CD cover Mock up

Below is our CD case made up so you can see exactly what it looks like.

FRONT VIEW:

BACK VIEW:

INSIDE VIEW:

Here is a copy of our 4 panels for the CD cover transferred onto a cut out net. From this you can see how we would put the CD case together and what it would look like after. We have chosen a simple layout as if we were to manufacture this album this would be a cheap but effective design.





















Below you can see some feedback from a viewer and what they thought of our CD cover design.

FEEDBACK:
"I think the design looks really professional. The text is really simple but effective and goes really well with the picture and the way it is all in black and white except for the dress looks amazing. If i saw this in a music shop i would definitely buy it. However i think the inside cover where it repeats the songs could be a bit more inventive."

Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Throughout all three of the texts we have used a similar style so that they all link in together. The Video was set over four different locations; for the performance side there was the rooftop, and for the story line part of the video there was the streets in Manchester, the set up indoors and the derelict building part of the video. For the CD cover and poster we decided to stick with the derelict building idea, so that they both linked back to the video. We also thought that the derelict shots were some of the best from the video. The CD cover and back were edited together by Vicki using screen shots and Photoshop CS3 the design is simple yet effective and links back to the video. We also used a nice font on the CD cover as you would normally in see in HMV. In the poster we wanted to keep the same theme going with the derelict shots, we used a black background and four various shots of the derelict buildings from the video. We set them out so that there was one shot at the top, another at the bottom and two small ones sandwiched in-between. We decided to do this because the shots that we used had a lot of space and allowed us space to put the titles and advertising features. This is how we made sure that the products had similar design features. One the poster I made the font bigger and bolder as you would see on a poster in order to ensure that it is eye catching and would sell. I also put a small picture of the front of the CD to make sure that the audience would recognise the band.

Screen shots.

The following are screen shots from Evanescence's video- everybody's fool.

The next shot is our roof shot. The photographs above are where we got our rooftop idea from.

We liked the idea of the roof shots as it created a good shot and it was a quiet place to film.

Below are images of each side of our final CD cover, the front cover, back cover, inside front and the inside back cover. For each of the covers we have used different programs to create them, such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign.

FRONT COVER:

For the front cover we decided it would be best to use a screenshot from our music video so the viewer could make a comparison between the two. The screen shot we used was of Liz in the abandoned location. We used a shot of just her feet up to the bottom of her dress and grass in the background, we though this shot worked well as it had a lot of space to the left of her which was perfect to add the covers text to. We changed the image black and white to make it look more like a professional CD cover, however we left Liz’s dress red to add a bit of life to the image and make it stand out against the dull background. This was done by using Adobe Photoshop. We then used a simple white font called ‘New garden’ this font wasn’t gaudy or fancy and worked well with the image, which made it look professional.

BACK COVER:

We kept the back cover similar to the front cover but made it more simplistic. We used a image of grass on the back using the same black and white effect. We then added the track list to the back in the same white font as the front. We placed the text in a vertical list central to the cover. At the bottom we added the typical items on a professional CD such as the barcode, company logo and the copyright information. This made the back cover look very effective and real.

INSIDE FRONT COVER:

For the inside front of the CD case we decided to keep it simple so that is does not make the front cover less effective. We used a plain black background and white text on it. The text was just a repeat of the songs and the albums name; we got this idea from previous CD cover research.

INSIDE BACK COVER:

This part of the CD case is where our actual CD would go. To make this cover more inventive we used the lyrics of the song in our video “fences”, and typed them up in the shape of a CD. We did this using the programme Adobe InDesign. This is where the CD would be placed in our album. The text was once again white and in a simple font so it is easy to read.

Original Costume Research Photographs

The following photographs are some of the orginal research photographs we looked at to find out the style of costume we should have in the video.

After looking at these photographs we decided to go with the casual costume that we see Vicky wearing in the performance parts.

