
Props	- Skeleton toy/costume - Normal girl clothes - Halloween decorations - Cardboard boxes - Plaster - Old Photos of girl and ex boyfriend - Box of tissues - Ladder (for the attic) - Extra clothes (to throw) - Birthday cake - Birthday candles - Piano - (School) bag - Witch hat - Trick or treat bags - Car - Wardrobe - Party hats - Party streamer - Photos of girl and skeleton - Pen and paper - Bed - Hammer - Main picture of skeleton - Main picture of boy

Copyright Email to Fiction Records

We emailed Fiction Records in order to ask permission to use Kate Nash's song for our music video, in order to overcome the risks of copy right issues. Although we may not receive a reply, we understand that within the media industry you can not use other peoples work without permission and therefore you must seek it before you can use songs images or other media products that do not belong to you.

TASK 8 Final Proposal - Plot Synopsis

The final idea for our music video to "Skeleton Song" by Kate Nash conveys the relationship our artist has with a prop skeleton who she believes to be her friend. The story line of the video follows very closely to the lyrics of the song which helped us to form a narrative that the audience will be able to follow.


A wide shot of a street is our establishing shot and our artist is walking home whilst the camera pans to follow her. A point of view shot shows her walking up the drive to her house and into her house. She climbs into the attic and begins looking in boxes. The camera shows a P.O.V shot staring at the girl suggesting she isn't alone. The girl finds a box that she opens, the camera is placed in the box and we use the camera to act as the point of view of the skeleton as the girl reaches in to pull something out of the box. 
An extreme close up displays the girls lips singing the song and then the skeletons mouth does the same. It then shows them sitting on a wall as though the skeleton toy is actually alive and is her friend before the skeleton falls off the wall and the artist puts a plaster on his bones showing that she cares for his well being. More shots of the skeleton and the girl are shown as they are relaxing on the grass which is then followed by a change of scene where the girl is crying on her bed ripping up photos of her ex boyfriend with the skeleton comforting her. 

During the chorus, a trick or treating scene is shown. The girl and the skeleton walk up to a house but instead of staying to get sweets, they knock the house and the skeleton runs away and hides leaving the girl standing in an awkward position where she attempts to run but the owner of the house calls out to her angrily. A quick cut to the singer in the white room is shown as she sings but this time she is holding the box that the skeleton was originally in.
For the next short verse, the skeleton and the girl are dancing in the white room while she sings which then cuts to them in her room trying on clothes which the girl finds amusing as he is a skeleton who has no need for clothes. During a music break, the girl is back in the white room but a close up of her playing the piano (showing off her musical talent). Next the camera shows the girl spinning round in a circle where the camera is the P.O.V of the skeleton and then this flips so the skeleton is shown and the camera is the girl. The next scene shows them at a birthday party and the skeleton blows a party streamer celebrating the artists birthday with her.

For the next chorus the main focus is on the singer performing. She is seen singing and writing the lyrics on her bed with the camera at a low angle looking up at her. Shots of her and the skeleton singing and dancing in the white room are shown but this time pictures of them are on the wall and the camera cuts to several of them to show the audience. The camera cuts to the artist holding the box and climbing up the ladder to the attic implying that she was putting the skeleton back into the attic although this raises questions as to why she is doing this when they seem to be enjoying each others company.
The music dramatically changes and becomes much more slower and darker. Stop motion with the camera at a high angle, shows the girl in bed, rolling around as though she is having a bad dream. She then gets up, finds a hammer and walks to where the skeleton is (who is turned in the opposite direction to her) where she then proceeds to rise the hammer and it is implied that she smashes the skeleton with it. The singer is then shown in a darkened room with an unknown light source distorting the shadows on her face making her look almost evil. 

During the music break, the girl is back in the the white room but is tearing down the photos in a rage. Then when everything slows back down, the girl is shown sitting on the floor surrounded by the crumpled photos crying while she sings the lyrics of the song. She grabs an almost intact photo and holds it up. An over the shoulder shot displays that the photo is of a boy and as she lowers the picture, the focus shifts to the skeleton that is suddenly sitting against the wall. She stands up, picks him up then walks off camera. 

