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

TASK 6 Storyboard

TASK 4 Target Audience

All media texts are made to be consumed by an audience. We are making a music video and need to brand our artist and therefore need to persuade a target audience to consume our product in order to do so. Due to contemporary society and "The Online Age" audiences are no longer passive and accepting of everything the media offers them, which makes the hypodermic needle theory invalid. Instead, the uses and gratification theory is more applicable to our target audience, which suggests that our audience would actively choose to watch our music video in order to gratify their own needs.

For example they may watch our video for:

• Social Interaction (They could talk about it with friends)
• Entertainment
• Escapism 
• Education (About the artist)
• To understand the narrative of the song through the video.

We used the website YOUGOV to generate the profile of our target audience based on fans of the artist of the song, Kate Nash. The website told us that our target audience would be males from 18-24 years of age that would be largely interested in things such as information technology, the sports industry and transport and logistics. Although I agree with the age group YOUGOV suggested, I don't agree that the target audience would be male due to Kate Nash's strong feminist views and "girl power" being a reoccurring theme in many of her songs. Although men may support the same views. Many of Kate's songs are targeted towards her ex boyfriends and the breakups that she has experienced so women and teenage girls would be more likely to relate to this.

I can suggest that the target audience for our production will be females aged 16-24. This is lower than what my YOUGOV research suggests because I think that it would perhaps attract a slightly younger audience due to its childish nature in the way that the narrative follows a girl and her imaginary skeleton friend. The audience would be likely to come from all over Europe, as there is a wide range of people who like listening to alternative music and with the use of radio stations and broadcasting sites such as YouTube, it would be widely accessible for whoever would be interested. The main target audience would be more likely to be females in both primary and secondary audiences for my video and as YouGov suggests they would perhaps be from the lower working classes as Kate Nash tackles problems that they would be more likely to face within her song lyrics so they would use her music as a means of escapism from everyday life.

Pitch Feedback

There are ideas here which show promise and I hope that you develop the skeleton idea into a firm narrative.  You showed the development of ideas

However, the pitch was basic and did not provide a full explanation.

At present there is one member carrying the group and you need to work as a team.

Share things out and get together to work as a team.

Gather momentum by preparing a productions schedule which you follow.

Explain the performance element

How will you brand the artist?  

Your blog is looking thin and you need to concentrate on making progress in this subject.  Act now.

Pitch