Outfit Ideas

These are three outfit ideas for our music video, to show what kind of look we aim to achieve for our artist. As we will be adding a purple hue to our music video patterns will stand out. 

We aim to have an outfit change in the two-thirds of the way through music video, it will be noticeable but is not a significant part of our video.

Animatic

This is the animatic for our music video, we plan to follow our artist exploring in and around London - visiting locations such as an arcade, God's own junkyard and South Bank. We're placing an emphasis on the locations as well as the stamp text to link to follow the conventions of the genre.

Iconography of the Album Cover

Iconography of the Album cover,' is an article which talks about album covers with an interview with an album designer, Julian House. Together they deconstruct album artwork, its conventions and vaguely analyse iconic artwork. Some interesting points i found were:

"I tend not to think of designs in terms of genre; each specific job exists in its own world."
 This quote caught my attention because usually the artwork would stick to its target audience, which in turn restricts the creative opportunities the designer has. Typically, the album art work suits the genre to appeal to the target audience.

(The artwork) "Can be extremely varied, utilising photos, graphics, typography or any combination of those."
Shows the options I have when creating my digipak, that the focus does not have to be on an image of the artist.

"Who the audience is and how they may respond to it."
The quotes emphasises the importance of the audience, and though the genre does not have to be followed, the designer should be aware of the audience at all times. The audience is the one investing in the artist and buying the album, therefore the album should appeal to them.

He talks about the importance of shadows, light and colour. Showing how they should be acknowledged during the shoots.

"Inspiration from things that they may find interesting, like books, films etc.."
That anything can be used to gather inspiration for the digipak.

Album Artwork Suited to the Genre

(From Left to Right)
Lorde - Melodrama
Santigold - 99c
Goldfrapp - Silvereye
La Roux - La Roux
Taylor Swift - Reputation
Sia - 1000 Forms of Fear

I selected a few album covers that are in the electro-pop genre to help get an idea of how mine should look. All of them feature the artist or some form of iconography that shows the artist, such as Sia's wig. They are experimental and eye catching, with most using bright and stylised colours - which makes them stand out amongst other albums.

 

Santigold's 99¢ album is bright and bold, and resembles something for sale - which links to the albums name itself. She is positioned in the middle of the frame, meaning she is the focal point, drawing the viewer's eye to her; and then follow her arm that points to the album's title. The title stands out, and as previously stated, looks like its selling what is inside the plastic bag. She is surrounded by a number of miscellany items, such as toy pianos and plastic shoes - further pushing the image that she is a doll for sale. Her name itself is only seen on a cars number plate amongst these items, which signifies that herself as the artist's name is less important than the music, or image, for sale.  It is diagonally alined with her skirt, meaning they will only notice her name once naturally following the line placed.

Test Shots

We done some test shots on Kelly, following few scenes of the storyboard (lip-syncing and the initial turn). The shots were relatively successful, they allowed me and Fiona to try a handful of angles and shots; as well as allowing Niamh to practice editing. We played the song while Kelly was acting to see how well our idea fits with the song itself. All of our scenes will be shot on location, so the footage will not be used in the actual music video.

Production Call Sheet

The production call sheet, it vaguely outlines the duties within the group along with the props and costumes needed. We will refer to this whenever filming to make sure we have everything. Everyone within the group has a role, with a friend being the actress.

Edit: Due to schedules we have decided it'd be better if we had Kelly be the actress. This will allow us to film and shoot the digipak images easier, which will be utilising our lesson time  

Digipak

A digipak is a patented style of disc packaging and typically consists of a book-style paperboard or card outer binding which included a Cd and/or the music video DVD inside. An example of what a digipak template is:

With the actual digipak looking something similar to this:

A successful digipak can be achieved by making sure these points have been referred to:

- Unification, does it portray the content and message that you wish?

With this connection, the audience can feel a sense of belonging to the artist, forming a relationship. This cam be said to be stronger with females (known as fangirls), but it can be formed with anyone if the branding directs the audience directly.

- Is there an information and visual hierarchy?
The main image is the first thing that the audience will focus on, therefore it should be impactful. After this has attracted the attention of the audience member, they will look over the rest of the graphic and take in the connotations and feelings portrayed by the artist.

- Does the design have graphic impact?
The graphic design is important as it needs to have an impact. This is because the CD will need to be able to compete alongside many other CDs, and ours will need to have something special and original to make it stand out so other music labels will take an interest in your music and style.

- Is it appropriate for when you want to attract an audience and the environment in which it will be presented?
Not reaching your target audience will mean that sale targets and recognition will not be achieved.

An example of an iconic logo that stands out is the Rolling Stones' logo, which became one of the most recognisable symbols of the rock genre. It captures the brands rebellious attitude in pushing both sexual and social norms in both their lyrics and off stage antics. It was a key piece of iconography which allowed the brand to be recognised with out their name on their albums.

The Golden Era of cover art design begun in the early 1960s and lasted until the 1980s. During this time the major format for music was the 12 inch play disc or LP. Cover art became a part of the musical culture of the time, Often used to express graphically the musician's artistic intent, it helped connect and communicated to listeners the message or underlying theme of the album. 

Outfit Moodboard

Kelly (in charge of Mise-en-Scene) created a moodboard for our artist, following street style, with a retro/vintage vibe. The outfits are casual yet stylish, neither extravagant or plain  - which what we aim to achieve with Raina's outfits and image, as it also shows her interest in the arts. We are certain that Raina will be wearing a beret throughout the music video, and that it will be her trademark, which links to her French origins. Her clothes will have cool-tones and dark colours, which suits nightlife she will be in, and also allows her makeup to stand out.
From this we will gather possible outfits and make a poll voting which outfit would suit her the best (with our artist wearing the outfits).

Props do not play a significant role in the music video because of the genre (electro-pop), the only props that are involved are interactive ones - being the things the artist naturally comes across/are in the location already. For example, food/drinks, doors, the game machines; this is because the main focus of the music video is the visuals.

Week Review/ Plan

On Friday we managed to get shots to practice editing, as well as getting an idea of how the shots will look when we film our music video. The shoot was successful, as we managed to get many shots including some lip syncing parts to see if they fit with the camera angle. This week we aim to practice editing, and make the animatic.