Evaluation-Media Product use.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our video was inspired by other music videos in the ‘pop rock’ genre. The specific artists that we concentrated on were; Paramore, Avril Lavigne and Evanescence. We researched the groups’ music videos and discovered that the mise en scene in general was casual.




Which aspects from the music videos you researched did you incorporate in your own video?

Jeans and t-shirts or gothic style dresses were the general themed costumes in the music videos we analysed. The Set in these videos were high streets, derelict abandoned places and rooftops. From these we got the ideas for our music video. We decided on costume being casual but with a dramatic effect of having bright red doc martins and a ‘rock star’ hair colour. We originally had Vicky with an electric blue hair colour but we discovered difficulties with this as her hair faded and looked green on camera.
We decided to also incorporate an essence of glamour into our video by dressing Liz in more glamorous dresses than usually seen in ‘pop rock’ videos. This made Liz more noticeable and more like a celebrity.

Evanescence : Everybody's fool - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u55fpsbzAfk

Paramore: Emergency - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntids8N5rps

Avril lavigne: My Happy Ending - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwf2qt6BJAQ


How did you bring originality and a different approach to your music video? I know that quite a lot of videos seem to be the same these days.

Yes I agree. We wanted to make sure that our video stood out but also didn’t go against the ‘rules’ of ‘rock pop’ videos. We used split screens, fading, duel narrative, change of speed and green screening. We used green screen to set up a photo studio to add a bit of creativity and a different type of location as the previous locations were outdoors.

Magazine Advert

As one of the themes in our video was dereliction and decay, we decided to make the advert and CD cover using some of the derelict shots as we thought that they worked better and looked more professional. We have used various shots in the poster to inject more life in to it rather than just one shot. In research of magazine posters, we saw that the main element was bold writing, which is why we chose the bold writing that we did. Here is the finished piece.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Firstly we got people to watch our music video, and then we asked them to fill in a questionnaire afterwards, with questions such as if they liked our video, and if they could suggest any improvements. The majority of the need back which we got from our audience was that they enjoyed it. Some said it was a good video to watch but it wasn’t really the type of music that they usually listen to. Other commented on our use of location, saying we used a good variety of locations and was creative in creating a photo shoot to make the video look a bit different. Some people commented on the lip syncing of our video, saying that parts of it didn’t look as realistic as others, this was a problem we realised while editing, as when we were originally filming the singing parts to our music video, we used a song that was shorter that the song we used while editing which we got from a CD. This is a problem that we may have been able to deal with if we had more time in the editing process. Other people commented on our use of split screen, how It was a good type of shot to use, but in parts didn’t look as effective as others, as some people would disappear of screen, and the two different shots didn’t always match together.

Audience survey

We gave the audience for our video the following survey to see what they thought of our video. We wanted to see what they liked and what they didn't like to see what we could use and how we could improve in the future.

The general comments we got were that people liked the video. People said they prefered different types of music but they thought this was a good song choice for a video. The general comments put in the comment box of things we could do better was the lip syncing which we understood wasn't as perfect as it could have been.

Alex is going to upload a more detailed audience response.

CD Cover and magazine research

Our chosen genre for our music video is ‘Pop Rock’. As we are doing a Paramore song, we decided to do some research into the previously CD covers and magazine adverts they had previously done. We also looked at other artists of the Pop Rock genre such as Avril Lavigne and Evanescence.
Firstly we looked at the Paramore ‘Riot’ album cover, as this was the album which we took our chosen song from ‘Fences’.

This album cover, mainly uses black and white with a contrasting brighter colour, in this case its orange. The use of orange is bold and eye catching so straight away you know that the name of the album is ‘Riot.’ From looking at this album cover, we decided to use a similar theme of using black and white contrasting with a deep red, to make our cover more appealing and noticeable. From this album cover we liked the font that was used, as it looked like it has been hand written and trying to be bold and make a statement as being different, which suits the Rock Pop theme.