The next scene is similar to the trick or treating scene but the skeleton is replaced with a person in a skeleton costume. After the girl gets in trouble for ringing the bell and walking off, a close up of the person in the costume shows him taking off the mask, revealing that he's the boy in the photograph from the previous scene. Several shots that were shown previously are now repeated but the skeleton has been replaced with the boy, suggesting that the singer wasn't talking about a skeleton but was using it as a metaphor for the boy. A final close up of the girl shows her singing the last line but then during the outro, the doorbell is heard and a P.O.V shows the girl walking towards the door. When she opens it the boy from the photo is stood on her doorstep holding a skeleton costume and a trick or treat bag.

Album Cover Research

I google searched 'Album Covers' in order to immediately see a range of different examples and be able to compare their similarities and differences. Immediately we notice that each of the album covers display the Artist's name in bold lettering and have an image that acts as the main focus. In most cases, the image depicts the artist themselves but in some cases more abstract images are used, such as the baby swimming in Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album cover. 

Sometimes, abstract imagery like this is used on the front of album covers in order to create an unusual image that will stick in the audiences mind and offer deeper connotations for them to explore rather than just putting a plain image of the artists face. In this instance, the blue water and the new born baby connotes innocence and purity and by using a controversial image like this, the artist gives their audience something to talk about and remember about this particular album. 

However it is much more common to use a photo of the artist on the front of the album cover as it promotes their image and ensures that their name and face becomes well known by audiences. 


By conducting this research, I have discovered that to make a successful album cover it should be unique and stand out. It should include photographs and typography and most importantly it should fit within the style of music that it represents. An album cover should not be too complex as it should be clear and recognisable so that it is not too confusing and overpowering to look at. In addition to this, the font used should be readable and should fit the theme of the music. Ensuring that the font, colours and images fit the theme of the music is one of my targets for my final product as I did not focus on this during my draft and that caused problems for me as the genre of music was not conveyed in a clear way.

First Design Draft of Print Artefact

To create my album cover draft I photoshopped a collection of images together from google. The Halloween themed style of my album cover was inspired by the song that we are making the music video for "Skeleton" and the other songs relating to the topic such as "Pumpkin Soup". However, by challenging the usual conventions of an Alternative album in this way, I may cause confusion of genre to the target audience who may mistake it for a Rock/Metal album. Due to this, I may have to change the colours on the final draft of the album cover to be brighter and less dull. From creating my initial draft I did find several things that I may include in my final edit, for example the font I used to create the words "Made Of Bricks". I also think by including the logos of the record companies that sign Kate Nash, it made my album cover look more professional. 

TASK 7 Role Allocation & Casting

Role Allocation and Casting

Although everyone in the group will take an active part in filming and editing the music video, certain roles are more prominent. The main roles we will take on include being the director, the producer, camera operator and editor. 

Director: Katie

The Director's role is the person who guides the technical crew and actors into fulfilling their visions of what the production should look like, often their visualization of scripts given to them by the screenwriters.

Producer: Kirst

The Producer's role is to supervise the overall filming of the shots themselves.The role of producer's are normally sub categorised further into line producer (who manages the films budget and maintains a strict schedule in terms of filming) or executive producer (who oversees the filming in regards to financing).

Camera Operator: Oli

The Camera Operator is responsible for the maintenance of the camera during filming. They make sure the camera is ready in place for filming and physically operate the camera when the time comes to film a shot/scene.

Editor:  Oli&Katie

Film Editors are responsible for editing the footage taken into a logical sequence to create a music video in this instance. They need to manipulate the footage by adding effects, cutting pieces of the footage and making sure the song and footage work together nicely.

Print Artefacts: Kirst

Casting
The music video focusses on the singer (Kate) and her friend the Skeleton. We needed one main actress to play Kate,the skeleton would be a prop, another person to play the boyfriend at the end and an extra person to play the role of the owner of the house.

Kate: The singer featured in the music video is Kate (Kate Nash). Played by Lydia.

Skeleton: The skeleton will be played by a fake skeleton prop.

Boyfriend:The boyfriend is only featured near the end. Played by Oli