Filming!

After a brilliant Christmas holidays and lots of planning, our filming will take place! We've recently finished our storyboard which will be on the blog soon so our audience can get an idea of the story before we have a finished product. 

Filming planning!

Since our first drafts of our ancillary tasks our complete, the main focus is now our Music video. This morning, I decided to go and take pictures for possible location ideas, here they are;

These locations all give a rather eerie feeling which will fit with our narrative structure a lot more. We'll be making our storyboard soon so we'll be thinking more into other locations!

Ancillary task - Digipak

Since we are doing the music video task, we have to create a Digipak and a music poster for our band. I have started doing the Digipak so I will upload each photo step by step.

Step 1

I had decided to use this picture as the back cover for the digipak as I think it is very striking. The space on the left creates a perfect space for the credits for the songs. The name of our band is "Lyrical Criticism", 

Step 2

I really like the image I have used for the front cover. Since we are staring right into the lens of the camera, it catches the audiences eye as we are staring right out.


Step 3

I added a black border to the whole of the album as basically, it makes it look more professional than having a cut off image, I have added song titles to the top right corner of the CD to add more typical conventions of having song names on the back.


Step 4 (Finished)

This is my finished front and back cover for my ancillary task. I have added two more song names as many single's always add a few songs that they are hoping to release in the near future. I have added the rights and music company on the bottom to make it more realistic. I have also included a review from a music magazine.


Inside the Digipak


The inside of the digipak generally consists of an image of the band and some form of print on the CD. So knowing these conventions, I used them to create the inside of my digipak. 


Step 1

I like the layout of the inside, it is simple but also very effective. The simplest next step was to put some text on the CD to go along with typical conventions, here is my finished inner digipak;

Step 2

The text on the CD basically brings the whole thing together. I have put the song titles on the CD and also the credits to Sony on the CD. I have tried to get the sense of realism in it as real CD's consist of these conventions. I am really pleased with my finished ancillary tasks.

Ancillary task - Music poster

The music poster felt a lot smoother to make, this is probably due to past experience making front covers of magazines at AS and for Extended Project. A music poster has a few conventions such as the company name, band name, band photo and the terms and conditions. I have decided to use a full band picture for the poster as it involves all of the band for the audience to see them all. We took the picture by using a technique that I had came across whilst taking some by myself a few weeks back. We took the image by hanging it from a branch of a tree with time on. Here is the first step.


Step 1

I think the picture is of a high quality and it looks like a great poster picture as all 3 of us are in the picture and we're looking straight into the lens which on the poster will look like we're all looking out to the audience. I had placed a few conventions on the first draft so could gather an idea of what it could look like. 

Step 2

I have done the same with what I had done on my digi-pak; putting a black border around the whole image. I marked out where I was wanting to put the other conventions to see if my image still looked at a high enough standard at that not too much would be covering the band.

Step 3

I have added the band title, album cover image and a release date. I have also made it clear that it is a HMV exclusive as stated under the band name and under the release date for my album. On many band posters however, they usually have quotations from the band or a new song or even a magazine, so I added that to my final copy.

Step 4

This is my final finished poster. The quotations bring the poster together and it doesn't seem so bare now. I changed the colour of the name to just plain white with a black text shadow so A) it stands out a bit more opposed to just white text, and B) so it fits in more with my colour scheme, Since HMV's logo is pink/purple, I've had to merge that into my colour scheme so i've used it underlying my white text to fit in with the colour scheme. 

Copyrights!

Before we make our HMV advertisement poster, we need to send an e-mail requesting permission to use their logo to comply with the copyrights act. Here is the e-mail I sent, eagerly awaiting the apply!

Music Distribution Company Choices!

I am researching music companies and music stores to have as the bands record label and the main distribution store. The record label plays a massive part in the band/solo artist taking off. It is mainly associated with the band recording the song; sorting out the recording studio. They are responsible for the marketing of the band and also the music videos. Without marketing, no band would be majorly recognised. Since I am trying to make this product as realistic as possible, I am going to analyse record labels.

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Recording Company has signed the likes of Kings of Leon and Franz Ferdinand. Their main priorities are signing indie/rock artists and our song choice (The Kill) is a rock song. For realism, it would be more plausible to use this record label to represent our band however I will still research into more record labels.


Maverick 


Maverick have helped produce the work of The Prodigy on two occasions and UK rock band, Muse on their album 'Showbiz'. It would be a good label to work with, but they are constantly losing artists with lack of communication from the owners since the take over. They haven't really signed any other major stars so this could suggest that their internal affairs with the artist may not be strong or they aren't the best at marketing their own artists. 


Def Jam Recordings


Def Jam have been around for more than quarter of a century and they have signed some of the best artists in the music industry. By looking at their discography, they mainly go for R & B artists such as Rihanna, Kanye West and Jay-Z. Since we're going for a Indie/rock band, this is not the record label we are looking for. 


So the record label we are going to choose is Sony Music Entertainment.


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For my music poster, I have decided to use HMV for my music advert since they are the most prolific music store in the UK. They do many varieties of posters ranging from new albums to meet and greets, also known as "Get closer" posters. I have already started creating the poster at this point and now I have decided upon a label, I can finish the rest off!

Ancillary Tasks - Digipak

I have took some images which were pretty fun taking as I was using a tree to balance the camera to take pictures at different angles. I have narrowed it down to two pictures which came out really well and portray images for a typical album cover for a solo artist.

Front Cover

This picture is a medium shot which is a moderately used shot on CD covers with close-ups. This was the first picture I took with the camera hanging off the tree. I think it's a very effective picture as the solo artist is looking right down the lens of the camera and the artist is the main focus of the picture. There is no major distractions in the background so the focus won't be dropped. The fact that I am looking straight down the lens of the camera is very effective for the audience as my eyes will possibly catch their attention considering I'm right in the middle of the shot.

Back of Digi-pak

This is a low angle shot which was took with the camera balancing on a rock. I like this shot as it has the artist looking away from the camera as if he is looking to his future. However, this picture seems darker than the image I'm using for my front cover so I touched it up a little..

I prefer this version more as the colours are a lot more solid and lighter. It will make a major difference to the look of my Digi-pak. I will have the contents of the album in the top right of the album with the essential conventions; bar code, trademark information etc running from the bottom left to the right.