We also looked at Paramore’s most recent album ‘Brand New Eyes’. This cover isn’t as bold as riot; this could be done to show a different side to the bands music. We liked the use of the bold colouring in the butterfly, by using black and yellow on a light background. Using a bright and bold colour seems to be a theme throughout Paramore’s album covers. We used this theme of colour in our music video, as we used Red Doc Martins throughout the video, as they appropriate for our chosen genre.


Another album cover we looked at was Avril Lavigne’s ‘The Best Damn Thing’. This cover is a photograph of Avril Lavigne, with her album cover logo in the left hand corner; this is a simple idea which works well, as she has pink in her hair, matches the pink in the logo. This particular cover Is a pop rock cover.














This advert is advertising one of Paramores most recent singles ‘Ignorance’. From this we saw that the magazine advert was pretty simple but also effective. The black and white effect gives it a more sentimental and innocence (the two pot dolls), although after listening to the song we know the song is about being ignored by people and society. From this magazine advert, we liked the use of black and white and the script like font, and wanted to use the aspect of black and white with some colour to make It eye catching and attractive.















Although this poster is adverting a t-shirt competition, we still researched it as; it uses the colour pink to contrast against the black and white. The use of pattern behind Avril lavigne draws you attention towards her, so from a first glance, you can see that the advert is advertising something to do with Avril Lavigne. We liked the font that was used in this advert as it is in capitals and in white; we liked the idea of using a light coloured text on a dark background, as this would be more eye catching.

4.- How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

We have used various amounts of technology during the production process of our video. During the filming process we used video cameras and a tri-pod, whilst filming outside. The tri-pod was a very important part to filming outside in order to ensure a steady flow of footage. They also made it easier to do steady pans and zooms. When we filmed the footage indoors we used the Green screen and lots of lighting, in order to get rid of all of the shadows that were created. We decided to leave the green screen as a backdrop instead of editing it to white, as we realised that this would work better in showing the audience that she is somewhat if a celebrity. The longest process was the editing. For the editing we used Final Cut Pro. None of the group members had used the software previously so we all had to familiar ourselves with it quite quickly. Whilst editing here are some of the problems we were able to solve and also learn new things on the way. When we were out filming Liz and Vicki sat on opposite sides of a statue, we moved the camera to different angles whilst filming and when we came to edit the statue wouldn't line up properly. We solved this problem by adding a white line through the centre of both shots which made it into a splitcreen shot which looked right. During our video we have not used many special effects and have tried to keep our video as simple as possible. The only effects we used was the speed change, in this we changed the speed of out performers to add effect. In the point where Vicki is in Silhouette, is a pint where we think this worked really well. Finally, the marker tool in Final Cut Pro, allowed us to mark a point in the song so that were were able to keep the cuts in the video to the beat. In the making of the CD Cover and Poster we used Photoshop CS3 to create these, all of our group already knew how to use this software which saved us some time. This is how we used thechnology in the planning, Evaluation, and construction of out media product.

Costumes for Music Video

For our music video, we decided to choose costumes which represented the genre of our music video. For vicky our main performer we choose the following costume -

For vickys costume, we choose something that was practical as well as to suit the style of music. We used the Red Doc Martins througout the video, making them a key prop in our video. As we filmed the majority of vickys scenes on a room top, due to the weather and time of year, it was often cold, so we teamed a long vest top with a jumper.

For the actress in our video we used three different costumes, to add to the stereotype of her being a celebrity, who have endless costume changes.

The first of Liz's costumes, was a casual look, as we used this costume to film liz in the city on the high street, we choose clothes which tied in with the british weather, and were approrpiate in trying to make Liz fit in with society, although people still stop and stare.

For Liz's second outfit, we used this in the photoshoot part of our video, as we wanted her to look like a 'celebrity'. We used a floral printed top with tights and boots.

Liz's final costume, was a red dress, with black sequenced detailing. We used this particular costume while filming the
derelict building scenes of our music video. We used this particular dress and style, as it
contrasted well with the deserted building as it was run down, and neglected. Also relating to Liz's character as she felt lost and lonely.